British Theatre Guide podcast

The hottest tickets for 2014’s autumn theatre season in Manchester are productions of Shakespeare from two of the region's leading theatre companies. The Royal Exchange Theatre production of Hamlet is directed by artistic director Sarah Frankcom starring popular stage and TV actress Maxine Peake in the title role. When we spoke to Sarah and Maxine with two and a half weeks to go before opening, this had already become one of the theatre’s most popular productions. Hamlet runs at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester from 11 September to 25 October 2014. For more information, see royalexchange.co.uk. Manchester’s new arts centre, Home, is presenting a series of site-specific productions in the run-up to the opening of its new purpose-built venue next spring. After Angel Meadow, the second of these is new artistic director Walter Meierjohann’s directorial debut for the company, a production of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet performed in Manchester’s historic Victoria Baths, which sold out before opening night. In this episode, you can hear director Walter Meierjohann, dramaturg Petra Jane Tauscher and actors Alex Felton and Sara Vickers who play Romeo and Juliet. Home Manchester's production of Romeo and Juliet runs at Victoria Baths from 10 September to 4 October 2014. For more information, see homemcr.org.

10 Sep 20141h 5min

Townsend Productions is touring a new play about a group of protesters in the 1972 builders’ strike who have become known as the Shrewsbury 24, one of whom is now well-known to TV viewers as actor Ricky Tomlinson. The 24 strikers were arrested and charged with conspiracy, and the campaign to have their convictions quashed is still ongoing 42 years later. In this episode, we speak to writer and co-performer Neil Gore. United We Stand by Neil Gore from Townsend Productions, directed by Louise Townsend and performed by Neil Gore and William Fox, will tour from 19 September to 29 November 2014. For more information, see www.townsendproductions.org.uk.

4 Sep 201424min

Producer Richard Jordan and BTG's Philip Fisher discuss trends in Edinburgh and recommend shows that should not be missed, including The James Plays in the International Festival. Founder and Co-Artistic Director Hannah Price tells Philip Fisher about the phenomenon of Theatre Uncut, which sets out to address political issues through drama, its genesis and future. Actor, director and one of the most established and respected theatre producers on the Edinburgh Fringe Guy Masterson, now in his 21st year at the world's largest arts festival, talks to David Chadderton about this year's Fringe programme, how he began as a Fringe performer and producer, surviving as a producer outside the public funding system and his hatred of the star system, amongst other things.

25 Aug 20141h 10min

David Chadderton talks to Zach Reino, Jessica McKenna and Nick Semar of American comedy group Baby Wants Candy, one of the longest-running companies to offer a brand new, fully-improvised musical at each show. The Completely Improvised Full Band Musical runs at Assembly Roxy until 25 August 2014, plus the same group's All Star Improv Explosion Show runs at Underbelly Bristo Square until the same date. For more information, see babywantscandy.com Also, Philip Fisher talks with James Grieve, co-artistic director of new writing company Paines Plough, about the company’s history, its new touring pop-up theatre Roundabout and its four Edinburgh productions. For more information, see www.painesplough.com

17 Aug 201445min

Lancashire-based Horse + Bamboo, a company that has specialised in mask and puppet theatre since it was founded in 1978, brings its version of classic fairy tale Red Riding Hood to the Scottish Storytelling Centre for the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe. Performers Jonny Quick and Nix Wood talk to BTG editor David Chadderton about the production and their involvement with the company. The production runs at 1PM until 17 August 2014. For more information about this and the company, see www.horseandbamboo.org. Also in this episode, Philip Fisher talks to legendary cricket broadcasters Henry Blofeld and Peter Baxter about their show Memories of Test Match Special, back by popular demand after a run at last year's Fringe. They discuss the show, which recalls anecdotes about the sporting radio institution of Test Match Special, as well as their perspectives on the Fringe and on live performance. Their show runs at the Pleasance Dome at 16:20 until 24 August 2014, and can also be seen at the Lyric Theatre in London on 22 September and selected dates around the country. For more information, see www.henryblofeld.co.uk/tour_dates.html.

9 Aug 201436min

Halifax-based Northern Broadsides will soon tour a new production of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1773 comedy She Stoops to Conquer, directed by director, actor and composer Conrad Nelson, a regular member of the Broadsides production team. In this episode, Conrad talks about his production and about how it fits with the general philosophy of the company. She Stoops to Conquer will open on 29 August 2014 at the company’s own Viaduct Theatre in Halifax before touring to The Dukes in Lancaster, Rose Theatre Kingston, Oxford Playhouse, Harrogate Theatre, Everyman Cheltenham, Theatre Royal Winchester, Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough, West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, the New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Liverpool Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield and finally The Lowry in Salford, where it will close on 13 December. For more information about Northern Broadsides, see www.northern-broadsides.co.uk.

3 Aug 201425min

Actors Shobna Gulati and Joe McGann speak to BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme about touring in John Godber's two-hander April in Paris, directed by the author. Shobna Gulati is best known for playing Anita in Victoria Wood’s Dinnerladies and Sunita Alahan in Coronation Street from 2001 to 2006, a role to which she returned at the end of 2009 and departed again in 2013. Since then she has been a panellist on Loose Women. Joe McGann was Charlie Burrows, the “housekeeper”, in the hit TV comedy series The Upper Hand, which ran for six years. His major stage roles include Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and Ray Say in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. April in Paris will open at Derby Theatre (27 June to 12 July) then tour to Brighton, Woking, Aylesbury, Malvern, Bromley, Glasgow, Crewe, Manchester, Richmond, Chesterfield, New Brighton, Dundee and Coventry.

5 Jul 201419min

HOME Manchester, the new arts organisation formed from the merger between the Library Theatre Company and Cornerhouse Cinema, is filling the time before the opening of its new, purpose-built home in spring 2015 with a series of site-specific productions around the city. The first of these, Angel Meadow, is a collaboration with Dublin-based ANU Productions that looks at the Irish communities in Ancoats who settled there in the late nineteenth century. In this episode, some of the team from ANU talk about the process of creating and performing this devised, site-specific piece and some of the difficulties it has posed. First, we spoke to actors Thomas Reilly and Lloyd Cooney, and then to director Louise Lowe with performers Dee Burke, Will Irvine and Úna Kavanagh. Angel Meadow from ANU Productions will be produced by HOME Manchester in Ancoats with performances from Tuesday 10 to Sunday 29 June 2014. For more information on this and the other site-specific productions in this HOME season—Romeo and Juliet at Victoria Baths and David Greig’s The Events in the office building Number One First Street—see the HOME Manchester web site. (Rehearsal photo by the show's lighting designer Ciaran Bagnall.)

8 Jun 201442min