Dear Duke of Shomolu,
Your post was passionate, provocative, and predictably entertaining. But beneath the swagger, sarcasm, and chest-thumping bravado lies a deeply troubling argument—one that dismisses criticism, undervalues artistic dialogue, and risks shutting the door behind you after benefiting from the very ecosystem that helped build your name.
Let us be clear from the outset: disagreement with preview shows is your right. But contempt for critics, disdain for emerging voices, and the reduction of artistic feedback to “free show seekers” is not only unfair—it is intellectually lazy.
- Preview Shows Are Bigger Than Your Personal Convenience
A preview show is not charity. It is not a handout. It is not a conspiracy by broke intellectuals to watch theatre for free.
A preview is part of a long-standing professional tradition in global theatre practice. It serves as a laboratory—a final space where performance meets audience before official opening night. It allows producers, directors, actors, designers, marketers, and yes, critics, to test rhythm, pacing, audience response, technical flow, and public perception.
To reduce that process to “waste of time” simply because it does not suit your current model is to mistake personal preference for universal truth.
Your experience is valid. It is not absolute.
- Criticism Is Not an Attack
You describe critics as arrogant gatekeepers who know little and contribute less. Certainly, bad criticism exists. There are shallow reviewers in every industry. But bad criticism does not invalidate criticism itself.
By that logic, bad producers should invalidate production. Bad actors should invalidate acting. Bad scripts should invalidate writing.
Serious criticism is not about insulting artists. It is about contextualizing work, preserving standards, documenting growth, and challenging complacency. Theatre without criticism becomes applause without thought.
An artist who wants only praise does not seek excellence—he seeks worship.
- If Feedback Can “Topple Everything,” Then Something Is Already Broken
You argue that directors are sensitive and a wrong word can derail a production. With respect, if one comment can collapse months of work, then the issue is not criticism—it is fragility.
Professional artists must develop emotional discipline. Theatre is collaborative, public, and interpretive. Once a show enters the public square, it belongs not only to its creators but to its audience and the larger discourse around it.
Shielding creators from feedback does not strengthen them. It infantilizes them.
- Ticket Sales Are Not the Only Measure of Value
You repeatedly ask what critic has ever sold tickets. This is the wrong question.
Criticism is not merely a marketing tool. Its purpose is not to become your sales agent. It is to shape conversation, build archives, educate audiences, inspire students, preserve history, and refine taste.
Many works that failed commercially became culturally important because critics documented them. Many commercial successes vanished without trace because no one engaged them seriously.
Box office is important. It is not the sole measure of artistic worth.
- The Incoming Generation Needs More Than Ego and Gatekeeping
Perhaps the most disappointing part of your position is what it teaches younger practitioners:
• That questioning art is disrespectful
• That experience is beyond examination
• That money matters more than discourse
• That criticism is hostility
• That established figures owe nothing to the next generation
This is dangerous.
The younger generation needs mentorship, structure, honest feedback, and access to critical culture. They need to learn how to create work and how to defend it, revise it, debate it, and improve it.
If elders in the industry silence criticism, they do not protect theatre—they weaken its future.
- Confidence Does Not Need Contempt
There is nothing wrong with saying, “Preview shows are not part of my strategy.” That would have been a respectable position.
But to sneer at critics, mock engagement, and end with insults may win social media laughter, yet it contributes little to serious discourse.
Strength does not require scorn. Experience does not require arrogance. Success does not require hostility.
- A Final Word
Duke, no one is asking you to host a preview in your living room. No one is demanding free access to your labour. But please do not confuse your business choices with principles of theatre practice.
Theatre grows through rehearsal, performance, criticism, revision, documentation, and dialogue. Remove any of these, and the ecosystem shrinks.
You may reject preview shows. Fine.
But do not reject the culture of engagement that keeps the art form alive long after the curtain falls.
Because one day, the next generation will inherit this stage.
And they deserve more than “buy your ticket and keep quiet.”
They deserve a theatre culture mature enough to welcome both applause and critique.
Adeniran Makinde
