Artist takes ax to theater wall after negative reviews

LONDON -- The critics bashed Douglas Gordon, and he bashed back - with an ax.

The Turner Prize-winning artist hacked the wall of a theater where his play has opened to largely negative reviews.

Gordon directs Charlotte Rampling in "Neck of the Woods," a twist on the Red Riding Hood story running at the Manchester International Festival.

The Guardian dubbed the play "all style and no fangs." The Telegraph said it "has almost no force at all."

A photo in the Manchester Evening News on Tuesday showed a gouge in the concrete wall of the brand-new HOME venue, surrounded by a drawing of a claw, Saturday's date and a signature.

Festival director Alex Poots told the BBC that Gordon had acted in "a wholly inappropriate way" and would face a repair bill.