British Theatre Guide podcast

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 Hinton-Lever who plays Long John Silver and T J Holmes, taking the role of Israel Hands. Treasure Island runs at Derby Theatre from 28 March until 11 April 2020. (Photo of Sarah Brigham, Beth Hinton-Lever and T J Holmes, credit Steve Orme)

14 Mar 20200s

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 theatre-makers. Benjamin Wilson is one of Ramps on the Moon’s Agents for Change. He’s a cast member in this latest production, and has had a key role in developing creative approaches to audio description for this and a number of other shows he’s worked on at Leeds Playhouse and Sheffield Theatres. Amy and Ben joined Mark Smith towards the end of their rehearsal period to discuss the Ramps on the Moon initiative, the opportunities opened up by creative approaches to access for D/deaf and visually impaired audiences and performers, and the reasons behind Amy’s choice of Dickens’s work for her latest project. Oliver Twist plays Leeds Playhouse’s Quarry Theatre from 28 February to 21 March 2020, ahead of a UK tour to Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres, New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich and Theatre Royal Stratford East, which are all part of the Ramps on the Moon consortium alongside Graeae, the UK’s leading disabled-led theatre company. (Oliver Twist rehearsal images of director Amy Leach and of Brooklyn Melvin and Benjamin Wilson, credit Anthony Robling.)

28 Feb 202024min

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)

21 Feb 20200s

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 well-known touring theatre company, and he also looked back briefly on his time at National Theatre of Scotland. Quality Street opens at The Viaduct Theatre in Halifax from 14 to 22 February 2020 before touring to The Lowry, Salford, 25–29 February The Dukes, Lancaster, 3–7 March Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, 10–14 March Liverpool Playhouse, 17–21 March Northern Stage, Newcastle upon Tyne, 24–28 March Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, 7–11 April Derby Theatre, 14–18 April Leeds Playhouse, 21–25 April New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, 28 April–9 May Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 12–16 May Harrogate Theatre, 19–23 May Hull Truck Theatre, 2–6 June York Theatre Royal, 9–13 June

12 Feb 202025min

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 Festival Theatre runs from 22 May to 3 October 2020. (Photo: Elizabeth Newman and David Greig)

5 Feb 202027min

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 new work, creating work for young audiences and getting them to come and see it when schools are struggling for funds, the challenges of touring and about getting actors to beatbox. Crongton Knights will run at the Belgrade Theatre from 8 to 22 February 2020 before touring to York Theatre Royal, Brighton Theatre Royal, The Lowry in Salford, Derby Theatre, Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield and ending at Theatre Peckham in May. (Image of Esther Richardson and Corey Campbell: Sharron Wallace Photography)

29 Jan 202027min

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. Mark Smith spoke to co-director Andrew Quick and performer Morven Macbeth, taking time out from rehearsals to discuss the show and the company’s work in general. Morven is one of the actors in Night of The Living Dead™ - Remix and a regular core member of imitating the dog. She has been working with the company since 2005, and most recently appeared in Heart of Darkness. Perfection? We will never achieve it, because it’s impossible. But that’s part of the game. The energy comes from the attempt. Photograph credit: Ed Warring

22 Jan 202033min

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 spoke to us about the awards and his involvement, as well as about how Jamie, soon to go on a world tour and be released as a film starring Richard E Grant, initially came about. The Visionary Honours 2020 recipients will be announced on 18 March, with the shortlist to be announced on 4 February.

16 Jan 20200s