Production teams tremble with fear when they find out Tim Byrne is reviewing their show.
Words by Tayla Ham - August 28th 2024
His prolific work includes the almost famous two-star review of Sunset Boulevard, which criticised the famous Sarah Brightman. However, if a production is good, Byrne shouldn’t be feared, as he also has many five-star reviews of shows, such as Yentl and Back to Back Theatre’s Multiple Bad Things.
These days, Byrne is confident in his ability to make decisive statements in his reviews. However, Byrne started with the same issue many reviewers face: “Who am I to tell people whether things are good or not?”
Byrne never truly aspired to be a journalist; it was something that fell into his lap. Initially, he began studying for an arts degree at Monash University. However, when the opportunity to start a theatre company with friends from Monash and around Melbourne arose, Byrne took this opportunity and left his arts degree to do theatre.
“The writing thing came a number of years later,” Byrne says, “I work in a bookstore called Avenue Bookstore… where I met a colleague's partner who was the performing arts editor at Timeout.” This editor asked Byrne to go to some of the smaller, independent shows for Timeout and write reviews, without pay, of course. “I was like, well, I go to the theatre all the time, and I can get free tickets. So I'll do that,” Byrne says.
Fortunately for Byrne, the performing arts editor left Timeout around a year later, “then [Byrne] took on that role of performing arts editor, which [he] didn't really get paid for.” While working for Timeout, Byrne took an RMIT course covering professional writing and editing. “Which was really helpful. Actually, that was kind of like, [what] got me it just got me to become really rigorous with my sentences,” Byrne says. This improvement is what Byrne believes helped him to finally begin being paid for his articles when he started writing for the Australian Book Review (ABR).
For Byrne, deciding to work at Avenue Bookstore has been a massive advantage for his journalism career, giving him the start for both Timeout and the ABR, as a different colleague happened to know Peter Rose, the editor of ABR. “[ABR] is actually a really respected kind of high-end journal, like criticism journal. And so I was a bit like, oh, shit, and he's a bit he was a bit scary, but he's actually he's really lovely. And so [my colleague] kind of recommended that I write something for him. And that was terrifying… So I spent so much work on this one review… And then he just asked me to do more. And now he's a good friend of mine,” Byrne explains.
“Then, I had a body of work, and I was quite well known… That I pitched to [The Guardian] at some point, and they said yes… Now they've just given me so much work. I can't almost really can't do it all,” Byrne says about how he started writing for The Guardian Australia.
Working for The Guardian has taught Byrne many things about being a freelancer. Byrne says that The Guardian now sends him to many things in the art space, not just theatre reviews. Byrne has reviewed everything, including art gallery openings, and his most recent feature piece, The Tasty Nightclub Raid, which is about a police raid on a gay bar in the 90s.
As a freelancer, having a diverse skill set is a massive asset. Working at Avenue Bookstore gave Byrne interviewing skills, as he had already learnt how to interview authors when they came into the store. Plus, having an arts and theatre background, Byrne was already knowledgeable in these areas, meaning it was easier for him to write reviews in this space.
However, the prospect of making this a thriving career is bleak for freelancers in the reviewing space. As even Byrne, one of the best theatre critics, still requires another job for financial stability. “I work at the bookstore, which I have worked at for, more than 15 years?” Byrne says, “I think maybe freelance writers who only do that, just write a [lot] and hope that [pay] comes in on time, like that's quite stressful, whereas I get a wage every week from the bookstore. So that means that the money from the freelancing, I can be a bit more flexible with it. I'm not so stressed out about when it arrives because it can take ages.”
However, Byrne is lucky that Avenue Bookstore is flexible with his working hours. Byrne says they allow him to start late so he can stay up late when required to finish a review, as sometimes, “I write until two or three and three or four in the morning, the night of the show, and then I'll go to work sometimes the next day,” Byrne says.
However, for beginner theatre reviewers, Byrne says one of the hardest things when starting out was going from getting tickets as “payment” to actually being paid for his work. “I think that idea has to change. And I think you, as a writer, have to make that change. Like, you have to push back,” says Byrne. “[As a theatre critic] getting tickets for things is not payment… In fact, that whole getting free tickets thing is bullshit. Really, they are asking you to come because they are getting something out of that relationship. So you're not really even getting free tickets, you are working very hard.”
Unfortunately, asking for money when is hard to do, even Byrne says this. He only started getting paid when someone offered him a paid job. However, once he first got paid, his perspective on payment changed as a reviewer. “People were reading my reviews, and it quickly became clear that I could push back and say, ‘No, I won't, I won't do it. Unless you pay me.’ …Then there's a sort of bidding that happens. And you say to people, ‘Well, these guys are going to pay me this. So if you want me to review for you, then you have to pay me that.’”
“I think the key thing is to value the work yourself. Make sure that you know it's really worth something and it's work. It's hard work. Maybe it's not as hard as being on stage. But it's certainly a professional gig. And so yes, think of it like that first. And then just write for people who pay you.”
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