British Theatre Guide Podcast

On 25 March 2022, Manchester arts venue Contact announced that writer, performer and producer Keisha Thompson would take over from Matt Fenton in June to become its first female, first Mancunian and youngest Artistic Director. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Keisha a week before the announcement. She explained about her 17-year history at the venue, the philosophy behind this unique theatre for young people, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, all the different production skills she has picked up from working at Contact and how much she loves a good spreadsheet. (Photo of Keisha Thompson by Audrey Albert)

British theatre company Les Enfants Terribles celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2022 with a new production adapted from Sophie Anderson’s novel The House with Chicken Legs by company founder Oliver Lansley directed by Oli with Creative Director James Seager. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Oli and James during rehearsals, a week before opening night, about the production and their style and influences and looked back over their work during the last 20 years. The House with Chicken Legs runs at HOME Manchester from 29 March to 23 April 2022. The music for the show featured in this episode is by Alexander Wolfe. (Photo of James Seager and Oliver Lansley by Rah Petherbridge Photography)

Writer, director and actor Ryan Calais Cameron is artistic director and co-founder of theatre company Nouveau Riche, and his play For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy is about to open at London’s Royal Court Theatre. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Ryan a couple of weeks before the Royal Court opening and asked him about the play and its origins, about creating a theatre company without knowing how to go about doing so and about making theatre for the people from the community in which he grew up. For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy runs at the Royal Court Theatre in London from 31 March to 30 April 2022. (Photo of Ryan Calais Cameron, credit: Ali Wright)

Pilot Theatre is based in York in the UK, but for its latest project has collaborated with an Australian playwright on an adaptation of an Australian novel. The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon has received award nominations for both the Carnegie and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for a story about a young refugee born in an Australian permanent detention centre. The adaptation has been written by S Shakthidharan and will be directed by Pilot’s Artistic Director, Esther Richardson. Esther and Shakthi spoke to BTG Editor David Chadderton about the process of adapting the novel from opposite sides of the world, how refugees are treated in Australia and the UK and creating work both for and in collaboration with young audiences. The Bone Sparrow from Pilot Theatre will open at York Theatre Royal on 25 February 2022 then tour to Theatre Royal Bury St Edmonds, Derby Theatre, Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Mercury Theatre Colchester before ending at Theatre Peckham in April.

With Panto Season 2021 now well under way, BTG Panto Editor Simon Sladen caught up with award-winning writer, composer, actor and musician Vikki Stone. This year, Vikki has penned Aladdin for the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, having previously appeared at the venue as Abanazar and Fleshcreep. They discuss Vikki's pantomime career, challenges facing the genre today and top tips for budding pantomime writers. More information on Vikki's many projects can be found at her web site. Aladdin runs at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre until 2 January 2022. Award-winning writer, composer, actor and musician Vikki Stone is known for her original comedy songs, quick wit and hilarious charm. As a comedian, Vikki has appeared on many television and radio shows, including The John Bishop Show, The Now Show, This Morning, That Sunday Night Show, ITV's I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here Now, amongst many others. Her one-woman show at Soho Theatre Instrumental received huge praise. For her stage work, she has won the Soho Theatre St

Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning novels Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies were brought to the stage in 2014 by the Royal Shakespeare Company, adapted by Mike Poulton and directed by Jeremy Herrin. The third in the series, The Mirror and the Light, has opened at the Gielgud Theatre, again directed by Herrin but this time adapted by Mantel herself with Ben Miles, who has played the central character of Thomas Cromwell across all three plays. Also returning is Nathaniel Parker as King Henry VIII. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to him on the morning of the press night performance about the production, as well as about playing real people (from King Henry to Gordon Brown and Albert Speer), lockdown, playing Bond (in a manner of speaking) and just a little bit of politics. The Mirror and the Light began previews at London’s Gielgud Theatre on 23 September 2021, opened on 6 October and is booking until 23 January 2022. For more information about the production, see the web sites of The Mirror and the Ligh

Mark Ravenhill has been well known as a British playwright since the 1990s, when he was a leading figure in the group of writers labelled ‘In Yer Face’. Director Hannah Price was founder and Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Uncut and a Resident Artistic Director at the Donmar Warehouse. From 1 October 2021, Mark and Hannah will take over as joint Artistic Directors of the King’s Head Theatre, London’s oldest pub theatre. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to them both about their ideas for helping people working in the industry as we come out of a global pandemic, their support for new writers and young LGBTQ+ people and how digital theatre will play an important part in their future plans.

After the cancellation of the 2020 Edinburgh Festivals due to the coronavirus pandemic, apart from a small number of online shows, the 2021 festivals are going ahead, with some shows happening in front of live audiences and some online. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Fringe performer, writer, director and producer Guy Masterson, in Edinburgh to perform a cut-down version of his one-man Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas for his 27th year on the Fringe, about how different Edinburgh seems this year, as well as the damage caused to theatre by lockdown, even touching on the effects of Brexit on touring artists. Guy Masterson’s shows tour regularly around the UK and internationally. The Shark is Broken will run at the Ambassador’s Theatre in London from 9 October 2021 to 15 January 2022. For more information, see Theatre Tours International.

After a record-breaking year in 2019, with more than 600,000 attendees, Brighton Fringe had to cancel its 2020 festival at fairly short notice due to the first lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic in England. However, the Fringe is back for 2021, slightly later in the year than usual, with a hybrid live and online programme of events. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Brighton Fringe CEO Julian Caddy about the festival and what it will be offering attendees this year, as well as the difficulties they have faced over the last year or so. Brighton Fringe runs from Friday 28 May to Sunday 27 June 2021 at various venues around the town and online. For more information about the festival and the events in this year’s programme and to obtain tickets, visit the festival's web site, call 01273 917 272 or download the Brighton Fringe app from the Google Play or Apple App Store.

#WeMakeEvents was launched in April 2020, soon after the first coronavirus lockdown, by PLASA, the Professional Lighting and Sound Association, to highlight the plight of its membership, the majority of whom are freelance workers and therefore not eligible for government furlough payments. The campaign has grown to include other industry bodies and has become a global movement, with major performance venues lighting their buildings in red to highlight the red alert status of the industry. It offers financial assistance, wellbeing support and advice as well as campaigning with governments and the public to raise awareness. The campaign has attracted a great many celebrity endorsements, including from stand-up comedian, comedy writer and sports presenter Kevin Day, who took part in a promotional video for #WeMakeEvents with fellow comics Griff Rhys Jones, Lucy Porter and Stephen K Amos. Kevin has been prominent on the UK comedy scene since the late ‘80s when he performed regularly at The Comedy Store. He has wr

Hear Me Out is a new theatre podcast produced and presented by Lucy Eaton, the both real and on-screen sister of Simon Evans, creator of BBC lockdown comedy Staged starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen. Hear Me Out features interviews with leading theatre actors in which they discuss and then perform a speech from a play in which they have appeared which holds particularly strong memories for them. The first four episodes are now available, featuring Claire Skinner on Harold Pinter’s Moonlight, Adrian Lester on Cost of Living by Martyna Majok, Denise Gough on People, Places and Things by Duncan Macmillan and Mark Bonnar on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In this episode, BTG Editor David Chadderton speaks to Lucy about these first few episodes, as well as about how Staged was basically an extension of games she played with her brother when they were kids, what lockdown has been like for her and other actors she knows, performing outside the house of one of the UK’s leading theatre critics and more. Hear Me Out can b

At the beginning of each year, The Theatres Trust produces a document known as the Theatres At Risk Register, which lists the theatre buildings in the UK which are at the most risk of being lost forever. Just after the 2021 Register was released, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Theatres Trust Director Jon Morgan about this year’s list, the work of the Trust in general and the extra help it has been giving to theatres during the pandemic. The latest Theatres At Risk Register can be downloaded from The Theatres Trust web site, which also contains plenty of information about theatres around the UK and advice and useful contacts for theatres and campaign groups who are trying to save a theatre building.

In January 2020, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland, about her plans for the coming year. Less than two months later, the country shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. The season was cancelled and the future of this theatre, amongst many others around the country, looked bleak, but it continued to commission and produce new work, mostly online. A year on, and Pitlochry has announced its 70th anniversary season including its first winter ensemble, this time geared to the conditions in which they will have to work for the forseeable future. Pitlochry has also collaborated with Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre and Naked Productions on a new digital audio theatre platform, Sound Stage. Elizabeth speaks, in this episode, about both of these, and also about how the events of last year unfolded. The Sound Stage events so far announced will be available for just a few days at the end of each month from March to October 2021. The first, Ang

Leading black British theatre company Talawa, which will celebrate its 35th birthday in 2021, is releasing a series of short online films titled Tales from the Frontline that examine the experiences of black frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic through monologues compiled from the words of real people through interviews. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Talawa’s Artistic Director, Michael Buffong, who also directed the first of the films, after two of the proposed six films had been released: one from the perspective of a schoolteacher and the other from the words of an NHS recovery worker. They spoke about the reasons behind a project that Michael believes is essential to make sure that the contributions made by black workers to the essential services that keep the country functioning during the current crisis are documented so that they are not forgotten. They also spoke about plans for Talawa’s 35th birthday celebrations next year, and about the impressive list of productions that Michael

Peter Polycarpou, an actor with a long and distinguished history in musical theatre, was about to revive a production that he had written called Falling Stars at London’s Union Theatre when the second coronavirus lockdown was announced. Rather than cancelling entirely, the production, performed by Peter with Sally Ann Triplett and directed by Michael Strassen, was recorded to be made available online. Peter spoke to BTG Editor David Chadderton a few days before the recording was due to be released about the production, as well as about the effects of the lockdown on him and on theatre as a whole and a bit about some of his past and possible future work.  Falling Stars is a 60-minute online live-stream to be broadcast at 7:30PM from Sunday 22 to Sunday 29 November 2020, plus 2:30PM matinée performances on Saturday 28 and Sunday 29. Tickets are £15 plus booking fees available from www.stream.theatre. (Photo of Peter Polycarpou and Sally Ann Triplett, credit Paul Nicholas Dyke)

Pursued by a Bear, a theatre company based at Trestle Arts Base in St Albans, Hertfordshire, was preparing a tour of a new project, Nothing on Earth written by Anna Reynolds, before the coronavirus lockdown. As the tour couldn’t go ahead as planned, it was used as the inspiration for a series of short web films called Nothing on Earth: Shorts. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Pursued by a Bear’s Artistic Director, Rosamunde Hutt, when half of the six films had been released about the project and the general aims of the company. Photo of Rosamunde Hutt, credit Tunde Euba.

As some theatre performances are starting to open in the UK after more than five months of lockdown due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the people in charge of UK theatres have had to make some very difficult decisions in order to survive. To get the perspective of theatre management on the current situation, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Roddy Gauld, Chief Executive of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, just after the announcement that the theatre will reopen in December and Jon Gilchrist, Executive Director & Deputy Chief Executive of Home Manchester, where theatre performances are to recommence from October.

Cornwall’s Kneehigh theatre company was due to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to postpone any celebrations. After five months of lockdown, the company has released a strategy document, Strike Out!, focussing on its plans for creating art and performance in a post-pandemic world. Just after its release, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Kneehigh founder and co-Artistic Director Mike Shepherd about what he has been up to during lockdown, the company’s deferred 40th anniversary plans and plans for the immediate future. To read the Strike Out! strategy document and other information about the company and its past and future work, see Kneehigh's web site or follow @wearekneehigh on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. The TED Talk “Do schools kill creativity” by the late Sir Ken Robinson, referred to by Mike as an inspiration, can still be seen online. Photo of Mike Shepherd as Mrs Ubu in Kneehigh’s Ubu, credit Steve Tanner

Theatre company Told by an Idiot will be one of the first theatre companies to resume performances to live audiences after the coronavirus lockdown when it takes part in the Greenwich+Docklands International Festival with a revival of its family show Get Happy at outdoor venues. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Told by an Idiot founder Paul Hunter, who is directing the piece, during rehearsals about this and past works by the company, as well as about his comedy influences, some of whom he has worked with, and the company’s way of working when devising its distinctive style of physical comedy show. Get Happy will be performed at Woolwich Common Basketball Court on 29 August, The Moorings Estate in Thamesmead on 30 August and Eltham on 12 September 2020.

Tara Arts is a London-based multicultural theatre company which has only had one artistic director, Jatinder Verma MBE, since it was formed in 1977 until he stepped down earlier this year. He will be replaced by Abdul Shayek, a director originally from East London who has spent the last nine years based in Cardiff, initially working with National Theatre Wales and for the last four years running Fio, a theatre company that he formed in 2016. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Abdul just after his appointment had been announced about his plans for Tara, running a multicultural theatre company in Cardiff, theatre as a tool for social change and a few of the many projects he currently has on the go or planned for the near future.