This June will see the 20th anniversary of writer and broadcaster Susannah Clapp’s first review as the Observer’s theatre critic: her stylish, witty, authoritative columns have been a weekly highlight of the paper ever since, enjoyed and valued by readers, theatre-makers and theatre fans.
Critic Matt Trueman recently wrote of Susannah: “Of all the British critics writing today, it’s Kenneth Tynan’s successor, Susannah Clapp, who best exemplifies the critic’s art. Her sentences snap like spun sugar, giving her reviews poise and precision, and she writes with an almost expressionistic style that captures the sensations of a show, not just its substance.”
His colleague Mark Shenton says: “Susannah Clapp would be top of my personal list of critics I most like to read: there’s no one who writes with such punchy, poetic grace and style in the business today. She also has great taste and a sense of adventure, often going off the beaten critical track.”
To celebrate this landmark anniversary, Susannah will be delivering the Bristol Festival of Ideas’s annual Observer Lecture and will write an article for the Observer’s New Review looking back over two decades of criticism and answering questions from you.
Post your questions – by 10am on Monday 8 May – either below the line here, on twitter @ObsNewReview or by email to review@observer.co.uk
The Bristol Festival of Ideas’s Observer Lecture is on 2 June 2017. To buy tickets, click here.
