Theatre criticism, from the West End to the village hall.

What this is

This Is All Things: Theatre covers the productions and the people shaping today’s theatre across London, the South East and beyond. A West End press night and a village-hall opening get the same attention, the same word count where it is earned, and the same hundred-point scale.

We write for people deciding how to spend an evening and their money. That means saying what a show is actually like to sit through — not where it sits in anyone’s season brochure.

Who is Peter

Peter Barnett is the founder and editor. He sees the work, writes the reviews, and puts his name on them. Reviews with heart; theatre that matters.

Where a piece is written by someone else, the byline says so on the article.

How we score

Every review carries one number out of a hundred. The percentage is the source of truth; the star rating and the letter grade are derived from it, so the three readings can never disagree with one another. Stars are always whole, never halves.

Scale matters to context, never to the mark. A fringe hour is judged against what it set out to do, as is a £15m musical.

Independence

Tickets are bought wherever possible; where a press ticket is accepted, it buys a seat and nothing else. No paid reviews, no coverage sold, no copy approval. If we get something wrong we correct it on the article and say what changed.

Get in touch

Pitches, tip-offs, corrections and invitations: peter@thisisallthings.co.uk.