271 episodes

Interviews and more from the world of professional theatre right across the UK.

British Theatre Guide podcast British Theatre Guide

    • Arts

Interviews and more from the world of professional theatre right across the UK.

    fix+foxy brings alternative Wild West story to Manchester

    fix+foxy brings alternative Wild West story to Manchester

    Danish theatre company fix+foxy premièred Dark Noon at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe which “explores one of the great American myths—the Wild West” through seven South African actors.
    The production will be restaged at Manchester’s Aviva Studios this spring. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to co-directors Tue Biering and Nhlanhla Mahlangu about what and whose story the play is telling and about the process of creating it.
    Dark Noon will be performed in the South Warehouse of Aviva Studios in Manchester from 6 to 10 March 2024.

    • 32 min
    imitating the dog follows Dracula and Living Dead with Frankenstein

    imitating the dog follows Dracula and Living Dead with Frankenstein

    Following Night of the Living Dead—Remix and Dracula: The Untold Story, imitating the dog is again collaborating with Leeds Playhouse, this time on a new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein co-created by Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright.
    BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Andrew Quick during rehearsals at Leeds Playhouse about the technical challenges of this two-hander for creators and performers, the state of touring shows around the UK and Europe at the moment and the company’s style and creative process.
    Frankenstein, featuring design by Hayley Brindle, lighting by Andrew Crofts and original music by James Hamilton, will open at Leeds Playhouse from 15 February 2024, before touring to Oxford Playhouse, Watford Palace Theatre, The Lowry in Salford, Cast in Doncaster, Mercury Theatre in Colchester, Liverpool Playhouse, The Dukes Lancaster and Northern Stage in Newcastle.
    (Photo of Andrew Quick, credit Ed Waring)

    • 33 min
    New Roald Dahl family theatre; Witches and Croc are just the start

    New Roald Dahl family theatre; Witches and Croc are just the start

    For Christmas 2023, there were two new stage adaptations of stories by Roald Dahl in the UK: The Witches at the National Theatre in London and The Enormous Crocodile at Leeds Playhouse, the first to be co-produced by the Roald Dahl Story Company.
    BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to the company’s Artistic Director of Theatre, Jenny Worton, about what the Roald Dahl Story Company actually is, how it develops new shows based on Dahl’s books and some of the plans for the future.
    The National Theatre production of The Witches runs until 27 January 2024.

    • 31 min
    Almond's Ella Grey to open at home in Newcastle

    Almond's Ella Grey to open at home in Newcastle

    Pilot Theatre, a York-based touring company that creates theatre for young people is to tour England in February and March 2024 with an adaptation of David Almond’s book A Song for Ella Grey, written by Zoe Cooper and directed by Pilot’s Artistic Director, Esther Richardson.
    BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Esther while the production was still in rehearsal about the play, its North East setting, having a TikTok star in the title role, the process of adapting a challenging novel for the stage and the current state of theatre for young people in the UK.
    A Song for Ella Grey will open at Northern Stage in Newcastle 1–15 February 2024, before moving to York Theatre Royal 20–24 February, Theatre Peckham 27 February to 2 March, Hull Truck Theatre 5–9 March, Liverpool Playhouse 13–16 March and Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford 19–23 March.

    • 28 min
    Gecko's migration stories travel to the National

    Gecko's migration stories travel to the National

    Physical theatre company Gecko, based in Ipswich, was founded in 2001 by Amit Lahav, who is still its Artistic Director.
    The company’s latest production, Kin, toured the UK in 2023 and will be at the National Theatre in London in January 2024.
    Amit spoke to BTG Editor David Chadderton about the origins of the production in the story of his grandmother Leah’s journey from Yemen to Palestine as a child in 1932 to escape persecution, how this developed to look at migration stories more widely, the politics of migration then and now and Gecko’s—and Amit’s—creative process in making theatre.
    Kin will run at the Lyttelton Theatre from 12 to 27 January 2024.
    (Photo of Amit Lahav in Kin by Gecko (c) Malachy Luckie)

    • 37 min
    Mark Thomas on England & Son

    Mark Thomas on England & Son

    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)

    • 42 min

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