British Theatre Guide podcast

Mark Thomas is a stand-up comic whose work for stage and TV has frequently crossed over into theatre and into political activism, in some cases resulting in changes in the law.

He is currently performing a show he hasn’t written himself for the first time, England & Son by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Mark while the play was touring about the play, the importance of storytelling, football, class, what makes a ‘creative act’, Oliver Cromwell, Brecht, Shakespeare and a lot more.

England & Son, directed by Cressida Brown, is at the Arcola Theatre in London until 25 November 2023 then moves to the Playhouse in Sheffield from 28 to 29 November and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh from 5 to 9 December.

For more information about Mark, performance dates and tickets, see his web site.

(Performance shot of Mark Thomas in England & Son, credit Alex Brenner)

The Prince of Egypt, the DreamWorks animated film from 1998, was brought to the West End stage in 2020 at the Dominion Theatre but had to take a break due to the COVID lockdown. It completed its run the following year when it was filmed for a cinema release.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to the show’s composer and lyricist, multi-Grammy and Academy Award-winner Stephen Schwartz, about the show’s West End run and how it originally came about, as well as some of his views on songwriting.

The Prince of Egypt will be released in selected cinemas across the UK and internationally on 19 and 22 October 2023 by Trafalgar Releasing. Tickets are on sale at ThePrinceOfEgyptMusicalFilm.com.

For information about Stephen and his work, see the Stephen Schwartz official web site.

(Photo of Stephen Schwartz, credit: Nathan Johnson.)

Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre and Tamasha will present Tanika Gupta’s adaptation of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens set during the Indian partition in Bengal, directed by Pooja Ghai, Artistic Director of Tamasha

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Pooja during rehearsals about the production, the history and concept behind Tamasha and a recently announced programme to “diversify dramaturgy” funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

Great Expectations will run at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester from 8 September to 7 October 2023.

Photo of Pooja Ghai in rehearsals for Great Expectations by Abey Lam

Dublin Theatre Festival in Ireland has been running since 1957, and Willie White has been its Artistic Director and Chief Executive since 2011.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Willie about the 2023 festival and the history and general focus of the festival.

Dublin Theatre Festival runs from 28 September to 15 October 2023.

After the Silence, image credit Juliana França Nurith Wagner-Strauss
Truth’s A Dog Must To Kennel, image credit Amy Gibson
Warrior - Karen Egan, photo Shane McCarthy
Zona Franca, © Renato Mangolin

Glasgow-based writer Nat McCleary’s play Thrown for National Theatre Scotland is set in the world of backhold wrestling and is concluding its tour of Scotland with a run at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.

It is directed by Johnny McKnight, who spoke to BTG Editor David Chadderton at the mid-point of the festival about the play, Scottish traditions, this year’s festivals and the influence panto has had on everything he does in theatre.

Thrown continues at the Traverse until Sunday 27 August 2023, as does the musical No Love Songs, with a book co-written by Johnny with Laura Wilde.

Towards the end of its summer season, Pitlochry Festival Theatre will present the world première of a new play by Peter Arnott, Group Portrait in a Summer Landscape, set in a Perthshire country house during the Scottish Independence referendum of 2014, directed by David Greig in a co-production with Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre.

The main character Rennie is played by John Michie, best-known as DI Robbie Ross in TV’s Taggart, and his friend Moon is played by fellow Scottish actor Benny Young.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to John and Benny while the production was in rehearsal about the play and the continuing relevance of its subject matter, as well as about rehearsing and performing in Pitlochry.

The play will be performed at Pitlochry Festival Theatre from 25 August to 28 September 2023. It will then transfer to the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh from 4 to 14 October.

Kimber Lee’s provocatively titled winner of the first International Award from the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting in 2019, untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play, opened in June 2023 at the Royal Exchange Theatre as part of the Manchester International Festival and will transfer to the Young Vic in London later in the year.

In the lead role of Kim is Mei Mac, who was nominated for a Best Actress Olivier Award earlier this year for playing 4-year-old Mei Kusakabe in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of My Neighbour Totoro at the Barbican in London.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Mei in the middle of the Manchester run and asked her about performing in this often physical and funny production and the serious questions it raises, as well as her experiences in Totoro with the RSC and director Phelim McDermott.

untitled f*ck m*ss s**gon play is at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester until 22 July 2023, then at the Young Vic in London from 18 September to 4 November 2023.

(Photo of Mei Mac as Kim by Other Richard - Richard Davenport)

As You Like It is one of William Shakespeare’s most popular comedies. Omar Elerian, who is directing his first show for the Royal Shakespeare Company, was keen to explore it from a “fresh and new perspective”, so he has cast a company of actors who are mostly over 70.

BTG’s Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to two of the actors, 73-year-old Malcolm Sinclair and Maureen Beattie who’s 69. He asked them what it’s like performing in a company of mature actors and whether there’s still age discrimination in the industry.

As You Like It continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford until Saturday 5 August.

(Photo of Malcolm Sinclair and Maureen Beattie by Steve Orme)

Jenny Sealey has been artistic director of Graeae since 1997, a theatre company, which, according to its web site, “boldly places Deaf and disabled artists centre-stage in a diversity of new and existing plays”.

In that time, she has directed many productions, including co-directing the opening ceremony of the 2012 Paralympics in London with Bradley Hemmings.

However, for her next production, Self Raising, for the Edinburgh Fringe, she will be performing herself for the first time in three decades in a solo piece co-written with Mike Kenny based on her own early life in a family in which she was the only Deaf person.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Jenny about her return to acting (“terrifying”), the play, what Edinburgh Fringe and Edinburgh the city is currently like for a Deaf or disabled person, the excitement and problems of creating the opening ceremony (coming up against the doubts of Jeremy Hunt) and more.

Self Raising will be at the Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh from 2 to 27 August 2023 at 12:30PM.

The Greenhouse is billed as the UK’s first zero-waste performance space, holding up to 50 audience members in its in-the-round venue made from found and recycled materials.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Oli Savage, Artistic Director of The Greenhouse about the challenges and joys of making theatre of all kinds in a zero-waste way.

The summer 2023 programme opened at Royal Docks in East London on 11 May and runs until 4 June. The theatre will then move to Canary Wharf from 19 June to 14 July, then Battersea Power Station from 7 August to 3 September.