British Theatre Guide podcast

In 2017, Javaad Alipoor’s The Believers Are But Brothers opened at Transform Festival in Leeds before transferring to Summerhall for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it won a Scotsman Fringe First, and later was adapted for television and shown on BBC4.

This was the first play in a trilogy, the second part of which, Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran, premièred at the Traverse Theatre during the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe and is about to open at HOME Manchester.

A week before it opened, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Javaad at HOME about his work, his creative process and about the form of political theatre in today’s technological age.

Rich Kids: A History of Shopping Malls in Tehran opens at HOME Manchester on Wednesday 23 October and runs until Saturday 2 November 2019.

In this episode, BTG London Editor Philip Fisher speaks with Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre, the company behind The Play that Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, on the eve of Groan Ups, the first play in the company’s Vaudeville Theatre residency.

They discuss the company’s inception, its ongoing success and future projects on stage and screen, including Magic Goes Wrong, created with world famous magicians Penn and Teller, and The Goes Wrong Show, a new TV series that will be broadcast later this year (2019).

Nottingham Playhouse’s latest production is a new adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People. It features Alex Kingston in the lead role of Dr Teresa Stockman.

For this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme spoke to two of the actors in the play, Deka Walmsley and Donna Banya, about working with Alex Kingston, the effect gender-swapping has had on the play and how the theatre has been revitalised since Adam Penford took over as artistic director.

(Photo of Deka Walmsley and Donna Banya, credit Steve Orme)

Birmingham REP has made three major appointments and they’ve all taken up their new positions at a theatre recognised as one of the most important in the country. They’re Artistic Director Sean Foley, Deputy Artistic Director Amit Sharma and Executive Director Rachael Thomas.

For this episode, BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to the three of them about their aim to enhance the REP’s reputation as a theatre that’s relevant to all of its local communities but with a national and international outlook.

(Image of Sean Foley, Rachael Thomas and Amit Sharma by Kris Askey)

The latest production from Manchester-based new writing theatre company Box of Tricks is Under Three Moons by Daniel Kanaber, a play about a close male friendship across three decades, described to us by the director as a “platonic love story”.

BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Danny and director Adam Quayle during the early stages of rehearsals about the play, the development process and how this relationship fits into the current debate about masculinity.

Under Three Moons will open at The Lowry in Salford from 24 to 28 September 2019 before touring to Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, Unity Theatre in Liverpool, Crewe Lyceum Theatre, Hull Truck Theatre, Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds, The Arts Centre at Edge Hill University in Ormskirk, York Theatre Royal, Live Theatre in Newcastle, Theatr Clwyd in Mold, finishing at Rosehill Theatre in Whitehaven on 2 November.

Derby Theatre and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch are collaborating for the second time on their major autumn show and in 2019 they’ve chosen to stage Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors.

For this episode, BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to Derby Theatre’s artistic director Sarah Brigham about why she wanted to direct the farce, David O’Reilly who’s playing Francis Henshall, the part played initially by James Corden at the National Theatre in 2011, and Samantha Hull, who takes the role of Pauline Clinch.

One Man, Two Guvnors will be at Derby Theatre from 7 until 28 September and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch from 2 until 19 October 2019.

Derby Theatre and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch are collaborating for the second time on their major autumn show and in 2019 they’ve chosen to stage Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors.

For this episode, BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme spoke to Derby Theatre’s artistic director Sarah Brigham about why she wanted to direct the farce, David O’Reilly who’s playing Francis Henshall, the part played initially by James Corden at the National Theatre in 2011, and Samantha Hull, who takes the role of Pauline Clinch.

One Man, Two Guvnors will be at Derby Theatre from 7 until 28 September and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch from 2 until 19 October 2019.

In this episode from the final week of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for 2019, we hear from the current director of a production that has become, after 28 years, an Edinburgh Fringe and C venues institution, Shakespeare for Breakfast. Damian Sandys has directed the production since 2006, as well as its younger brother, Dickens for Dinner, and he explains what audiences can expect from both, as well as how the shows are devised each year.

In a previous BTG podcast episode from the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014, Paines Plough’s artistic director James Grieve told us about the company’s new pop-up theatre, Roundabout.

This year, we spoke to director Steph O’Driscoll, who has directed three productions to be performed by the same company of actors in Roundabout this year: Daughterhood by Charley Miles, On the Other Hand, We’re Happy by Daf James and Dexter and Winter’s Detective Agency by Nathan Bryon. Steph explains about the process of creating productions for this unusual performance space for Edinburgh and for a subsequent tour.

(Image of Stef O'Driscoll, credit: Rebecca Need-Menear)

Owen O’Neill is an Irish writer, actor and stand-up comedian who has become known particularly on the Edinburgh Fringe for his one-man plays.

This year, he has written a two-hander called Shaving the Dead in which he does not perform but it is directed by Fringe regular Guy Masterson, with whom he has previously collaborated on a number of major projects. Between them, Owen and Guy have clocked up 49 visits to the Edinburgh Fringe.

In this episode, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Owen just after the play had opened in Edinburgh, and he explained about the origins of the play, spoke a little about the differences between his stand-up and his one-man shows and said that, just occasionally, critics will write some things that he actually finds useful.

Shaving the Deadfrom Theatre Tours International will be at Assembly George Square Studio Two at the Edinburgh Fringe until 25 August 2019.

(Owen O'Neill photo by Steve Ullathorne)

As the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe was about to start, we spoke to two people whose work will be featured in this year’s festival.

Jesse Jones is co-director of the latest devised theatre piece from Bristol-based The Wardrobe Ensemble, produced in collaboration with Complicite and Royal and Derngate Theatre in Northampton, called The Last of the Pelican Daughters. He spoke to us about the themes of the show, their devising process and about working with a company that was one of their greatest inspirations when they started working in theatre.

The Last of the Pelican Daughters is at Pleasance Beyond until 25 August 2019.

Daniel Bye’s previous solo shows at the Fringe and elsewhere have always been quite interactive, but for his latest piece, he will be coming to the homes of his audiences to perform his show Arthur, which is named after his a co-star, the four-and-a-half-month-old son of Daniel and director Sarah Punshon.

(Images,The Last of the Pelican Daughters cast;Daniel Bye and Arthur, photo by Jonathan Ackley)