British Theatre Guide podcast

The new Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Merseyside is an Elizabethan-style theatre which opened in July 2022. However, its first production of a play by Shakespeare came later with A Midsummer Night’s Dream produced by Warrington-based associate company Not Too Tame. The production will transfer to Newcastle for a run in the Epic Space at Northern Stage.

David Chadderton spoke to Not Too Tame’s Artistic Director Jimmy Fairhurst, who co-directed the production with Matthew Dunster, and a company co-director, Andrew Butler, who appears in the production, about their take on the play, how it fits with the company’s philosophy of accessible theatre for the working classes (“a good night out”) and how this new theatre sits within the community in Prescot, as well as about their introduction to and love for Shakespeare.

Not Too Tame’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs at Shakespeare North Playhouse from 22 September to 22 October and at Northern Stage from 29 October to 12 November 2022.

On 29 September 2022, Manchester International Festival officially announced its plans for the opening of its new permanent performance venue, to be called Factory International, in the St John’s area of Manchester city centre.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to John E McGrath, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of both Manchester International Festival and Factory International, about what the new building would provide for Manchester and the international arts scene, as well as about the opening production, Free Your Mind, a stage adaptation of the film The Matrix directed by Danny Boyle with a script by Sabrina Mahfouz, music by Mikey J Asante, choreography by Kenrick Sandy and design by Es Devlin.

Following this, you can follow us on a tour of the building led by lead architect Ellen van Loon of OMA and Creative Director Low Key Hong.

Free Your Mind will run from 18 October to 5 November 2023, and tickets are now on sale.

(Photo of John E McGrath at the Factory International Launch, credit: James Speakman / PA Wire)

Derby Theatre and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch are to stage a co-production of a new adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde. Neil Bartlett has brought the story up to date and introduced some female characters.

BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to two of the actors, Nicholas Shaw and Polly Lister, about the show while Derby Theatre’s Sarah Brigham who’s directing and Mathew Russell from Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch talk about the benefits of their collaboration.

Jekyll and Hyde will run at Derby Theatre from 30 September until 22 October and at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch from 26 October until 12 November 2022.

Nottingham Playhouse is presenting a new play, The Clothes They Stood Up In, which is described as a “bittersweet exploration of marriage, dreams and lives unlived”.

Adrian Scarborough appears in the production and adapted the script from a story by Alan Bennett.

Scarborough spoke to BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme about writing the script, getting the go-ahead from Bennett himself and how his career has developed over two-and-a-half decades.

The Clothes They Stood Up In runs at Nottingham Playhouse from 9 September until 1 October 2022.

Oldham Coliseum Theatre is opening its 2022 autumn season with a revival of Jim Cartwright’s acclaimed portrait of life in a Lancashire town in Thatcher’s Britain of the 1980s, Road, which premièred at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 1986.

Returning to the Coliseum after directing the theatre’s first post-COVID production, Love n Stuff, in September 2021 is director Gitika Buttoo, who spoke to BTG Editor David Chadderton about the relevance of the play to today’s world, the stories it tells, her casting decisions and a career that has taken her from Leeds Playhouse to Bolton Octagon to the National Theatre and now to Oldham Coliseum, amongst others, in just five years.

Road by Jim Cartwright will run at Oldham Coliseum from 16 September to 1 October 2022.

Peter Straker’s first big break was in the West End première of the musical Hair in 1968, following which he has had a long and impressive career in both musical and non-musical theatre and as a recording artist, notably collaborating with his close friend Freddie Mercury.

His show based on the songs of Jacques Brel was a hit a few years ago at the Edinburgh Fringe, but this year, he is trying something new with Adventures of Straker, featuring songs from various musicals accompanied by musician Gabriele Baldocci.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Peter about his Edinburgh show, as well as a bit about his journey from Jamaica to the West End stage, performing in the taboo-breaking musical Hair just as the censorship of the Lord Chamberlain was ending on the British stage and a few other highlights of his career, plus some of his packed future plans.

The Adventures of Straker will be at theSpace @ Niddry Street in Edinburgh from 15 to 20 August 2022 each day at 6:55PM. For more information, see www.adventuresofstraker.co.uk, or to book tickets, go to www.edfringe.com. You can find more information about Peter Straker and his work at his own web site, newsite.peterstraker.com.

Mischief Theatre, which rose to fame ten years ago with its smash hit comedy The Play That Goes Wrong, is returning to Edinburgh in 2022 with three shows: Charlie Russell Aims to Please, Mischief Movie Night and Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle.

Charlie Russell, who writes and performs the show that names her in the title, has been a co-creator and cast member in most of the company’s shows so far. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Charlie about their three Fringe shows as well as about the company’s creative process and phenomenal success.

Charlie Russell Aims to Please runs at Pleasance Below, Pleasance Courtyard at 3:15PM from 3 to 27 August. Mischief Movie Night is at Pentland Theatre, Pleasance at EICC at 6:30PM from 3 to 28 August. Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle is at Pleasance Beyond, Pleasance Courtyard from 3 to 28 August.

The new piece by Henry Shields, Good Luck, Studio, will be at Mercury Theatre in Colchester, Salisbury Playhouse and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford between September and November 2022.

For more details and tickets for the three Edinburgh shows, go to www.edfringe.com, www.pleasance.co.uk or mischiefedfringe.com, or for more information about the company and its work in general, see www.mischiefcomedy.com.

Rehearsal photo of Charlie Russell by Danny Kaan.

John Lloyd, the TV and radio producer behind many classic comedy programmes from The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Not the Nine O’Clock News and Spitting Image to Have I Got News For You, The News Quiz and QI, will be asking audiences to put his accumulated knowledge on all subjects to the test at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe in his show Do You Know Who I Am?.

BTG Editor David Chadderton asked him about the show, about his career and about the things that continue to fascinate him enough to make producing programmes like QI more like an addiction than a job.

John Lloyd: Do You Know Who I Am? will be at The Stand’s New Town Theatre on George Street, Edinburgh from 5 to 15 August 2022 at 3:40PM every day.

For more details and tickets, go to edfringe.com or www.thestand.co.uk.

London’s Greenwich + Docklands International Festival began as a free, outdoor festival in 1996, managed to continue throughout the COVID pandemic and has now announced its 27th programme of events which will run from 26 August to 11 September 2022.

GDIF Artistic Director Bradley Hemmings MBE, who also co-directed the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Paralympic Games, spoke to BTG Editor David Chadderton about this year’s festival and about its past developments.

One of the biggest hits of the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was a one-man show about comedian Eric Morecambe written by Tim Whitnall and performed by Bob Golding.

When comedy impressionist Jon Culshaw (Dead Ringers, Spitting Image) had the idea to pay tribute to comedian Les Dawson, he teamed up with Tim and Bob to create Les Dawson: Flying High, which will make its debut at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe before being extended for a national tour.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to the three of them together during the rehearsal period about their approach to telling the story, some of the elements they had to include and the affection that they and many others still have for a few comedians of Les Dawson’s generation.

Les Dawson: Flying High, written by Tim Whitnall, directed by Bob Golding and starring Jon Culshaw, will run at the Gordon Aikman Theatre, Assembly George Square in Edinburgh from 3 to 28 August 2022 followed by a tour of the UK.

(Photo of Jon Culshaw as Les Dawson by Steve Ullathorne)