‘Critical response has been reduced to a slogan’ - It’s time to get rid of star ratings, says actor and director Guy Masterson

THIS week I created a Facebook group called the “Forum for Abolishment of Review Stars at Edfringe”. I did so out of a growing disaffection for the star rating system and how it has become almost meaningless.

This year we have faced unprecedented difficulties at the Fringe: the Olympics and the recession being the two most obvious. Ironically, this does not seem to have affected us participants who have increased in number.

By participants I also mean critics, whose numbers have increased dramatically. There is a plethora of new websites, all claiming a discerning corner of the reviewing market, all offering companies the chance of another five star review in exchange for free tickets.

On the one hand, theatre companies such as mine love ‘em! The more the merrier. Rack up them stars! Stick ‘em on the posters. But do they really matter? Do they really work? And which ones really count?

When I first started up here, a good review in The Scotsman would sell out a show for the run. In 1996 they introduced the star ratings and, suddenly, only a five star show would likely sell out. A four star would need to be backed up by a strong review in the Herald to really shift the tickets.

A few years later, even they started starring their reviews… and then… well, they all came down like a pack of cards. This was, of course, before the internet really got going. Now, when we see anything less than four stars, we don’t even read it.

In 2000, I founded Edinburgh’s first comparison website dedicated to compiling all the good reviews in one place. Called EdinburghReview.com, it used the slogan “One Stop, What’s Hot!” A dedicated group of bright young things trawled every printed and online publication every day during the Fringe, summarised in 100 words or less, and then posted ALL the four and five star reviews for ALL the shows on the Fringe as they appeared.

This was a mammoth task, yet by 4pm every day, every single good review would be posted alongside the show title. As the compendium grew, those shows with the most good reviews could slowly be deemed the “hits” of that particular festival. The site ran for three years, finally achieving a hit count of a million in a month in 2003.

Between then and now, we have seen the growth of the British Theatre Guide, EdinburghGuide.com and WhatsOnStage.com and the birth of mega sites such as BroadwayBaby.com and FringeReview.com among many others. We have also seen The List, ThreeWeeks, Fest and Skinny move from the printed page to online, plus a corresponding decrease in our dependence on the printed review.

More significantly, however, we have seen the professional reviewers being swamped by the rookies; the experienced being diluted by the amateur. And all are swimming in the same pond dishing out the same star ratings. There are now so many stars floating around that you can hardly see the posters that they are stuck to. The bottom line is that the critical response – such a vital resource for punters and artists – has become buried and reduced to mere slogan. The star system has thus become reductive rather than constructive and everybody they are supposed to serve is feeling this.

The whole thing bothers me because, as an artist/producer, I love seeing my posters plastered with stars. It means I am doing something right in both departments, but truthfully, I would rather read great quotes from the great reviewers than stare at great columns of stars. I suppose I could start leading the revolution by ripping them all off and replacing them with considered quotes from only the reviewers I respect, but that would be cutting my own nose off. After all, we need to shift tickets. I’ll wait until next year.

My proposal is that the Fringe takes the lead and awards media accreditation only to publications and sites that agree not to use star ratings. Only then will we all start to read the words that our army of critics, new and old, slave to write. The discerning public will then decide if they want to take a punt on a show, based on words and not stars…

• Guy Masterson is starring in The Half, at Assembly George Square, 2pm, and directing A Soldier’s Song, at Assembly Roxy, 5:05pm, and Female Gothic at Assembly George Square, 11:45am. All three shows have had multiple five-star reviews – tickets are available at a reduced price of £10.