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May 17, 2010

Times theatre critic Benedict Nightingale signs off after 53 years

By Dominic wireposts

Benedict Nightingale penned a farewell this weekend for The Times after 53 years as a theatre critic which started at the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser.

Back then he summed up his first play as “a pudding”, prompting his then editor to say: “If you call a play a pudding, you must say why and what sort of pudding it is.”

After 10,000 reviews for the The Guardian, New Statesman, New York Times and since 1990 The Times – he has the following advice for his successor Libby Purves.

“Observe the currents, explain the icing – and analyse those puddings!”

In this piece he gives an entertaining romp through the high points of his career. Read it now, while you still can! (For free anyway).

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