London theatre apologises for ‘spectacular’ review

A theatre company has been forced to issue an embarrassing apology after mistakenly claiming a one-star review called its Nazi-themed play ‘spectacular’.

Craft, based in London, was left red-faced when it misquoted a piece on its production, ‘A Nazi Comparison’.

Quoting the review, by journalist Andrew Haydon, the theatre company wrote on its website: ‘Spectacular… intellectual rigour… wacky physical humour.’

However, Mr Haydon had actually written: ‘This spectacular lack of intellectual rigour is however dwarfed by the wild unevenness of the production itself, which veers between wacky physical humour to unwatchable overheated melodrama.’

The misquote was sent out on the company’s newsletter and was later put on its Facebook page.

A Nazi Comparison is about a woman who sees similarities between Nazi ideology and western imperialism, after reading a play by Hitler’s favourite playwright.

Artistic director Rocky Rodriguez Jr has since apologised for the blunder and the quotes have been taken down.

He said: ‘To be honest, what happened was that a company member with a bit too much access to Craft’s internal mechanisms let their emotions dictate their choice here. I have taken down the post.

Misquoting the review, by journalist Andrew Haydon, the theatre company wrote on its Facebook page: ‘Spectacular… intellectual rigour… wacky physical humour’

‘We’re a developing company – members put a lot of work into Craft. I hope this does not turn people away from coming to see the piece.’

Reviewer Mr Haydon said the company had ‘crossed the line’ by changing the meaning of his review.

‘However they seem to be a very small fringe company who are probably still learning about making theatre and about how to do pull-quotes’, he told Press Gazette.