‘A landscape of mystery’: Fishskin Trousers Q&A photos and tweets
How much can a landscape shape a person's identity? How much can a landscape shape a play's plot? In answer to the latter question, in the case of Elizabeth Kuti's Fishskin Trousers, the answer is certainly quite a lot.
Podcast and photos: Ian McDiarmid and What Shadows cast on Enoch Powell and THAT speech
How do we talk to those that we hate? How do we speak across the anger that divides us? Those are the opening lines in Chris Hannan's provocative new play, What Shadows - and they were also amongst the questions raised at my post-show Q&A.
Photos and podcast: Remembering Stephen Clark with Julian Clary & co at Le Grand Mort
There was a moment I'll never forget from the Q&A I hosted after last night's performance of Stephen Clark's Le Grand Mort, starring Julian Clary at the West End's Trafalgar Studios.
Mrs Orwell Q&A podcast and photos: What might George Orwell have written after 1984?
Sales of George Orwell's 1984 surged by a staggering 9,500% after the election of Donald Trump to become Amazon's biggest seller. Orwell himself died, at the age of 46, in January 1950, just seven months after 1984 was published. What might he have written if he’d lived longer?
Q&A video and photos: Bringing Beckett’s Waiting for Godot home after 62 years
I had my own Godotesque moment to start last night's Waiting for Godot Q&A. The stage was bare. Where were the chairs? Was anyone bringing chairs? How long would we be waiting for chairs? Did such things as chairs exist?
Q&A podcast and photos: What does Marlowe’s Edward II tell us about identity and gay rights?
The plays may have been written 420-odd years apart, but I was really struck by how many parallels there were between the discussion I hosted last week, to the European premiere of Jordan Tannahill's Late Company, and the one I hosted last night, to Christopher Marlowe's 16th-century classic Edward II.
Q&A podcast and photos: Confronting bullies with the Late Company cast
Having heard so many of My Theatre Mates raving about Late Company following its European premiere earlier this year at the Finborough, I was really looking forward to seeing it at Trafalgar Studios. And yet, I still came under-prepared: I didn't bring enough tissues.
From Page to Stage Q&A podcast and photos: How is the international scene changing for new musicals?
Two years ago, I chaired the opening night discussion at the third annual From Page to Stage festival of new musicals founded by Aria Entertainment's Katy Lipson. The central question on that occasion was "are we doing enough to nurture new musicals?" And the central answer was no.
Q&A podcast and photos: Is Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew inherently misogynistic?
Is Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew inherently misogynistic? Particularly with its treatment of spirited Kate, the Shrew of the title, who is starved and mentally tormented (gaslighting long before Patrick Hamilton, Ingrid Bergman or Donald Trump).
Q&A podcast and photos: What would Lucille Ball think of I Loved Lucy?
It's always a real privilege to have the playwright involved when you're chairing a post-show Q&A. But when the play is also based on the playwright's own best-selling memoir... When the memoir recounts his relationship with a legend like Lucille Ball... Well, that's extra special.
