Savas Patsalidis

Savas Patsalidis is professor, critic, writer. He teaches theatre theory and history at Aristotle University Greece and writes theatre critic for a Greek daily newspaper. He is also the vice president of ITI (Greek Branch) and member of the Board of the Greek Association of theatre critics. His latest book on theatre and globalization will be released later this year.

In his contribution "(Un)Critical Re-positionings," Savas Patsalidis observes how recent socio-cultural changes have brought together in many respects the real and the hyper-real, the left and the right, and the subject and the object of criticism. We are faced with mixtures and illusions of all kinds; both the world and the position of criticism seem to be in the making. Euripides, in The Bacchae, warned against a viewer turning into a voyeur, but now the critic has found himself dangerously close to the spectacle.  The critic’s involvement in the decision-making process that defines artists and viewers introduces ethical issues into criticism. An incorrect approach has the potential to put theatre criticism in danger of becoming an aggressive act. Critics should incessantly re-evaluate the usefulness of their social role and examine the possibility that they are being abused, asking to what extent they themselves are responsible for this situation.