Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield is producing a star-studded multi-cast audio play, The Understudy , an adaptation by Henry Filloux-Bennett of a novel by David Nicholls about an actor who is failing in most aspects of his life. The cast includes Stephen Fry, Russell Tovey, Emily Atack, Sheila Atim, Layton Williams, Sarah Hadland, Mina Anwar, Jake Ferretti, Sasha Frost, Marie Lawrence, James McNicholas and Lizzie Muncey. Each actor has recorded his or her own dialogue at home in isolation ...
May 01, 20200•Ep. 211
Slung Low , a theatre company founded in 2000 and currently based in the oldest social club in Britain in Holbeck, Leeds, programmes work in its own performance spaces but also creates large-scale works in non-theatre spaces, often involving large community casts. During the coronavirus lockdown, Slung Low is releasing a short film, The Good Book , written by James Phillips with a cast of three professional actors alongside more than a hundred people from Leeds in the first piece of work to be p...
Apr 24, 20200•Ep. 210
In common with most of the UK’s theatres and other arts venues, HOME Manchester announced it would close soon after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement on 16 March 2020 appealing to the public to stay away from public places to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. A week later, HOME announced a series of commissions, titled Homemakers, from artists asking them to devise new works in their homes for audiences who will also be at home. The initiative was created by HOME’s Associate Director ...
Mar 27, 2020•20 min•Ep. 209
For the second successive year, Derby Theatre is producing a major show featuring fully integrated British Sign Language and captioning. In 2019, the theatre presented Neil Duffield’s adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book ; in 2020 Treasure Island will get similar treatment. For this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme chats to Derby Theatre’s artistic director Sarah Brigham about the show and what the theatre is doing regarding the coronavirus outbreak. He also interviews Beth Hin...
Mar 14, 20200•Ep. 208
Amy Leach is a theatre director and Associate Director at Leeds Playhouse, currently working on a new version of Oliver Twist . This new adaption is by Bryony Lavery, and it’s being staged by Leeds Playhouse in collaboration with the Ramps on the Moon consortium, a partnership between six National Portfolio Organisation theatres and Graeae Theatre. Ramps on the Moon aims to create change within the UK theatre industry in terms of the inclusion and integration of deaf and disabled audiences and t...
Feb 28, 2020•24 min•Ep. 207
Ben Brantley is the co-chief theatre critic for The New York Times . He has been a staff critic since 1996, filing reviews regularly from London as well as New York. In this episode, BTG’s London Editor Philip Fisher speaks with Ben about his career, as well as about plays in London and New York, past, present and future. (Photo credit: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)
Feb 21, 20200•Ep. 206
Laurie Sansom has been Artistic Director at the National Theatre of Scotland and Royal and Derngate in Northampton, but he has more recently taken over at Northern Broadsides in Halifax. His first production there as director is a revival of Quality Street by J M Barrie, the title of which has a special connection with the company’s home town. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to him a couple of weeks into rehearsals about the play and the ‘forgotten’ Barrie canon and about his plans for this we...
Feb 12, 2020•26 min•Ep. 205
Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Perthshire, Scotland announced its summer rep season for 2020 in December. In 2018, Elizabeth Newman joined the theatre as Artistic Director from the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Elizabeth in January about the new season and about how she had developed the theatre’s programme over the last eighteen months, as well as how she had coped with settling in an unfamiliar region after ten years in Bolton. The summer season at Pitlochry Fe...
Feb 05, 2020•27 min•Ep. 204
Pilot Theatre is to tour the UK with Crongton Knights by Alex Wheatle in an adaptation by Emteaz Hussain co-directed by Pilot’s Artistic Director, Esther Richardson, and Corey Campbell, Artistic Director of Strictly Arts Theatre Company, with music by beatbox champion Conrad Murray. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Esther and Corey during rehearsals for the production at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry about the play’s story and themes, and also about the financial implications of producing...
Jan 29, 2020•27 min•Ep. 203
imitating the dog has been making theatre work fusing live performance with digital technology and projection for 21 years. Their past productions have included original devised work as well as adaptations from other forms, such as A Farewell to Arms and Heart of Darkness . Their new show, Night of The Living Dead™ – Remix , is being co-produced with Leeds Playhouse. It’s described as a ‘shot-for-shot stage recreation’ of George A Romero’s classic 1968 zombie movie Night of the Living Dead . Mar...
Jan 22, 2020•33 min•Ep. 202
In 2019, the inaugural Visionary Honours, founded by Thriller Live creator Adrian Grant, celebrated work that inspired social change in or debate about equality, diversity, inclusion, mental health, anti-social behaviour or environmental change. For its second year, there will be a Visionary Awards ceremony in March and ten bursaries of up to £5,000 each for young creative artists. This year’s panel includes the writer of hit West End musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie , Tom MacRae, who spo...
Jan 16, 20200•Ep. 201
For our 200th episode of the British Theatre Guide podcast, we decided to turn the microphone onto some of our longest serving reviewers to find out about how they joined BTG and some of their highlights from their time as reviewers. However this isn’t all about us, as we also asked them about the current state of theatre in their areas, how it has changed during their time reviewing and how they think it will change in the future. As our reviewers are scattered around the country, it gives an i...
Jan 13, 2020•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 200
Derby Theatre is bringing back a show it produced in 2014, Neil Duffield’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol . For this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme chats to Oliver O’Shea who was associate director on the theatre’s last two Christmas productions, former Flying Pickets singer Gareth Williams who plays Scrooge and Aimée Kwan, taking her first professional roles as Belle and Beth. A Christmas Carol will run at Derby Theatre from 29 November until 4 January 2020. (Photo o...
Nov 08, 20190•Ep. 199
Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester is continuing its run of revivals of musicals with the Jerry Herman show Mame , starring Tracie Bennett, Tim Flavin and Harriet Thorpe. During the Manchester run, BTG editor David Chadderton sat in the theatre with Harriet—well known to TV audiences for her comedy roles such as Carole The Brittas Empire and Fleur in Absolutely Fabulous , but with stage musical credits including Mamma Mia and Wicked —and spoke about her role as Mame’s bitchy actress friend Vera in ...
Nov 02, 20190•Ep. 198
The next production from Bolton’s Octagon Theatre is a version of Chekhov’s The Seagull rewritten by Beth Hyland as a gig musical about four aspiring young musicians in a rock band in 2019, performed in a small theatre space in Bolton Library. In this episode, BTG Editor David Chadderton speaks to half of the cast, Tomi Ogbaro and Lauryn Redding, together with director Lotte Wakeham about this première production, plus Lotte gives an update on the reopening of the Octagon Theatre next spring aft...
Oct 24, 2019•32 min•Ep. 197
In 2017, Javaad Alipoor ’s The Believers Are But Brothers opened at Transform Festival in Leeds before transferring to Summerhall for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Scotsman Fringe First, and later was adapted for television and shown on BBC4. This was the first play in a trilogy, the second part of which, Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran , premièred at the Traverse Theatre during the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe and is about to open at HOME Manchester . A week before it ...
Oct 17, 2019•40 min•Ep. 196
In this episode, BTG London Editor Philip Fisher speaks with Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre , the company behind The Play that Goes Wrong , Peter Pan Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery , on the eve of Groan Ups , the first play in the company’s Vaudeville Theatre residency. They discuss the company’s inception, its ongoing success and future projects on stage and screen, including Magic Goes Wrong , created with world famous magicians Penn and Teller, and The Goes Wrong Show , a n...
Oct 03, 2019•24 min•Ep. 195
Nottingham Playhouse’s latest production is a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People . It features Alex Kingston in the lead role of Dr Teresa Stockman. For this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to two of the actors in the play, Deka Walmsley and Donna Banya, about working with Alex Kingston, the effect gender-swapping has had on the play and how the theatre has been revitalised since Adam Penford took over as artistic director. (Photo of Deka Walmsley and Donna Ban...
Sep 28, 2019•19 min•Ep. 194
Birmingham REP has made three major appointments and they’ve all taken up their new positions at a theatre recognised as one of the most important in the country. They’re Artistic Director Sean Foley, Deputy Artistic Director Amit Sharma and Executive Director Rachael Thomas. For this episode, BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to the three of them about their aim to enhance the REP’s reputation as a theatre that’s relevant to all of its local communities but with a national and international ...
Sep 12, 2019•21 min•Ep. 193
The latest production from Manchester-based new writing theatre company Box of Tricks is Under Three Moons by Daniel Kanaber, a play about a close male friendship across three decades, described to us by the director as a “platonic love story”. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Danny and director Adam Quayle during the early stages of rehearsals about the play, the development process and how this relationship fits into the current debate about masculinity. Under Three Moons will open at The ...
Sep 06, 2019•27 min•Ep. 192
Derby Theatre and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch are collaborating for the second time on their major autumn show and in 2019 they’ve chosen to stage Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors . For this episode, BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to Derby Theatre’s artistic director Sarah Brigham about why she wanted to direct the farce, David O’Reilly who’s playing Francis Henshall, the part played initially by James Corden at the National Theatre in 2011 , and Samantha Hull, who takes the role of Paul...
Aug 29, 2019•22 min•Ep. 191
In this episode from the final week of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for 2019, we hear from the current director of a production that has become, after 28 years, an Edinburgh Fringe and C venues institution, Shakespeare for Breakfast . Damian Sandys has directed the production since 2006, as well as its younger brother, Dickens for Dinner , and he explains what audiences can expect from both, as well as how the shows are devised each year. In a previous BTG podcast episode from the Edinburgh Fri...
Aug 21, 2019•35 min•Ep. 190
Owen O’Neill is an Irish writer, actor and stand-up comedian who has become known particularly on the Edinburgh Fringe for his one-man plays. This year, he has written a two-hander called Shaving the Dead in which he does not perform but it is directed by Fringe regular Guy Masterson, with whom he has previously collaborated on a number of major projects. Between them, Owen and Guy have clocked up 49 visits to the Edinburgh Fringe. In this episode, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Owen just ...
Aug 12, 2019•21 min•Ep. 189
As the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was about to start, we spoke to two people whose work will be featured in this year’s festival. Jesse Jones is co-director of the latest devised theatre piece from Bristol-based The Wardrobe Ensemble , produced in collaboration with Complicite and Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton, called The Last of the Pelican Daughters . He spoke to us about the themes of the show, their devising process and about working with a company that was one of their great...
Aug 03, 2019•56 min•Ep. 188
The Colin McIntyre Classic Thriller Season has been a regular feature at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal since 1989. An ensemble performs four plays over the space of four weeks, a short rehearsal period proving quite a challenge. In 2019, the season features plays by Frederic Knott, Francis Durbridge, Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner and N J Crisp. In this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme speaks to Thriller Season regulars Anna Mitcham and David Martin about their experiences and what audienc...
Jul 28, 2019•19 min•Ep. 187
Lotte Wakeham, who took over as Artistic Director of Bolton's Octagon Theatre in February 2019, spoke to us after three months in the job about launching her first season in the post, her background as a director and an Associate Artistic Director of Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre and her plans for the future at the Octagon, which remains closed for refurbishment until spring 2020. The autumn 2019 season starts with Beryl on 19 September, continuing with Seagulls starting on 24 October and...
May 19, 2019•37 min•Ep. 186
Jackie Kay is the current Makar, the Scottish national poet, whose 2010 memoir, Red Dust Road , is to be adapted for the stage by Tanika Gupta for a co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and HOME Manchester , which will open at the Edinburgh International Festival in August 2019. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Jackie at HOME Manchester about the subject of her book, her quest to find her birth parents (she was adopted as a baby and brought up in Glasgow), one in Scotland a...
May 10, 2019•33 min•Ep. 185
Playwright Andrea Dunbar from Bradford in Yorkshire, most famous for Rita, Sue and Bob Too , died in 1990 at the age of 29. Her story was retold in Adelle Stripe’s award-winning debut novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile , which is about to be brought to the stage by Bradford-based Freedom Studios . The book will be adapted by Yorkshire writer Lisa Holdsworth, who has written extensively for prime time TV, including episodes of Fat Friends , New Tricks , Midsummer Murders and Call the Midwife...
May 03, 2019•27 min•Ep. 184
Braham Murray OBE arrived in Manchester in the 1960s as the youngest artistic director in the country, of the travelling Century Theatre, remaining in the city to co-found the 69 Theatre Company which went on to become the Royal Exchange Theatre, still one of the UK’s leading regional theatres. Murray died in 2018 at the age of 75, but BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to him in 2011 when he had just announced that he would leave the theatre he co-founded 35 years earlier. He spoke about working...
Apr 26, 2019•29 min•Ep. 183
The 2019 Manchester International Festival will take place at various venues around the city in July. An edited version of the main presentation at the MIF launch on 7 March can be heard in a previous British Theatre Guide podcast episode, but we also spoke directly to some of the artists involved. We asked MIF Artistic Director John McGrath for his highlights of the theatre programme and how Manchester has changed since he was head of the city's Contact Theatre. We also spoke to Leo Warner of 5...
Apr 05, 2019•27 min•Ep. 182
