COUNTERPUNCH LETTERS : A Theater Critic’s Job

In “For the Love of ‘Nightingale’--A Fear for Its Existence” (June 25), Susan Albert Loewenberg writes that a reviewer of a major paper--in this case she meant Sylvie Drake--can wreck many weeks of work. I wonder what Loewenberg would have had to say to Brooks Atkinson or to George Jean Nathan? I find her comment outrageous.

A critic has the same conviction as the actor, actress or director. And the critic has to project his or her conviction in the review or otherwise is not a critic. Unfortunately, a critic cannot and ought not to be kind, because a critic--and I mean a good critic such as Drake--is part of the process of having a theater in town.

LEON ASKIN

Beverly Hills