British Theatre Guide Podcast

Lichfield Garrick is presenting an alternative show as well as its panto this Christmas as New Old Friends will be staging the latest in its "Crimes of..." series: Crimes of the Christmas Pudding. BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme speaks to director Nel Crouch and Jill Myers who plays Belgian detective Artemis Arinae. Crimes of the Christmas Pudding runs at Lichfield Garrick from Wednesday 5 December 2018 until Saturday 5 January 2019.

2018 marks the second time Evolution Productions has produced Cinderella at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury after the venue re-opened in 2011. Simon Sladen speaks to the theatre's resident Dame Ben Roddy and Marlowe regulars Lloyd Hollett and Phil Gallagher as they star in their fourth panto together. Simon, Ben, Lloyd and Phil discuss this year's show, their approach to playing the Ugly Sisters and Buttons, the trio's affinity with the Marlowe as well as some top tips for those starting out in the industry.

Derby Theatre's Christmas show for 2018 is Mike Kenny's adaptation of Hansel and Gretel from the tales collected by the Brothers Grimm. BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme talks about the show to Derby Theatre Artistic Director Sarah Brigham, who is directing the production, and actors Craig Anderson and Yana Penrose, who play the title roles of Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel runs at Derby Theatre from Friday 30 November 2018 to Saturday 5 January 2019.

BTG panto editor Simon Sladen speaks to pantomime company Imagine Theatre’s Managing Director Steve Boden and Robert Marsden, director of the Victoria Theatre, Halifax’s pantomime and associate professor at Staffordshire University. 2018 will see Imagine Theatre present 14 pantomimes in venues across the United Kingdom having grown from 8 productions in 2009. In this episode, Steve and Robert discuss Imagine Theatre’s style of pantomime, the company and genre’s recent evolution and the state of the industry today. Steve and Robert also reveal where in Pantoland they’d like to travel to if they had their very own magic wand.

The first in-house production in HOME Manchester’s autumn and winter season for 2018 is a new production of French writer Jean Genet’s 1947 play The Maids, in an English version by Martin Crimp. The play will be directed in-the-round at HOME by Lily Sykes, an English-born director who has lived and worked in Germany for the last ten years and has recently become a German citizen. In a break during rehearsals, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Lily about the play, existentialism, polarisation of society, the differences between directing for British and German theatres and a great deal more. The Maids will run at HOME Manchester from 16 November to 1 December 2018. For more information, see homemcr.org. (Photo of Lily Sykes by Magnus Reed)

Red Ladder, which bills itself as “Britain’s leading radical theatre company”, this year celebrates its fiftieth anniversary, tracing its roots back to the left-wing agitprop theatre of the 1960s. To celebrate, instead of its usual fare of new political writing, it has turned to Brecht’s Mother Courage and her Children, which artistic director Rod Dixon has staged as a promenade production in a warehouse in Leeds featuring Pauline McLynn (Mrs Doyle in classic sitcom Father Ted) in the title role. BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Rod when the production had been running for nearly a week about the production, the company's other work and philosophy and fifty years of creating political theatre. Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht, adapted by Lee Hall, opened at the Albion Electric Warehouse in Leeds on 28 September 2018 and runs until 20 October. (Production photo of Pauline McLynn as Mother Courage by Anthony Robling)

Mark Smith talks to Conrad Nelson and Deborah McAndrew about their brand new version of Dario Fo's classic They Don't Pay? We Won't Pay! (also known as Can't Pay? Won't Pay!). The show is a co-production between York Theatre Royal and Halifax-based company Northern Broadsides, where Conrad Nelson is the Artistic Director. They discuss the company's past and future, the process of adapting and translating theatrical language "from Milan to Middlesborough", and the careful precision required when staging farce - or any play. "This is so much about being a theatre animal. This play was made by a theatre animal, and we're theatre animals, we're playhouse creatures." They Don’t Pay? We Won’t Pay! will run at York Theatre Royal from 5 to 13 October 2018 before embarking on a national tour from 16 October to 2 December 2018. (Photo of Conrad Nelson and Deborah McAndrew in rehearsal, credit: Nobby Clark)

The latest production from acclaimed theatre company RashDash, Future Bodies, has been produced in collaboration with Unlimited Theatre and HOME Manchester as a trailblazer event for the 2018 Manchester Science Festival. What does it mean to have and to be a body? As we increasingly fuse our biological brains with technology, at what point do we stop being human? Does it even matter? During rehearsals at HOME, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to RashDash co-founder Helen Goalen, who is co-directing the production, about the show, how it was created and the ideas behind it. Future Bodies will be at HOME Manchester from 28 September to 13 October 2018 before touring to Northern Stage in Newcastle from 16 to 18 October and the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield on 19 October. (Image: Helen Goalen (R) in rehearsals)

Ian Rankin's Edinburgh detective Inspector Rebus, the star of many of his novels and short stories, is about to make his first ever stage appearance in a brand new story from Rankin with playwright Rona Munro. BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke about the production to Ian by phone from his home in Edinburgh, then in person to actors Charles Lawson (Jim McDonald in Coronation Street) and John Stahl (Rickard Karstark in Game of Thrones), who play, respectively, John Rebus and his nemesis, the Edinburgh gang boss 'Big Ger' Cafferty. The world première of Rebus: Long Shadows by Ian Rankin and Rona Munro opened at Birmingham Rep on 20 September 2018, where it runs until 6 October before touring to Edinburgh, Malvern, Nottingham, Manchester, Northampton, Aberdeen and Guildford until November. (Photo of Charles Lawson and John Stahl by Steve Orme)

Where We Began is a new piece of theatre devised by a multicultural cast and instigated by Stand and Be Counted Theatre. This company works extensively with asylum seekers, migrants and others seeking sanctuary. Here, BTG reviewer Mark Smith speaks to writer/performer Rosie MacPherson, one of the Artistic Directors of Stand and Be Counted, and Tafadzwa Muchenje, one of the devisers and performers of the show. They discuss the company's development as well as Taf's own route to working with SBC. After ten years living and studying in the UK, his residency status was suddenly thrown into uncertainty. Watching SBC's previous work, Tanja, provided inspiration and impetus for him as he challenged the Home Office ruling on his "right to remain", and led to this new collaboration. Where We Began is devised by Shireen Farkhoy, Zoe Katsilerou, Fernanda Mandagará, Gaël Le Cornec, Rosie MacPherson and Tafadzwa Muchenje, and directed by Hannah Butterfield. It tours across the country until the end of October. "We want to

For its first production of the autumn 2018 season, HOME in Manchester has again teamed up with Lyric Hammersmith for a pairing of two of Shakespeare’s plays, Othello and Macbeth, assembled into one production by director Jude Christian to highlight, in particular, the stories of the female characters in both plays. A week before the production’s Manchester opening, Jude spoke to BTG editor David Chadderton at HOME about how the production came about and redressing the gender politics in Shakespeare, as well as some thoughts on panto, which she will also be directing later this year at Lyric Hammersmith. othellomacbeth runs at HOME Manchester from 14 to 29 September 2018 before transferring to Lyric Hammersmith from 5 October to 3 November. (photo by Helen Murray)

The Fun Palace was an idea conceived originally by influential theatre maker Joan Littlewood with architect Cedric Price in the early 1960s. Their building-based idea was never built, but writer and actor Stella Duffy OBE came up with the idea to resurrect it in a different way for Littlewood’s centenary in 2014. This has become a fast-growing annual event co-directed by Stella with Sarah-Jane Rawlings and is about to celebrate its fifth anniversary. In this episode, David Chadderton talks to Stella about her realisation of the Fun Palace idea for the twenty-first century on a countrywide scale, and she also makes some provocative suggestions about theatre, culture, outreach projects and diversity. The fifth Fun Palaces event will be on 6 and 7 October 2018. For information on fun palaces near to you or details of how to create a fun palace of your own, see the Fun Palaces web site.

In our first podcast episode on the 2018 Edinburgh Festivals, we speak to two people who are now veteran Fringe producers and performers. Rick Conte will return to the Fringe this year as Dog in the multi-award-winning Puppet State Theatre production The Man Who Planted Trees. However he is also performing and producing a new adaptation of The Time Machine by H G Wells that combines puppetry with human actors for The Scientific Romance Theatre Company, The Time Machine will be at the Scottish Storytelling Centre from 2 to 19 August at 2:30PM, and then The Man Who Planted Trees will take over the same slot from 20 to 27 August. Guy Masterson has been a fixture of the Edinburgh Fringe for 25 years as an actor, director and producer. With his company Theatre Tours International, his annual programmes of productions have ranged from solo shows to international collaborations and shows with star-studded casts, many of which have lived on after Edinburgh with international tours and West End runs. This year, Guy wi

The Theatre Royal in Nottingham is preparing for its annual Classic Thrillers Season featuring four different plays over four weeks: Peter Gordon’s Sleighed to Death, A Touch of Danger by Francis Durbridge, a new adaptation of Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel by Louise Page and John Goodrum’s adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Nightmare Room. In this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme talks to Karen Henson from Tabs Productions about being back at the Theatre Royal after a year at Nottingham Playhouse due to refurbishments, and also to actors David Callister and Susan Earnshaw about being part of this unique rep company. The Colin McIntyre Classic Thrillers Season 2018 will be at Theatre Royal Nottingham from 31 July to 25 August.

Philip Fisher talks to John Hopkins and Tuppence Middleton about the differences between working on stage and screen and most particularly their upcoming engagement in Vicky Jones's award-winning The One at Soho Theatre.

As it prepares to leave its building in the hands of developers for refurbishment, Bolton’s Octagon Theatre takes its audiences on the road, literally, for its seasonal musical Summer Holiday, based on the Cliff Richard film. The performance begins at the new Bolton Interchange bus station where the audience will meet before travelling by bus with the actors to the theatre, where the rest of the production takes place. A little over a week before opening, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to two of the actor musicians, Barbara Hockaday and Greg Last, and Ben Occhipinti, who is co-directing with Octagon Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman. Summer Holiday will be performed at Bolton Travel Interchange and Octagon Theatre Bolton from Thursday 31 May to Saturday 23 June 2018.

Filament Theatre's latest production is Rufus Longbottom and the Space Rabbit, which was created after the production team collaborated with more than 600 schoolchildren on ideas for characters for the new show. At the start of the show's UK tour in Derby, BTG's Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to Filament co-founder Osnat Schmool, who co-created the project and wrote the music and lyrics, and performer and sound artist Lula Mebrahtu, who plays the titular Space Rabbit using innovative music technology. Rufus Longbottom and the Space Rabbit opened at Derby Theatre on 21 May 2018, after which it tours to Stratford Circus Arts Centre, Stantonbury Theatre, Greenwich Theatre, Norden Farm, South Street Arts Centre and Pegasus Theatre in Oxford, where it ends on 9 June.

BTG's Philip Fisher talks to Amanda Mehtala from Theatre in Paris, a venture designed to open up the Parisian theatre scene to English speakers by providing English surtitles for French productions in major Paris theatres.

The Tiger Lillies is an Olivier Award-winning and Grammy-nominated musical trio with more than thirty years of success around the world as a live band, as recording artists and as part of several theatre productions, including the Olivier Award-winning Shockheaded Peter on the West End. Their latest collaboration is with visual director Mark Holthusen and writer Peder Bjurman on a story set along the Mexican border, Corrido de la Sangre, which will be performed as part of the ¡Viva! Spanish and Latin American Festival 2018 at HOME Manchester. In this episode, BTG editor David Chadderton speaks to two thirds of the Tiger Lillies, Martin Jacques and Adrian Stout, about the new show and also about the joys and the problems of being uncategorisable outsiders, what it means to be genuinely 'alternative', the way the look and the sound of the band were carefully conceived and have evolved and some other projects currently in development or on the horizon. Corrido de la Sangre featuring The Tiger Lillies will be per

Director Jake Murray, who was co-artistic director for Manchester's Royal Exchange Studio space with current Exchange Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom until he left Manchester in 2008, is back in the city with his new Durham-based Elysium Theatre Company. His latest production is of Stephen Adly Guirgis’s Pullitzer Prize-winning play Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train, which has only been produced twice in the UK before. BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Jake at HOME Manchester a month before the production opened about the play, the aims of the new company, regional theatre in general and in Manchester in particular and about the issue of new plays that opened in London rarely getting new productions in the regions any more—a problem that Elysium is trying to confront with its programming. Jake Murray’s production of Jesus Hopped The ‘A’ Train for Elysium Theatre Company premières at The Assembly Rooms Theatre in Durham on 14 May 2018 before running at HOME Manchester from 16 to 19 May.