Maddy Costa is loath to defend The Guardian – “the most toxic employer I’ve ever had” – for ending critic Lyn Gardner’s contract, but wonders if her indisputable impact has enabled theatre criticism to remain focused on circles of power and resistant to change.
I was at university when Lyn Gardner joined the Guardian: for the whole of my adult life she has been a totem and a beacon, the example to live up to. Which made it quite weird when I joined the Guardian myself and spent the last four years of my 20s as one of her bosses. She always made her own decisions about what to review, but the theatre coverage I commissioned as deputy arts editor was undoubtedly influence... Keep reading on Exeunt