Teaching Media Literacy: How to Read Theatre Reviews Critically (Using Gerry & Sewell)

Hook: Why students struggle to read theatre reviews — and how this module fixes it

Students and teachers tell us the same thing: search results produce too much noise, reviews mix opinion with fact, and it’s hard to tell when a critic is arguing from evidence or simply performing a persona. That matters for theatre reviews, where tone, cultural context and visible bias can shape public conversations about class, region and identity. This classroom module uses the 2025 West End review of Gerry & Sewell as a focused case study so students learn to spot bias, unpack tone, evaluate evidence, and situate criticism in its cultural context.

The big idea (inverted pyramid first): what students will learn

In three 50-minute lessons, students will:

• Identify rhetorical cues critics use to shape opinion
• Differentiate factual claims from value judgments
• Assess how cultural and political context informs a review’s argument
• Produce a short, evidence-based counter-review
• Use digital tools (including AI) responsibly to research and test claims

Why this matters in 2026

By 2026, newsrooms and arts coverage increasingly use AI tools to draft copy and surface sources. That has amplified both speed and signal noise in cultural criticism. Media literacy in the classroom must now include strategies for assessing AI-aided content, verifying facts quickly, and reading tone across platforms — from legacy broadsheets to social media threads and podcast criticism. This module responds to those 2025–26 shifts by teaching students analytic habits that transfer across formats.

Case study: Gerry & Sewell — what to read for

Use the Guardian’s West End review of Gerry & Sewell as the anchor text. The review is rich for classroom work because it blends description, summary, and evaluative language. Two short excerpts illustrate the diagnostic passages students should flag:

"This tale of two hard-up reprobates in Gateshead... encapsulates hope in the face of adversity"

"Jamie Eastlake’s play... mixes together song, dance, comedy and dark family drama, with incohesive results"

Quick read: what those lines reveal

• Loaded language: words like "reprobates" and "incohesive" carry evaluative weight and orient the reader toward a negative judgment.
• Contextual framing: locating the story in Gateshead and connecting it to austerity primes readers to hear political subtext.
• Evidence gap: claims about incoherence are evaluative but not supported in that short passage by concrete examples from the production.

Module outline: three lessons + assessment

Lesson 1 — Tone and bias (50 minutes)

Learning objective: Students will annotate an arts review to label tone markers and potential biases.

1. Warm-up (10 min): Present two 25-word review snippets with contrasting tones. Quick pair-share: how does tone affect your expectation of the show?
2. Guided reading (25 min): Distribute the full Gerry & Sewell review. Students annotate for tone words, metaphors, and judgment verbs (eg, "fails", "encapsulates"). Use color-coding: red = negative evaluative language; green = positive; blue = descriptive/factual.
3. Debrief (15 min): Class compiles a list of tone markers and discusses how they steer readers before evidence is introduced.

Lesson 2 — Evidence and fact-checking (50 minutes)

Learning objective: Students will distinguish factual claims from opinion and verify key factual statements.

1. Mini-lecture (10 min): Explain types of evidence in reviews — production details (cast, choreography), historical context (author, prior adaptations), comparative claims ("better than the film"), and empirical claims (attendance, audience reaction).
2. Source check activity (30 min): Students work in groups to verify three claims from the review. Suggested claims to check: the play's origin at a 60-seat social club; the adaptation lineage linking the play to Jonathan Tulloch's novel and the film Purely Belter; and the idea that the play offers "subtly damning commentary on political betrayals." Groups document sources and evaluate whether the review's claims are supported.
3. Plenary (10 min): Groups report back; teacher models how to log sources and flag unsupported assertions.

Lesson 3 — Cultural context and counter-criticism (50 minutes)

Learning objective: Students will place a critic's review in cultural context and write a short counter-review that cites evidence.

1. Context briefing (10 min): Provide a one-page primer on Gateshead/Newcastle cultural signifiers, the history of the novel The Season Ticket, and regional issues of class and austerity in recent British discourse. Emphasize how critics' backgrounds can shape interpretive frames.
2. Writing workshop (30 min): Students write a 250–300 word counter-review that either challenges a key evaluative claim or expands the conversation — and must cite at least two concrete production elements (eg, staging, actor choices, use of song/dance) or external sources.
3. Share and reflect (10 min): Quick peer-review focusing on evidence, tone, and how the counter-review manages bias.

Classroom materials: ready-to-use checklists and rubric

Tone and bias checklist (for annotation)

• Highlight adjectives and adverbs that signal judgment
• Circle metaphors and similes
• Flag first-person assertions and sweeping generalizations
• Note references to politics, region or socioeconomic class
• Mark where evidence is promised but not provided

Evidence verification checklist

• Is the claim factual, interpretive, or predictive?
• Can I find a primary source (playbill, interview, production notes) to confirm it?
• Is there independent corroboration (other reviews, booking records, archival interviews)?
• Does the claim rely on audience reaction or anecdote?
• Do quoted facts include dates, names, or verifiable data?

Assessment rubric (sample, 20 points)

• Evidence & accuracy (8 points): Cited at least two reliable sources and used them to support claims.
• Tone awareness (4 points): Demonstrated clear identification of the critic's tone and handled tone intentionally in the counter-review.
• Cultural context (4 points): Showed understanding of how region/politics influence the review's framing.
• Clarity & organization (4 points): Clear structure, concise language, and polished mechanics.

Teaching notes: spotting different kinds of bias

Bias in reviews is not always explicit hostility. Teach students to look for subtler forms:

• Selection bias: Which details does the critic emphasize or omit? A review that highlights a production's rough edges but ignores strong audience engagement may be selectively curating evidence.
• Regional or class bias: Commentary on "Gateshead" or "working-class" may carry condescending assumptions. Ask: who is the review written for?
• Expectation bias: Critics come to a show expecting a certain genre. When a play mixes forms (song, dance, comedy, drama), a critic expecting a straight drama may read hybridity as failure.
• Authority bias: Statements that appeal to consensus ("as everyone knows") are red flags — demand sources.

Practical classroom prompts: evidence-focused questions

• Find a sentence where the critic moves from description to judgment. What concrete detail could the critic have added to justify the judgment?
• List three production elements a critic would need to document to justify a claim of "incohesive results." Do you think the review supplies those elements?
• How does the review connect the play to regional politics or austerity? Is that linking persuasive? Why or why not?

Digital extension: using AI and online tools responsibly

2025–26 trends have made this module's digital extension essential. Newsrooms often use AI to draft headlines and pull quotes; students should learn both to use and to interrogate these tools.

• Prompting exercise: Have students ask an LLM to summarize the Gerry & Sewell review and then show how different prompts yield different tones. Debrief: which summaries preserved nuance? Which amplified bias?
• Source verification tools: Demonstrate quick searches in newspaper archives, theatre databases, and the British Library catalogue to confirm production histories. Show how to use Factcheckers and Wayback Machine for link validation.
• AI output disclosure: Teach students to check bylines and publisher policies for AI disclosure statements. If an outlet discloses AI assistance, ask: does that change the weight you give to the review's claims?

Examples & mini case studies to spark discussion

Case A: Tone vs. evidence

A critic calls a performance "overwrought" but provides no staging details. Students locate video clips or production photos and evaluate whether the critic's adjective maps to observable choices in the production. This models moving from assertion to verification.

Case B: Cultural frame check

A review frames a play as "quintessentially northern" without defining what that means. Students research regional theatre histories and interview local audience members to see whether the label resonates or exoticizes.

Scaffolded student deliverables

• Annotated copy of the Gerry & Sewell review with color-coded tone markers (lesson 1)
• Two-page fact-check memo with links and a credibility rating for each source (lesson 2)
• 300-word counter-review citing at least two pieces of evidence and one cultural-context source (lesson 3)

Assessment rubrics and feedback prompts for teachers

When grading, focus feedback on students' ability to move from impression to evidence. Use prompts like:

• "Which sentence in your counter-review makes the strongest claim? What evidence supports it?"
• "Where did the critic rely on cultural shorthand? How did you address or challenge it?"
• "Identify one AI-generated summary you tested. How did you verify its accuracy?"

Adaptations for different levels and modalities

Upper secondary or college-level:

• Include comparative analysis with two other reviews of the same production and a short literature review on regionalism in British theatre criticism.

Younger students or shorter lessons:

• Limit to tone and one evidence check, then write a paragraph response rather than a full counter-review.

Remote learning:

• Use shared annotation tools (eg, Hypothes.is or Google Docs); have students post clips from promotional materials and respond in a moderated forum.

Teacher anecdotes and classroom impact (experience-based tips)

From classroom trials in late 2025, teachers reported that students who practiced verification felt more confident questioning authority voices in culture pages. One instructor noted that after annotating the review, students who initially agreed with the critic later revised their opinions when shown staging clips and actor interviews — a sign that evidence-based discussion changes minds.

Advanced strategy: building a mini-archive of sources

For a deeper unit, have students curate a shared digital archive: original novel excerpts (Jonathan Tulloch), film reviews of Purely Belter, production notes from Jamie Eastlake, actor interviews, and local news items about Gateshead. Teaching students to assemble primary sources is a transferable skill for any media-literacy task.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

• Assuming all criticism is opinion: Teach the difference between evidence-backed interpretation and unsupported judgment.
• Overreliance on AI summaries: Always cross-check mechanical summaries against primary sources.
• Neglecting cultural context: A review that speaks to political betrayal needs to be situated within regional histories, not read as universal truth.

Final takeaways: classroom-ready checklist

• Read for tone first — annotate evaluative language before you decide whether a review is "good" or "bad".
• Demand evidence — ask for concrete staging or production details to support judgments.
• Contextualize — identify regional, political, or socioeconomic frames that shape criticism.
• Verify — use primary sources and credible archives, and be skeptical of unaudited AI summaries.
• Respond — writing counter-reviews teaches students to marshal evidence and manage tone.

Call-to-action

Try this module in your next unit on media literacy or arts criticism. Download the ready-to-print worksheets, rubric, and annotated Gerry & Sewell excerpts from our resource pack. Share classroom results with us and the knowable community so we can iterate this module for new publications, digital formats and the evolving AI landscape in 2026.

Related Reading

• Budget Thames Stays: Pairing Long-Term Savings on Mobile Plans with Affordable Accommodation
• The Ultimate Guide to Swapping Smartwatch Bands: Match Your Band to Your Outfit
• How to Verify the Authenticity of High‑Value Jewelry Before You Buy or Insure It
• Best Wearable Heat Wraps for Herbal Infusions: A Shopper’s Guide
• Weekly Beauty Launch Radar: 10 New Skincare and Body Care Releases Worth Trying Now