Actor and author Emily Woof is best known for her film and TV work such as Mandy in The Full Monty , Shannon in Velvet Goldmine and Nancy in Oliver Twist , but she has also written novels and devised her own theatre pieces. At this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe , she is performing her own solo play, Revolver , directed by her husband, Hamish McColl, writer and co-founder of theatre company The Right Size. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Emily during her Edinburgh run about the play’s sub...
Aug 22, 2025•25 min•Ep. 301
Indie rock band The Wedding Present was formed in Leeds in 1985, achieving a huge critical success with its debut album, George Best . 40 years and 300 songs later, the band is still going, and Artistic Director of Engine House Theatre and Wedding Present fan Matt Aston has written and is directing a new musical, Reception , based on the band’s back-catalogue. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Matt during rehearsals for the show about how he put it together, his history as a long-time fan of ...
Aug 16, 2025•53 min•Ep. 300
This episode features two very different solo shows, which can both be seen at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe . Thom Tuck is playing the titular 100-year-old clown, whose life story takes audiences though some of the major events of the 20th century, in Justin Butcher’s Scaramouche Jones , which he performed in Edinburgh in 2005, then again in 2015. His partner, Jenny Ryan, best-known as The Vixen on TV quiz programme The Chase , is performing her musical comedy show Björn Yesterday that unp...
Aug 12, 2025•36 min•Ep. 299
For almost 40 years, the Classic Thriller Season has been held during the summer at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. It’s one of the few rep seasons left in the country. In 2025, the season has been reduced to three weeks instead of four and will feature plays by Peter Gordon, Ira Levin and Richard Harris. BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to Karen Henson from the producers Tabs Productions as well as Mark Pearce, who’s taking part in his first Thriller Season as the incomparable Inspector Prat...
Aug 09, 2025•19 min•Ep. 298
While the various Edinburgh festivals are running, one of the many publications providing extensive coverage of them is The List magazine, which this year celebrates its 40th anniversary. The List publishes year-round free print publications and online content on arts and entertainment in Scotland, but it will be producing seven print publications in six weeks dedicated to the festivals, as well as bringing back its cross-festival awards, which it inaugurated last year and this year has expanded...
Aug 01, 2025•25 min•Ep. 297
The winners of the biennial Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting , which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary, were announced at a ceremony at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre on Monday 21 July 2025. Immediately after the awards were presented, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to four of the five winners: Daisy Miles, who won the £10,000 North-West Original New Voice Award for her play R Lady’s , Terri Jade Donovan, who won a special commendation of £5,000 for Dog Dog Dog , Silva Semerciyan,...
Jul 28, 2025•33 min•Ep. 296
Greg Mosse was the founder of the Criterion New Writing programme based at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End in 2015 and has written and produced 25 plays and musicals at venues including Chichester Festival Theatre, Portsmouth Guildhall and Worthing Theatre. Since lockdown, he has turned to writing novels, despite being married to best-selling novelist Kate Mosse, and his latest book, The Coming Fire , the third in a series that he began writing during lockdown, was published by Moonfl...
Jul 23, 2025•44 min•Ep. 295
Lorenzo Allchurch and Alex Helfrecht, the writer and director of new play Lost Watches , which is to première at Park Theatre in London this summer, met when Alex directed Lorenzo as a child actor ten years ago in the film The White King . For his debut full-length play as a writer, Lorenzo will star alongside a sculpture of the head of the author William Burroughs voiced by Jason Isaacs, star of, amongst others, The Salt Path, The White Lotus, The Death of Stalin and the Harry Potter films, in ...
Jul 15, 2025•44 min•Ep. 294
Paula Garfield MBE, Artistic Director and co-founder of Deafinitely Theatre, is taking her adaptation of The Vagina Monologues by V (formerly Eve Ensler) on a short tour. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Paula a couple of weeks before the performances about her adaptation for both deaf and hearing audiences of a play that was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1990s, as well as about her reasons for co-founding the company in 2002 and its range and methods of working. Paula’s wo...
Jul 07, 2025•33 min•Ep. 293
Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres, has adapted F Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby , which is now 100 years old, for the stage for the theatre she recently left, Pitlochry Festival Theatre. It will be co-produced by Derby Theatre, where it will also open that venue’s 50th anniversary season, and will by directed by Derby’s Artistic Director, Sarah Brigham. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Sarah and Elizabeth about the production, the story’s continuing appeal ...
Jun 04, 2025•32 min•Ep. 292
59E59 Theatres in New York City has presented a regular Brits Off Broadway season of British theatre productions since 2004. This year, the season runs from 22 April to 29 June and features eight productions that were recently performed in the UK. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Val Day, 59E59’s Artistic Director, and Brian Beirne, Managing Director, about the origins of the season, their selection process, the financing of this theatrical ‘unicorn’ (as Brian calls it) and the productions i...
Apr 01, 2025•47 min•Ep. 291
Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman is regarded as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century. A new production is touring the UK. BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to David Hayman, who plays Willy Loman, and director Andy Arnold about the previous production they worked on as well as their current project. Death of a Salesman runs until 3 May. Further information is available at the Trafalgar Entertainment web site ....
Mar 24, 2025•21 min•Ep. 290
The next production from Wise Children theatre company will be a new stage adaptation of the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock Cold War thriller North by Northwest , adapted and directed by Emma Rice. The roles of Roger Thornhill and Eve Kendall, played in the film by Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint, will be taken by Ewan Wardrop and Patrycja Kujawska. A week before previews at York Theatre Royal, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Patrycja about the production and about the working process of a company an...
Mar 18, 2025•18 min•Ep. 289
The programme for the tenth biennial Manchester International Festival for 2025 was announced on 11 March at Aviva Studios. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to John McGrath, Factory International’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director, and Creative Director Low Kee Hong, as well as Jonathan Watkins, director and choreographer of A Single Man , and the writer, Ntombizodwa Nyoni, and director, Monique Touko, of Liberation . The 2025 Manchester International Festival runs from Thursday 3 to Sunda...
Mar 13, 2025•45 min•Ep. 288
Playwright Jane Upton has taken her experiences of motherhood and included them in a new play, (the) Woman . Nottinghamshire company New Perspectives is touring the play which will also have a five-week run in London. Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to Jane Upton and New Perspectives artistic director Angharad Jones about the play and how it was conceived. (the) Woman is on tour until 15 March and will be at London’s Park Theatre from 24 September until 25 October 2025. (Photo: Jane Upton and A...
Feb 27, 2025•28 min•Ep. 287
Mary Wollstonecraft, famous for her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman , was born in London in 1759 but spent some of her early life in Beverley near Hull in Yorkshire. Playwright Maureen Lennon and actor Laura Elsworthy will together bring her back to the region in Maureen’s play Mary and The Hyenas , in which Laura will play Mary. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Maureen and Laura while the play was in rehearsal in Hull about Mary’s life and legacy, the continuing relevance of her m...
Jan 26, 2025•38 min•Ep. 286
Mama G is an award-winning year-round storyteller whose work is driven by the magic of pantomime. She has appeared in professional pantomimes across the UK for almost twenty years and this year stars in Aladdin at the Beck Theatre, Hayes. She has also written, directed and produced pantomimes for numerous holiday parks and theatres, including Stanley Arts Centre, South Norwood. Since 2018, Mama G has been sharing stories with children and their families about being who you want and loving who yo...
Dec 09, 2024•42 min•Ep. 285
Leading pantomime company Evolution Productions will this year celebrate its 20th anniversary with ten productions at theatres right across England. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to the conpany’s founders, Paul Hendy and Emily Wood, about their upcoming panto season and about what goes into making their pantos, as well as about Paul’s play The Last Laugh , which will follow a very successful run at the last Edinburgh Fringe with a West End run early next year. Evolution Productions’ twentiet...
Nov 22, 2024•38 min•Ep. 284
Fierce Festival is a “youthful and joy-filled festival of international theatre, performance and experiences” which takes place in and around Birmingham every two years. Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to Fierce’s artistic director Clayton Lee and Adam Kinner whose one-to-one show Manual will be presented daily in the Library of Birmingham. Fierce Festival will run from Tuesday 15 until Saturday 19 October. (Photo: Clayton Lee and Adam Kinner, credit Steve Orme)...
Oct 14, 2024•19 min•Ep. 283
In 2009, TV writers Trevor Suthers and John Chambers put together a night of short, brand new plays written by established TV writers which took its name from its original venue, the Joshua Brooks pub on Princess Street in Manchester. Fifteen years on, and now at fringe venue 53two, JB Shorts is an established biannual event on the Manchester theatre calendar with its two-week runs of six 15-minute plays. With the 25th JB Shorts about to open, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Trevor together...
Oct 09, 2024•46 min•Ep. 282
Derby Theatre is to present a new play, Welfare , by local playwright Abi Zakarian, that will take audiences to The Derbyshire Miners’ Holiday Camp in Skegness, where miners went initially to convalesce and later to holiday, as it was turned into a holiday camp for Derbyshire miners and their families. Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to director Sarah Brigham and three of the actors, Jo Mousley, Hanna Winter and John Holt-Roberts, about the play and about the history behind it, both local and f...
Sep 17, 2024•20 min•Ep. 281
The next production to open at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, London is a new adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go , adapted for the stage by Suzanne Heathcote and directed by Christopher Haydon, Rose Theatre’s Artistic Director. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Christopher just before a rehearsal for the play about the adaptation, working with one of his literary heroes, the necessity for co-productions and the state of arts funding and arts education in the UK at the moment. Never...
Sep 06, 2024•29 min•Ep. 280
Guy Masterson, one of the most well-known and well-respected theatre producers on the Edinburgh Fringe , this year celebrates his thirtieth consecutive festival season. However, he has announced that this is also to be his last festival visit as a producer. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Guy just after the first performance of one of the shows in his programme for this year about producing nearly 150 shows over three decades, the trials and joys of producing, writing, directing and perform...
Aug 02, 2024•38 min•Ep. 279
2024 marks twenty years since Just the Tonic venues first appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, although founder Darrell Martin had been putting on shows at the festival since 2002 and started the company by running Sunday night comedy clubs in 1994. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Darrell before the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe about 20 years on the Fringe, the current state of the Edinburgh festival season, getting into the business as a fan of comedy in the ‘80s, running comedy clubs aroun...
Jul 19, 2024•42 min•Ep. 278
Writer-director Paul Hendy brings back three comedians through performers Bob Golding, Damian Williams and Simon Cartwright. Every year, the Edinburgh Fringe programme features solo performances about real people, which in the past have included Bob Golding as Eric Morecambe in Tim Whitnall’s Morecambe from 2009, Damian Williams as Tommy Cooper in Being Tommy Cooper by Tom Green from 2012 and Simon Cartwright as Bob Monkhouse in The Man Called Monkhouse by Alex Lowe from 2015. Writer-director Pa...
Jun 28, 2024•44 min•Ep. 277
Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland and The New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich are co-producing a new production of the stage musical Footloose , based on the ‘80s film of the same name that starred Kevin Bacon. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to New Wolsey Artistic Director Douglas Rintoul, who will direct the production, and Pitlochry’s Artistic Director, Elizabeth Newman, about the production, other musicals that both their theatres are producting this year ( Little Shop of Horrors , Beautifu...
May 17, 2024•46 min•Ep. 276
Guildford Shakespeare Company began with an outdoor production of Much Ado About Nothing in Guildford Castle Grounds in 2006. Eighteen years on, the company is celebrating its coming of age with a production of Romeo and Juliet which mostly takes place along Guildford High Street. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to the company’s founders, Matt Pinches and Sarah Gobran, about the production and about the challenges, practical and financial, of mounting their style of theatre in spaces that were...
May 09, 2024•58 min•Ep. 275
The 2024 summer season at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London will open with a new production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Or What You Will directed by Owen Horsley, an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and an Associate Director for Cheek by Jowl. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Owen at a break during rehearsals about his approach to the play, his love of Shakespeare and the perhaps unusual way he was originally introduced to the Bard’s work. Twelfth Night Or ...
Apr 18, 2024•31 min•Ep. 274
Actor, writer, choreographer and film-maker Lanre Malaolu ’s play Samskara had a sell-out run at London’s Yard Theatre in 2022 and was subsequently published by Nick Hern Books. Now, I See is the second play of what has become a trilogy which, like the first part, examines family relationships through a modern black, British lens. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Lanre about the play, his writing process, how his work comes from his own experiences and observations and his introduction to cr...
Apr 13, 2024•42 min•Ep. 273
Actor Greg Hicks has played many leading roles at the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company over the last forty years, as well as starring on the West End and appearing on screen in films including The Mercy and Snow White and the Huntsman . He is about to perform a one-man show, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man , based on a short story by Dostoyevsky, at the new Marylebone Theatre in London. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to him a few days before it opened about the play and how mu...
Mar 19, 2024•33 min•Ep. 272
