British Theatre Guide podcast

Pullitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker’s Circle Mirror Transformation is being revived by director Bijan Sheibani for HOME Manchester in March 2018. Set in a creative drama class in a community centre in Vermont, the cast comprises Amelia Bullmore as Marty, Anthony Ofoegbu as James, Sian Clifford as Theresa, Con O’Neill as Schultz and Yasmin Paige as Lauren. Just over a week before the production opened, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Sian Clifford and Anthony Ofoegbu during their lunch break from rehearsals about the play, meta-acting, accents, pauses and hula-hooping. Circle Mirror Transformation runs at HOME Manchester from 2 to 17 March 2018.

6 Mar 201820min

Midlands editor Steve Orme speaks to actors Sean McKenzie and Jo Mousley about performing Jim Cartwright's popular two-hander Two at Derby Theatre. The play, which premièred at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton in 1989, focuses on a single evening in a Northern pub, with the same two actors playing the feuding landlord and landlady as well as an array of customers who visit their establishment. Two will run at Derby Theatre from 2 to 24 March 2018. For more information.

1 Mar 201821min

Mark Smith talks to Esther Richardson, Bryony Lavery and Hannah Peel in a busy York Theatre Royal café about Pilot Theatre’s new adaptation of Brighton Rock. They discuss the appeal of Brighton Rock’s morally complex underworld, getting younger people into regional theatres, creating a musical and choreographic world for the play, and how the company set out to look at Graham Greene’s classic story through a lens which is both contemporary and of the time. Director Esther Richardson has been the Artistic Director of Pilot since February 2016. Her previous theatre work has included productions at theatres throughout the UK, including Soho Theatre, Cast in Doncaster, Tamasha Theatre, Royal and Derngate, Nottingham Playhouse, Bolton Octagon, and many more. Adapter Bryony Lavery is a renowned playwright whose work is regularly performed internationally. She is a prolific writer and adapter, whose plays include Stockholm, Beautiful Burnout and The Believers for Frantic Assembly, Queen Coal for Sheffield Crucible and Treasure Island at the National Theatre. She has also written numerous adaptations which have premièred at York Theatre Royal, including most recently the adaptation of Brideshead Revisited for the York Theatre Royal and English Touring Theatre’s 2016 production. Hannah Peel is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter, composer and arranger, who has recorded as a solo artist as well as with band The Magnetic North and various other high-profile collaborators. She has created scores and co-composed for dance theatre performances at Sadler's Wells and for television. Brighton Rock runs at York Theatre Royal until 3 March 2018 and then tours to Brighton, Colchester, Hull, Cheltenham, Winchester, Watford, Birmingham, Newcastle, Mold, Derby and finally The Lowry Salford Quays. (Photo of Esther Richardson, Bryony Lavery and Hannah Peel by John Saunders.)

23 Feb 201825min

In November 2015, a new fringe theatre opened up in Ancoats, Manchester with the ambition of presenting full-scale commercial productions of musicals. Created by musical theatre performers Joseph Houston and William Whelton, Hope Mill Theatre has since won multiple local and national awards, transferred productions to London and been named in The Stage 100, a list of the most influential people in the whole of UK theatre from The Stage newspaper. In the middle of January 2018, during auditions for Spring Awakening, one of three major musical productions so far announced by Hope Mill Theatre for this year, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Joe about the creation, ideals and future plans of this remarkably successful new venue.

30 Jan 201831min

Philip Fisher interviews Ngozi Anyanwu about her new play for Atlantic Theater Company, The Homecoming Queen. Set in Nigeria, it follows the fortunes of a woman returning home for a visit after 15 years as a New Yorker. They discuss writing, acting and the New York theatre scene in the current political climate, with particular reference to the African-American community.

23 Jan 201820min

PUSH from Manchester’s HOME arts centre is an annual festival each January that brings together Manchester-based performance artists and companies for just over two weeks of performances, readings, workshops, screenings, exhibitions and other events. At the launch on 12 January, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to one of the programming team for PUSH, Jodie Ratcliffe, as well as some of the artists whose work will be featured in the festival: Ben Mellor of Pen-Chant Emilie Lahouel and Laura Edwards of Meraki Collective about Only Speak When Spoken To Remi Adefeyisan from Truth Be Told about True Stories Josh Coates on the Untitled AI Project Martin Gibbons of Monkeywood Theatre on The Manchester Project Sue Jenkins, producer and director of Narcissist in the Mirror, written and performed by Rosie Fleeshman PUSH 2018 runs at HOME Manchester from Friday 12 to Saturday 27 January. For more information, including the full programme of events, see the theatre’s web site.

16 Jan 201827min

Philip Fisher and Village Voice columnist/critic Michael Feingold discuss trends in New York Theatre, the latter concluding that “we have a lot of signs of hope in the theatre”.

12 Jan 201822min

In 2016, Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield produced its first ever professional pantomime, Cinderella, written by one of the UK’s leading pantomime writers, Andrew Pollard, who has been brought back to write this year’s Jack and the Beanstalk. Andrew is taking a year off from playing Dame at Greenwich Theatre to tour in Around the World in 80 Days as Phileas Fogg. However there are still 6 of his panto scripts in production this Christmas around the UK. In this episode, Andrew speaks extensively about his views on what pantos should contain, the qualities required for good panto performers and how to deal with changing requirements, demands and attitudes to keep panto fresh and entertaining for new audiences. Jack and the Beanstalk by Andrew Pollard will run at Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield from 8 December 2017 to 6 January 2018. Andrew’s other pantos this year include Cinderella at Greenwich Theatre from 17 November 2017, another Jack and the Beanstalk at Salisbury Playhouse from 2 December 2017 and Beauty and the Beast at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch from 30 November 2017, all finishing on 7 January 2018. Andrew can be seen on tour in Around the World in 80 Days until January. (Photo of Andrew Pollard as Long Joan Silver in Peter Pan at Greenwich Theatre credit Robert Day)

7 Des 201730min