During Fringe World OUTinPerth attempts to cover as many performances, events, shows and experiences as possible. With 700+ shows in the program our small team relies on a lot of help from our friends who volunteer to go and check out the many different offerings.
In 2020 to provide greater clarity on our reviewing process, we’re publishing the new guidelines our reviewers use to assign star ratings to each performance.
Here’s what we consider to be the difference between a 1 star and a 5 star experience.
★
Uninteresting. Unoriginal. Few or no redeeming qualities. We would not recommend adding this to your Fringe World experience.
★★
We can appreciate the effort put in to the show – but unfortunately it was not successful in delivering its message or entertaining its audience.
★★★
This is a good show. We would recommend you check it out. The show was successful in entertaining the audience and delivering its message.
★★★★
This one is a great show. We would strongly recommend you get tickets to this one. It a show we think you’ll find enjoyable, entertaining and provocative.
★★★★★
To quote Lady Gaga – we’re looking for things that are “Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it.” This show is in that territory.
At the bottom of each review you’ll find a short bio of each of our reviewers, letting you know a little bit about them and their background.
Our philosophy on reviewing is this; performances are made for an audience, everyone’s view of a show is different and it’s always subjective.
We encourage our reviewers to engage with entertainment that is of interest to them. We don’t send the person who can’t stand drag queens to see a drag show, and we keep the writer who thinks burlesque is a bore away from the burlesque shows.
Our reviews are based on simple premise, was this experience worth the your time and the cost of admission? We share what shows made us think about, and what they have going for them.
If you’re looking for deep critical analysis from someone who has a PhD is cultural studies and performance art, that’s not us. Of course some of our reviewers are very proud of their academic credentials, so look at the bio for their background.
Prior to the Fringe World season beginning, our contributing writers gather for a briefing and training session, and they work closely with our editorial team when submitting their reviews.
Fringe World is one of the busiest times of the year, and during it our small team balance covering our regular news and events, and the Fringe World festival, (as well as doing our full time jobs outside OUTinPerth as well).
We endeavour to cover as much material as possible and appreciate everyone’s understanding if we can’t get to see every show that requests a review, or answer the many hundreds of emails and phone messages we receive.
If you are a performer or producer and think your show has been unfairly reviewed, you can always call us and chat, but please remember it’s just one person’s opinion.
