The Everything Theatre Interviews (Everything Theatre)

Paul Bradshaw is a writer and performer, whose latest show, Tell Me Straight was first played at King's Head Theatre, and is now about to open for a run at Chiswick Playhouse. The play follows Him, a gay man who seems to have a history of going after the wrong type of men - straight ones! All to the despair of his friend Dani is on hand to try to guide him in the right directly.

We caught up with Paul just before Christmas (hence some confusion over our mentions of next year!) to talk about the play, how it was received during its initial run, and whether having a voice actor is just a cheap way of avoiding paying them for future performances!

Paper Mug Theatre may be fairly new, but they have been busy! Last summer we saw their show I Lost My Virginity To Chopin’s Nocturne In B-Flat Minor, and now they are back with not one, but two shows. The first of which is Steve and Tobias Verses Death, which will be playing at The Pleasance in March.

The show finds a zombie apocalypse happening outside brothers Steve and Tobias' front door, but worse still, their mum appears to be patient zero! 

We chat to the show's writer and founding member of Paper Mug about the show, whether there will be plenty of fake blood splashing around, and we also ask that all important question, was I Lost My Virginity To Chopin’s Nocturne In B-Flat Minor based on real life?

(note: This show was originally scheduled for the VAULT Festival, and recorded prior to the festival cancellation, so there is mention of it playing at that venue)

Our latest interview finds a change of host, as Amelia Braddick sits in the hot seat to chat with Alexander S. Bermange.

Alexander's latest work is I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical, which is currently playing at Wilton's Music Hall. But Alexander has a rich history in theatre, so we couldn't let him go without delving into his vast experience.

I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical is on at Wilton's Music Hall until 9 September, more information available here.

This week we're talking all things Wandsworth Arts Fringe, which is heading back to the borough for 17 days and nights over June. Here to tell us more of what to expect is Festival Producer Cath Mattos, along with Dodomu's Tom Sargeant and Nataliya Kharina, who are Associate Producers taking charge of The Arches at St Mary's Church.

We chat about the festival and what to expect, what Associate Producers actually do, and some of the highlights to look out for at this year's festival.

Wandsworth Arts Fringe runs from 7 - 23 June, with over 100 events happening across more than 40 venues ranging from parks, streets, churches, estates, libraries, pubs, and dedicated performance spaces all across the borough.

Find out more on their website here.

For our latest podcast, we’re chatting to Lemon Squeeze’s Sarah Archer. Sarah Is writer and director of Crunch!, which asks that age old question, what do you get when you cross a dead iguana, an employee with a very rare medical condition and the HR department in a high-end toilet factory?

We chat to Sarah about the play and how it came about from hearing of a bizarre employment tribunal case. Which obviously leads us to discuss how those involved in the real life case might react should they know they were the basis for this comedy drama! We also hear about why they are so excited to be bringing the show to Penge’s Bridge House Theatre, and why the model of that venue is one they hope to replicate by opening a new venue in Hove in the future.

Crunch! Plays at Bridge House Theatre 15 – 19 November, before heading to Royal Wootton Bassett on 2 December. Full info and booking links can be found on Lemon Squeeze’s website here.

This week we were joined by Megan Brewer and Mikko Juan, Artistic Directors of Halfpace Theatre Company. The pair are about to bring their new devised show Transit to The Space.

Drawn from the lived experience of marginalised artists, Transit explores cycles of violence and the toxic systems that push our communities to the margins. Dynamic, migrant-led company Halfpace Theatre comes out swinging with this devised physical theatre piece, asking how we keep ourselves alive in a world that does not want us and how far we have to go to reshape it into one that does. 

We discuss the show, ask what devised theatre actually is, how you pitch a show with no script and why two Americans have come all the way to the UK to get involved with London's Fringe Theatre scene.

Transit plays at The Space from 28 Nov - 2 Dec, and will also be available to livestream on 2 December then available on-demand for two weeks. More information and bookings can be found here.

This week's interview is a rather more serious affair to normal - not that we don't take all our guests seriously and treat their shows with respect, but as regular listeners will know, we do tend to laugh a lot as well.

Not this week. Because Nathaniel McBride's Dictating To The Estate is a play that looks at the estate where the Grenfell Tower was. It doesn't look at the fire directly, but at the events that went on over the seven previous years as residents spoke out about the redevelopment that was planned for the estate, and which ultimately lead to the tragic fire. 

Nathaniel talks about why he felt the need to write this play, and why he feels it is important to highlight the voices of the victims and those living on the estate. It's a fascinating insight into aspects of what lead to the fire that many people might not be aware of unless they had been paying close attention to the ongoing public enquiry.

The show plays 31 May to 12 June at Maxila Social Club, in the heart of the estate iteself.

Tickets are available here

Our latest guest is Sam Smithson, whose show, Taking A Love Pill At The End of The World, is about to open at The Hope Theatre.

As Sam tells us very early on, the show is very much all about what the title suggests, it's about two people who are given the option to take a love pill whilst the world is coming to an end! But thankfully, there's a lot more to it than that, or this would have been a very short podcast indeed.

We discuss the play and whether it is a metaphor for our need for instant gratification nowadays, plus Sam tells us about the live cooking that happens during the show, and whether it would be wise to turn up hunrgy!

Taking A Love Pill At the End of The World plays at The Hope Theatre from 14 May - 1 June. Further information and bookings can be found here.

Our latest guests are Billie Grace and Zoe Glenfrom The Not God Complex. This is their second time on our podcast, having previously appeared to talk about What Makes A Body Terrifying, which was part of Camden Fringe 2022. We described that show as “abstract. Weird. Confusing” as well as “visually and aurally beautiful from start to finish.” You can read the full review here.

Their next show, All In Good Time, will be playing as part of Vault Festival 2023. time around they promise us a show about our different perspectives on time, with a dash of ADHD time travel, dodo’s, disco balls and no doubt a whole lot more. We have a feeling it could be as weird and wonderful as their last show!

We chat about the show and why they are so interested in the concept of time, what they learnt from Camden Fringe in the summer, and so much else besides. It was a joyful conversation filled with a lot of laughter.

All In Good Time plays at Vault Festival 24 - 27 January. Further information can be found here.

Our latest guest is Jessie-Wren Jacobs, who is getting ready to take her show, This Porno Does Not Pass the Bechdel test, to Edinburgh Fringe. Although before then, she is making a quick stop off at Camden's Etcetera Theatre in July.

Describing her show as a feminist tragicomedy, Jessie-Wren tells us what the Bechdel test is and why it actually doesn't have a massive amount to do with the show anyway. We also discuss sex education, the issues of teens being exposed to porn from such a young age and how this feeds into the show, and whether the show is suitable for her grandparents!

This Porno Does Not pass The Bechdel test plays at Etcetera Theatre for one night only on 5 July, then Edinburgh Fringe Festival from 19 - 24 August. More information can be found here.

This week's guest on our Runn Radio show was Lydia Sax, who is the new Artistic Director of Barnes' OSO Arts Centre, as well as director of A Hundred Words For Snow, the debut play from new theatre company, In Her Element. 

A Hundred Words For Snow was a big success when it first hit the stage around 2018, so we were more excited to hear about this revival. We chat to Lydia about why she wanted to make this play, whether there is ever any concern about reviving such a successful play, and what they are bringing differently to make this a worthwhile revival (spoiler: live cello and new graphical visualisations).

The play is on at OSO Arts Centre 6 - 11 September, more info can be found here. 

We do love a good tag line, and that's just what our latest guests are Libby Boyd and Ruby Blue Tansey-Thomas, who make up two-thirds of Themis Theatre, gave us for their upcoming show, Schrödinger's Lesbians.

RIght now they are working on bringing the show to Waterloo's The Glitch, having previously played as part of last year's Camden Fringe.

Structured around the fragmented writings of Sappho's, ‘Schrödinger's Lesbians’ is a joyful, irreverent new play from Themis Theatre about love, lesbians, and how to cope with a history that's written you out of it.

We discuss the play, the important of representation on stage, lessons learnt from Camden Fringe and whether history is still being written by old white men.

Schrödinger's Lesbians plays at The Glitch from 9 - 14 April. Further information and tickets available here.

We first came across Ruby Shrimpton when she brought her show Unstitching to Camden Fringe in 2022. The show is centred around Ruby's love of the Eurovision Song Contest, although as with all great theatre, that is just a starting point for something much more fulfilling. We said about the show at the time "when you accept the randomness of it, it can be genuinely enjoyable and unironic fun."

The show was written long before it was announced that Liverpool would be the host for the 2023 edition of Eurovision. But as Ruby tells us, coming from Liverpool, how could she not want to have the opportunity to put her Eurovision loving show on as part of the city's celebrations around the contest. Which is exactly what is happening when she takes the show to Liverpool Arts Bar in May.

So it was a perfect time to chat with Ruby about the show, more about how she got involved with Liverpool's celebrations and what else she might have planned, both for the show and herself, in 2023.

As well as Liverpool, the show will also be playing at Brighton Fringe Festival (22 - 24 May), London's King's Head Theatre (29 May & 2 June) and Edinburgh Fringe Festival (14 - 22 August).

Matt Woodhead is the co-artistic director of Lung Theatre. He also created Who Cares? a verbatim play about young carers in the UK. Listen to Matt talk about the play, how it was created, and the campaign that it launched.

More information on the Who Cares campaign can be found here

The play is touring the UK throughout October and November. The radio version of the play can also be found on BBC Sounds here.

When we got asked if we would like to record a podcast with a theatre company based in Kyiv, Ukraine, well, you don't say no to that do you! So we tasked our reveiwer Dave Bushe with the task of making it happen, and that was how, on Boxing Day, he found himself on Zoom with Pro English Theatre, direct from their theatre which they have now rebranded as the Art Shelter, a theatre turned into a bomb shelter housing local elderly people, parents with kids and 8 cats. It really is quite remarkable that they could find the time to chat.

We talk about what they are doing right now, hosting a Christmas party, and how they worked with Finborough Theatre to put on shows both in London and then Kyiv itself. 

Considering the situation the recording went remarkably well, except for one drop out in the middle where we thought we'd lost them for good, although thankfully it was just an internet glitch, and then as you will hear, the ending drops out suddenly just as we are saying our farewells. 

Improv theatre is a genre of theatre that both scares and excites us, although probably more scares if we're being honest. But luckily we aren't the ones getting up on stage each night having to think on our feet and come up with funny and surreal scenario’s. Instead we can leave it to the pro’s who in this case are Pinch Punch Improv.

Pinch Punch are bringing their latest show, Locomotive for Murder, to the VAULT Festival on 4 and 5 March. And before then, they found the time to sit down with Lily Middleton to chat about the show and how you go about devising an improv show.

(We apologise for the slightly grainy quality of the recording on this one, but hopefully it won’t distract from your enjoyment).

You can book tickets for the show here.

Suzy Kohane and Sidsel Rostrup created their theatre company, Secretariat, in 2019, just a few months before the world came to a halt in 2020! Their debut show, Hexenhammer, was due to play at the Vault Festival this March, that was until the festival became another casualty of covid.

Undetered though, the pair found time to come and chat with us about what inspired them to create a theatre company, how they have found the positives from the lockdown, and what we can expect from Hexenhammer.

Hexenhammer is a comedy about German medieval monks and modern day Incel groups. The monks wrote a pamphlet on witch hunting and which was used throughout the country to persecute woman accused of witchcraft, and this is compared to the Incel movement and how both treated woman as inferior. 

Whilst the show currently doesn't have any confirmed dates, we suspect it won't be long before we get the chance to see what sounds like a very interesting show.

This is the first of our interview series carried out by Lily Middleton, one of our reviewers who has now stepped up to be an interviewer as well. 

For some of us, October means one thing - the chance to get some good horror stories on the stage. But for the rest of the year, well, we can feel a little neglected. Which is why we were delighted to hear from Monkey Cymbals, the theatre company of Claire Louise Amias and Jonathan Rigby, to let us know that their show Haunted Shadows: The Gothic Tales of Edith Nesbit was making a return to the stage at the end of January.

This week we were joined by three of the team behind Friction Burn, which is playing at The Hope Theatre from 20 August as part of Camden Fringe.

The three were Sophie Faurie, who wrote and will be acting in her play, Leah Bonaventura, who directs, and Grace Bown, who co-composd the music with Sophie and plays fiddle for the show.

We chat about the play and how the theme of suicide developed without Sophie realising, how music can play an important part within a show without it actually being a musical, and whether there is the risk of tripping over the audiences feet in the tight space that is The Hope Theatre.

Friction Burn plays at The Hope from 20 - 23 August, with tickets available here. The show will also be playing at The Space in November, more info here.

Having made a brief appearance on our GrimFest Launch Party Special podcast, we invited Finella Waddilove back to chat some more about her show The Blair Bitch Porject, which will be playing at Old Red Lion Theatre from 15 to 18 October. And she even brought along Katryn Crosby, who shares acting duties with Finella in the show.

We chat about the show, whether there will be an abundance of fake blood, why the play on words in the title, and just why we love horror so much.

The Blair Bitch Project plays as part of GrimFest from 15 to 18 October, tickets available here.

When Mimi Collins moved to the UK from the States, she brought with her a little piece of Bespoke Plays, a theatre group dedicated to giving new writing the chance to be heard via their staged readings. Bespoke already put on readings in New York and L.A. but now Mimi has added a third string to their bow with London.

Their first show, Water Party, performed to a sold our Union Theatre and, if a taste of what may be to come, means we are in for plenty of amazing treats in the future.

We sat down with Mimi to chat about Bespoke, why staged readings are a great stepping stone for new writers, and what else they may have planned for 2024.

This week our guest on our Runn Radio Show was Molly O'Gorman, the writer of new musical Ghost Light. This new musical that tells the story of a washed-up child star named Kat trapped in a cycle of emotional and financial abuse, and the toll that the nature of being a woman in the public eye takes on her mental health. When her sister returns and finds Kat at her lowest, dissatisfied with her own life, she has to decide whether to go back to the world that destroyed her.

We chat with Molly about the show, and why the portrayal of mental illness on stage can sometimes be done in ways that are not realistic. We also talk about the joys of making fringe theatre and how having to make a show on a very limited budget can often lead to some very inventive ideas.

Ghost Light comes to The Hope Theatre 11 - 29 July. Further information and tickets available here.

Tom Derrington has been writing a monthly diary for Everything Theatre during 2023, giving a fascinating insight into what he gets up beyond actually writing plays. So when he informed us back in March that it looked like he would be putting a play on in London soon, we did get rather excited. As soon as it was confirmed that his play Bounce would be coming to Lion and Unicorn Theatre in June, we quickly asked him to be a guest on our podcast. Thankfully he said yes!

Bounce

Jesse is electric! A self-made millionaire, motivational life coach, best-selling author and showman. He travels the world, helping tens of thousands of people to uncover their true purpose and take control of their destiny. But when a young man living with depression is transformed during one of Jesse’s intense live events, things quickly unravel. Sylvia, his mother, is desperate to find out what happened to her son. Unable to understand, she books herself a ticket, takes a seat in the front row and seeks to uncover the answers she needs. 

Bounce plays at Lion and Unicorn 6 - 10 June, tickets available here.

Lady Montagu Unveiled promises us a blend of Gossip Girl, Bridgerton, with dashes of Hamilton. What's not to like about that combination.

Throw in Thesy Surface, an actor with some fine pedigree, including a recurring role in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia as the rather disturbing and monobrowed Margaret McPoyle. But she's given up the glamour of working in America to bring her one woman show to Camden Fringe. She reckons Lady Montagu Unveiled will be the hippest historical stage memoir in town, and who are we to disagree?

The show comes to The Courtyard Theatre for three performances only - 23/24th at 8.30pm and 25th at 1.30pm. Further information and bookings available here.

Stepping away from our usual Fringe surroundings, we caught up with Jaki WIlford, founder and owner of Flamenco Express. As the name would suggest, they are a dance theatre company, with the simple aim of putting on accessible Flamenco dance shows. Jaki tells us about the company's history, what great flamenco dancing should be like, and their plans for the future. 

You can find out more about the company at https://flamencoexpress.co.uk/

This week's guest is James Lark, who has written and composed a new musical, Infants. The show follows one day in the life of an infant school, where something bad has happened and the teachers are trying to stop the parents finding out. A cast of six play the children, the teachers and the parents. It certainly looks like it will be a lot of fun.

We chat to James about the show, musicals in general and why at times they may not be treated as seriously as they deserve, and we also touch on a little politics. 

Infants plays at OSO Arts Centre in Barnes 14 - 17 July, you can find more info here.

This week our guest on Runn Radio was 3Dumb Theatre's Stephen Smith. We've been big fans of their work since we first saw their online show Within towards the start of lockdown. Their ability to create inventive pieces with limited resources stood out from that first show. And since then, they have garnered a collection of wonderful reviews, not just from ET, but generally everyone who has witnessed their work.

So it was our pleasure to sit down and chat with Stephen to find out what their initial ambitions were, why their work has been so successful and what is next for them.

You can find links to current shows, plus many of their online creations on our website.

For our latest episiode, we sat down with playwright Andrew Sharpe. Andrew's play, The Spiral Path, has already received great reviews from its initial run at The Maltings Theatre, and it is now preparing for its London debut at the White Bear Theatre.

Andrew is of a more mature age to many of our guests on the podcast, having started writing later in life when he stopped practicing law. So it was interesting to chat about fringe theatre from that viewpoint. And of course, being an ex-lawyer, he takes his time to lay out his thoughts very clearly. We also discuss the pure joy of seeing your play performed for the first time, having left it fully in the hands of his director.

The Spiral Path opens at White Bear Theatre on 22 March for 5 nights and a matinee. You can book tickets here.

This week's guests are Writer Ewen Moore and director Elizabeth Huskisson, who are about to bring their show, Battersea Bardot to the studio at New Wimbledon Theatre.

Battersea Bardot is a one woman musical about the life of actress Carol White, who found fame in the 60s, including in the iconic Ken Loach drama Cathy Come Home.

We chat about what inspired Ewen to write this musical, why White's life and career make for an interesting story, and what it's like to create a one woman musical.

Battersea Bardot plays at Studio at New Wimbledon Theatre from 16 - 23 September. More information can be found here.

This week we chat to Nicholas, Nieve and Nadia, who make up Midnight Circle. Having already made immersive shows based on Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray, they are now turning their hand to M.R. James' Ghost Stories of An Antiquary, a series of ghost stories originally published in 1904, but here moved to the 1940s during the Blitz.

We chat about the show, what their immersive means to them this time out, just how scary it might all get, and why they want you to come along in period costume! Note: Due to a technical error (we forgot to plug a mic in) the interviewers voice is a little muffled, but we hope this doesn't distract from what is still a highly entertaining listen!

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary plays at Longfield Hall, Brixton, from 17 - 27 April, further information can be found here.

Back at the very start of 2023 Eleanor Hill spoke to us about Sad-vents, a show we called "visually impressive" in our 4 star review. In the two years since, she's been rather busy. After her run at VAULT Festival, she then took the show to Edinburgh. And then started to work on her new show, Overshare. Oh and found time for some neurosurgery after expeirencing a medical emergency!

Overshare explores the realities of mental health & trauma in the age of social media, but with the same humour that made Sad-vents such a powerful show. It also incorporates much of the same technical genuis of its predecessor, with the whole show performed to her phone instead of the audience, and livestreamed on screens behind her.

We chat with Eleanor about how much of Sad-vents has found its way into Overshare, whether there's the worry that the technology will overshadow everything else, and why the aim isn't to try to tell us what's wrong with social media, but rather to generate conversations in the bar after the show.

Overshare comes to Greenwich Theatre from Tuesday 6 - Saturday 25 May.

Our latest guest is Aaron-Lee Eyles. Aaron-Lee is no stranger to Everything Theatre, having reviewed for us in the past inbetween working on his own shows. And his latest show is Mi$fortune, which tells the tragic story of Billie-Bob Harrell Jr, an American lottery winner, who quickly found that winning big isn't always that good. The show started life a couple of years ago under a different title, and we actually spoke to Aaron-Lee about it then. So this time around we recap the show but also discuss what has happened in the two years since. It's a great insight into the lifecycle of a play.

Mi$fortune comes to Golden Goose Theatre from 18 - 22 April, further information can be found here.

About the show.

Texas, Summer 1997. Home Depot worker and devout Christian Billie-Bob Harrell Jr. wins big on the lottery, $31 Million big. The months that followed surely changed his life, but not in the way you might imagine. What many would expect to be a life-changing miracle for a humble family man unravelled into a fatal battle of faith vs pride.

From Unmarked Theatre, whose previous work has been described as 'experimenting with form and structure in ways traditional theatre probably never will' (Everything Theatre, 2022) comes MI$FORTUNE - a bold exploration of one man's tragedy told through physical theatre, improvisation & song.​

Our latest guest on our Runn Radio show was Claire Parry. Claire is about to bring her latest show, Boorish Trumpson to this year’s VAULT Festival. In it she plays Boorish Trumpson, a power-grabbing rehearsal conductor who will stop at nothing to gain ultimate control over the orchestra. Now whoever could she be thinking about with that character and his unpleasant traits?

We discuss the show and how the audience are all part of her orchestra (no musical knowledge required, so don’t panic), why you don’t really need to know much about politics to enjoy the show, whether we should be allowed to tell young children to never vote Tory (spoiler alert, we agree it should be compulsory) and why Arts Funding is never enough for what it delivers in return!

Boorish Trumpson plays at VAULT Festival 11 and 12 February, tickets available here.

We met Ian McFarlane back in 2020 when we spoke to him about Revellers Society. He is now back with Forever Oz, which, as the title suggests, is based on L. Frank Baum's series of books from which The Wizard Of Oz came. But rest assured, this is not a new stage adaptation of the film we all know and love, but instead is based on the second and third books in the series, along with some adaptations by Ian himself.

Ian's love of not just the Oz books, but Peter Pan are clear to hear as he tells us about the show and why his theatre company is called Big Adventure Productions. Plus we discuss why he the show will be playing at Barnes OSO Arts Centre 19 - 22 May, more information can be found here.

It's always lovely to chat to old friends, and that's just what this week's podcast is. David Brady, Artistic Director of Lion and Unicorn Theatre and Proforca Theatre, has been a guest at least three times before, but that's no reason not to ask him back because he is always a lot of fun.

This time it's to chat about their latest work And If The Surface Tension Breaks, a show about "the end of the world, living for the moment, and the mother of all goodbye parties". What's not to love?

So we chat about why this is more about people than the end of the world, the importance of music when working on new shows, where that the show title comes from (there's a clue in the title of this episode) and we even find time to ask about new year's resolutions.

And If The Surface Tension Breaks comes to Lion and Unicorn Theatre betwen 11 February and 1 March, more information and bookings here.

You can also find a playlist of songs inspired by the show here.

Whilst most of our podcasts are supporting specific upcoming shows, it's always fun to do something a little different. And that's what this latest edition is. Because we're chatting to Matthew Parker - director, actor, PR, and well, just about anything else that is needed to get a show on to the stage. Above all that, just an all round lovely fellow.

We chat to Matthew about his career, from starting out at a dance school through to running The Hope Theatre and now a freelancer who has won awards for his work. We also hear about how he found himself flying out to Australia to direct a show, and what he's up to next.

You can find out more about Matthew on his website here.

GrimFest is, as the name tells you, a festival of all things grim. So you can expect plenty of shows with a little spookiness.

We took ourselves along to the recent launch party for the festival, and grabbed some time with a few people involved.

David Hoskin's A Haunted House is a title that really doesn't need much more explaination! We talk to David about the show, and why mime and horror actually are a perfect combination.

Note that the interviews were recording at the launch party, and as such, the noise of the party can be heard!

In our latest podcast interview we chat to Gavin Dent and Neil Sheppeck from Rising Tides about Good Cop, Bad Cop 26: A Climate Festival, which is playing at The Space between 1 and 12 November.

The festival is in response to the COP26 summit taking place in Glasgow as the festival opens. During its 12 days it will features plays, workshops and live music, all with the climate crisis at their heart.

Gavin and Neil tell us about the festival, why theatre has a role in making people talk about the climate issue and their hopes for the summit itself.

This week's guests were Fergus Head and Michael Zwiauer from Face Oddity, who are about to take their latest show This Isn't Working to Edinburgh in August, with a quick stop off at Canal Cafe on 29 July before that.

We caught up with the pair to discuss the show, how they manage to put it all together when you've got a team of writers all bringing ideas to the table, and why sketch shows should really be more common at the theatre.

This Isn't Working plays Canal Cafe 29 July - more info here before moving to Edinburgh 4 - 19 August - more info here.

This week's guest is Helena Collins O’Connor from We Are Bosstress. Helena joins us to chat about her show Auto-Engrain, which is described as "a harrowing and blunt re-telling of a woman’s experience of a past relationship and how she got to now. No sugar coating allowed."

We chat with Helena about the play's themes of toxic relationships, coercive behaviour and what theatre's role is in starting conversations on such subjects. We also chat about female masturbation, another theme addressed within the play, and why British audiences can be a little prudish when it comes to such topics.

Auto-Engrain is heading to King's Head Theatre between 15 - 19 November, tickets can be found here. 

Max Mackay talks to us about her professional directing debut with The Arsonists. She also tells us about StoneCrabs Theatre Company, whose programme for emerging artists has made this possible, and culmilates with the Play-doh Festival, showcasing nine new directors. Along the way we chat about the excitement of knowing your play is about to be performed at Southwark Playhouse, and why she really wants to one day direct the play in its original German!

Not heard of Mary De Morgan? Don't worry, we have to admit most of us here at ET hadn't either, but that's all about to change as we chat to Claire Parker about her show The Vegan Tigress.

Mary De Morgan was a writer, a woman of independent means, a socialist and an activist. She wrote several volumes of fairy tales, tearing up the rule book on expected outcomes for boys, girls and happy ever afters.

The Vegan Tigress tells the story of De Morgan through one of her own fairytales, reimagining the moment a formidable ghost from Mary’s past forces her to re-evaluate her own story as she finds herself on the cusp of a life-changing journey. Lily Middleton chats to Claire about the show and why she wanted to write a show about De Morgan.

The Vegan Tigress plays at Bread and Roses Theatre from 18 February to 1 March. Further information and tickets available here.

This week's guest is Joe Strictland from Chronic Insanity Theatre Company. The company are currently putting the finishing touches to their Puncture The Screen Festival, which will play 16 and 17 July. It consists of digital art and performance, workshops, panel discussions, and educational opportunities for creatives and audiences alike. They will be presenting many of the works live, but also online and broadcast to various partner venues around the country.

And as if that wasn't enough to be keeping them busy, they are midway through their aim of putting on 12 of their own shows in 12 months. It's the third year they have attempted such a feat, and both previous years they have managed to go way beyond the 12.

So there was certainly plenty to chat to Joe about. And that's before we even touch on the fact they are also a magician!

You can find out more about Puncture The Screen here.

This week we handed the mic over to our wonderful Lily Middleton who chats with Jak Malone. Jak is currently starring in the West End smash hit Operation Mincemeat, a show that begun life in fringe theatre (our first review for the show was way back in 2019), so we're very proud to see how it has grown and grown in that time to now be the West End success. And it's just announced another extension that will take the show into 2024!

Jak talks about how he first became involved with the show, why he wants to one day do a play where he can sit down for a rest, and how the show's fans have helped in discovering more about the woman at the heart of the show. He even shares a strange story that he has never told anyone before!

Operation Mincemeat is playing at Fortune Theatre, and is now booking through to 2024. Further information and bookings can be found here.

This week we sat down with one of our own reviewers, Lily Middleton. Lily has written for ET for a number of years, although she took a break before returning at the start of 2021. She is a big advocate of musical theatre, and so we tells us why it's an often misunderstood genre and why it doesn't always get the respect it deserves. She also talks about some of her favourite shows and why reviewing is just so much fun for a theatre lover.

We've been big fans of Make It Beautiful Theatre since day one. We were lucky enough to catch their first ever show, The Co-op, and happily gave it all five stars in our review, and said we were "finding it hard to fault Make it Beautiful Theatre’s debut production and am already looking forward to their next one."

We've seen the team go from strength to strength, so were delighted when we got the chance to chat to Gabriel Fogarty-Graveson, one third of the team behind all their work.

Gabriel joined us to chat about their next project, The Nag's Head, their chilling take on ghost stories, and which will be playing at Park Theatre from 17 October (more info and bookings here)

Hear about the play, why they decided to venture into ghost stories, and just why pubs are the perfect setting.

This week we are chatting to writer and director Roxy Cook. Roxy's debut play, A Woman Walks Into A Bank, won the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, and is now about to be performed for the first time.

The play's initial idea came from an incident that happened to Roxy's grandmother, when she really did walk into a bank, but from there, the story is a work of fiction, exploring the consequences of what happened. Set in Russia in 2018, it is a look at Russia and the everyday people that we may easily overlook when we currently think of the country.

A Woman Walks Into A Bank opens at Theatre503 from 21 November. Further information and bookings can be found here.

Synergy Theatre Project is more than just a theatre company. Formed over 20 years ago they work across theatre and the criminal justice system, including within prisons putting on work with prisoners, whilst the shows they put on will often include ex-prisoners in both the cast and creative roles.

That's certainly true of their next show, Providers, a new play about family, money and what we do when we don’t have enough of it. Not only does the cast include ex-prisoners alongside professional actors, but so does the backstage team.

We chat with Artistic Director Esther Baker about why Synergy does what it does, what it's like working in prisons, and quite why in an ideal world the company just wouldn't exist!

Providers comes to Brixton House 25 - 29 March. Further information available here.

This week we were joined by emerging theatre artists Steph McNeil and Helin Ekin. The pair have forged a great friendship, out of which they have become writing partners. And the first result of this new partnership is Hoops and Hookups, a dark comedy about sexuality, identity and family relationships.

Steph and Ekin are full of energy and abition, not just for this play but for where they will go next. So it was a joy to chat about not just the play, but what brought the pair together originally and what they hope to do in the future. We also have a rather heated debate about whether spaghetti hoops (the hoops of the show’s title) are an acceptable food item or not.

The show plays as part of Camden Fringe in August, taking in dates at The Cockpit, The Hope Theatre and Water Rats, a venue more use to live music than theatre! You can find further details here.

You can find more podcasts and written interviews, including some upcoming articles for other Camden Fringe shows on our website here.

This is the second of two interviews originally recorded as part of Everything Theatre's contribution to Runn Radio's Mental Health and Wellbing Day. 

Phoebe Angeni talks to us about mental health, the important role therapy can play in helping you cope, and just how she has turned her own struggles, including anxities and body image phobias, into a positive by putting on her stage show Ithaca. 

You can find more information about Phoebe at https://www.phoebeangeni.com/ 

We recorded this interview just before Christmas, and at that time, we had no idea the Vault Festival would be cancelled for 2022. So when we sat down to chat about Pickle with Deli Segal (written and actor) and Tanya Truman (producer) we thought it would be to promote the show when it played at the festival.

However, what we ended up with was a great discussion about the lack of representation of Jewish female on stage and TV, and why anti-semistism is still something we all need to learn more about. And whilst we edited out some mention of the Vault Festival, we also touch upon why such festivals are so important to emerging theatre makers like Deli and Tanya.

We've been informed the show should be announcing new dates soon, so it seemed as good a time as any to release this wonderful conversation with two charming and interesting theatre makers.

Our guest this week is Jacob Newton. You may have come across Jacob if you've ever been to Lion and Unicorn Theatre as he is very often one of the cheerful people greeting you as you head in for your next theatre fix.

But right now Jacob has other things on his mind, primarily, his debut play, Breast-baring, which will be playing at, well, you can guess where!

Breast-baring introduces us to Annabel, a woman who hides in the corners of parties, if she is even invited. Until Annabel discovers the story of Anne Bonny, a ferocious pirate, and an idol who will lead Annabel to... well, that is what you will find out if you go and see the play.

But before then, why not find out more by listening to our chat with Jacob. We talk about the inspiration behind it, why he no longer sits in cafes nursing one coffee all day long, and whether there will be any sword fighting - and if so, has that increased his insurance costs?

Breast-baring plays at Lion and Unicorn Theatre from 26 - 30 September. Further information and bookings can be found here.

SIxty-seven is the retirement age for most of us now. It's the age we will have to work to until we can claim our state pension. For those in their 20s it must feel a daunting thing to imagine, having to work until that age, especially if you are in a job that you don't enjoy. 

Sixty-Seven is also the play by Tiny Theatre which is coming back to Lion and Unicorn Theatre in June. It had an initial, albeit curtailed, run at the end of 2021. They must have impressed though as they have been invited back. 

Having reviewed the show during its 2021 run, we thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with Alex and Olivia from Tiny Theatre to ask them about the play, how it may have changed since last year, and whether they are anything like the characters they play

For this week's chat on Runn Radio we had the immense pleasure of Linus Karp, making his third appearance. This time out we chat about his new show, Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, which as you can guess, is very loosely based on Princess Diana. As Linus tells us, the untrue part of the title is the most telling!

As ever, it was a great pleasure to chat with Linus about the show, its origins, whether he fears any backlash from the easily offended, and how on earth he manages to look spookily like Diana in the show's trailer (which you will find on our website should you wish to check it out). Plus we talk touring, and his recent Edinburgh run.

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story opens at The Pleasance in London on 8 November, before heading on a national tour thru to April, all the dates for which you will be able to find here.

This week sees the return of Lily Middleton to interview duties, when she sits down with Split Infinitive Theatre to talk about their new show I Heart Michael Ball.

As you should expect from the best of fringe theatre, the title is only half the story, and it is not just a love-in for Michael Ball, but an exploration of loss and depression. But yes, there is also a lot of love to be had for Michael Ball - who we should add does not make an apprearance. Although if you are reading Michael, I'm sure they would happily have you along one night.

The show will play Brighton Fringe before returning to London for August and Camden Fringe.

We were graced with two West End stars for our latest podcast, in the forms of Tanisha Spring and Dom Simpson, who are currently starring in Moulin Rouge.

Tanisha and Dom sat down with Lily Middleton to talk about their careers, offer some advice to those who want to fill their shoes one day, and just how you manage your life when you're working six evenings a week!

GrimFest is, as the name tells you, a festival of all things grim. So you can expect plenty of shows with a little spookiness.

We took ourselves along to the recent launch party for the festival, and grabbed some time with a few people involved.

First up are Nina Atesh and Jack Robertson, curators of the festival, to talk about what to expect from this third edition of GrimFest.

Note that the interviews were recording at the launch party, and as such, the noise of the party can be heard!

Our final guest in our short run of GrimFest Launch Party interviews is Nilgün Yusuf, who tells us about her show Nine Moons.

Nine Moons is a play about hair, blood and guts, a rites-of-passage story with a supernatural twist unfolds through nine lunar cycles and explores the relationship of women to their bodies, the world and each other.  Note that as this was recorded during the launch party, there is the background noise of the party all around us!

Nine Moons will play at Old Red Lion on 26 and 27 October, before transferring to Lion and Unicorn from 29 to 31 October.

There's an old saying about making the best out of a bad situation, and that's just what the team at MARIA WHO? seem to have done with Miss Brexit.

Framing the show as a beauty contest, with the winner given a chance to remain in the UK, Miss Brexit takes a playful look at what it is like to be a migrant in a country that at times seems not to want them here.

We chat to co-director Amaia Mugica to find out about more the show, how it has developed over the last two years, and whether it's story can translate to stages across Europe.

Miss Brexit will play at Omnibus Theatre from 11 to 15 February. Further information and tickets available here.

We first spoke to sisters Rosa and Maya back at the start of 2022, when they were preparing to take their new show, Experiment Human to VAULT Festival.

That festival was unfortunately cancelled, but not to be deterred, they made alternative plans, including a short run in July of that year, which coincided with the heatwave that saw temperatures pass 40C and resulting in the first dates being cancelled as the venue was deemed too hot!

Two years on from it’s rather disrupted beginnings, Experiment Human is now an award winning show and will be making its way to Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August. It’s also doing a preview night at London’s Old Red Lion (28 July) for those not heading North this summer.

So it felt like a great time to catch up with two of our favourite people to find out how the show has changed and grown in that time, and whether this might finally be the time Benedict Cumberbatch finds himself in the audience face to face with himself on stage.

Experiment Human plays EdFringe 1 - 25 August, further information here.

There is also a London preview date on 28 July at Old Red Lion Theatre, tickets available here.

Next in our run of GrimFest launch party interviews is Maya Hallpike, one half of the Hooky Productions team, whose show Experiment Human we've been supporting since we first met them at the start of 2021.

Maya was at the lauch party to do a short solo performance taken from Experiment Human, so we were delighted to get to chat with her afterwards about the show and how their Edinburgh Fringe run went earlier this year.

Note that this was recorded during the party and as such there is the background noise of the party around us.

Experiment Human will play for one night only on 14 October. Tickets available here.

This week we caught up with actor and writer, Will Charlton. Will is next to be found acting in Jumper at The Lion and Unicorn Theatre, a play set across two different times frames five years apart, the first of which finds him stuck on the underground on election night. 

Will tells us more about the play, and what it is like to act in someone else's work when you are a writer yourself. We also discuss his own play, The Boys, which will be his next project as he prepares for its debut in June. About three men who flatshare but are struggling with the rent so turn to escorting, it obviously leads us to the question of "is it written from personal experience?"

Voila! Festival has grown from its humble beginnings back in 2012 when it was a French and English bilingual festival held just at The Cockpit. As a response to Brexit, it initially expanded its remit to include all European languages across three venues.

But after a year off in 2023 to reset, it’s back even bigger and even stronger, now finding itself across nine different venues across London with a whole host of nationalities and languages involved.

So it seemed a good time to two of the festival’s Artistic Directors, Amy Clare Tasker & Katharina Reinthaller, along to tell us more about it.

We discuss what the festival is all about, a little history, why Brexit made them even more determined to bring a touch of Europe to London, and we push them to name a few of their favourite shows.

Voila! plays from 4 – 24 November at venues spread across London. You can find a list of venues along with all the available shows on their website here.

Our guest this week is Jonathan Oldfield. Jonathan is bringing his new show, One Way Mirror to The Pleasance from 24 April. The show is about his experiences of watching people through the one way mirror that is the frontage of the solicitors office he has been living in as a guardian since 2019. This means people outside see their own reflection in the office windows, completely unaware that on the other side is actually someone's front room. It sounds far fetched, but it is completely true, as you will hear.

We chat about why he found himself living in such an unusual place, how the show devleoped from this, and we of course have to touch upon whether he feels a voyeur as he watches people outside, and whether he feels like the wildlife cameramen who film but never interfere with what is happening.

Olivia Thompson on Fantastic Garland's La Maupin

Our latest guest on our Runn Radio show was writer and actor Olivia Thompson from Fantastic Garland. Olivia's latest show is La Maupin, a folk punk play with songs, shining a light on a remarkable woman ahead of her time.

The show has already had one run at Lion and Unicorn, where we gave it a four star review, saying it was "bonkers and delightful". And the show is now back for another week from 31 Janaury, again at the always wonderful Lion and Unicorn. You can book tickets here.

It was therefore our pleasure to get to chat to Olivia to find out more about the play. We discuss what inspired her to write a musical about this real life French woman, how you go about finding actors who can also play a range of insturments, as well as asking whether musicals should be banned to help protect the NHS.

Back at the start of 2022 we spoke to Maya and Rosa from Hooky Productions, who were deep in preparations to take their show Experiment Human to VAULT Festival. A few days after we recorded the interview the festival was cancelled!

Thankfully it didn't stop them, and the show found new places to play throughout 2022, including Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It also picked up a few awards on its travels, including our own Ettie Award for best comedy.

The show is now back for 2023, and following a brief stopover at this year's VAULT Festival it will be making its way to Oxford this week before making its way to the South coast for Brighton Fringe in May.

It therefore felt like a great time to catch up with Maya and Rosa to find out just what they have been up to since we last spoke, and whether they ever worry that Benedict Cumberbatch has somehow placed a curse on them for what they may or may not do to him in the show.

You can find out more about the show and upcoming dates on their website here.

Our latest guest on our Runn Radio show was Mahad Ali, who joined us to talk about his play My Brother's Keeper. Based in a seaside town, two brothers find themselves living in a hotel whilst awaiting a decision on their refugee status. But it is not just a story about refugees, it is a story of love, pain and learning in building community. It's certainly a timely play in today's climate, even if Ali begun writing in back in 2016.

We discuss the play and its themes, the issues facing both refugees and the towns that often find themselves hosting large numbers of refugees. We also chat about Theatre503, and why we need more risk taking within theatre if we want to see it thrieve.

My Brother's Keeper plays 14 February - 4 March at Theatre503. Further information can be found here.

This week's guests are writer Nina Atesh, along with actors Andrew Callaghan and Jack Flammiger. Nina's play, The Drought, was the winner of 2021's London Horror Festival playwirght competition. From there it had its first run at King's Head Theatre in September, and is now preparing for a second run, this time as part of Old Red Lion Theatre's GrimFest season.

The Drought is a psychological horror/ thriller, set aboard a naval ship in the Victorian era. Except the ship is now on the seabed, as the sea has vanished. It's a fascinating premise, which we discuss in the interview, asking where it came from and why Victorian times? We also discuss what it is like as actors when you are involved in such an intense play, how do you unwind, and what happens when you forget your next line!

You can find our review of the play from it's King's Head run here, and book tickets for its Old Red Lion run between 1 - 4 November here.

Chris Fung is about to bring his show, The Society for New Cuisine, to Omnibus Theatre, a show that asks "What would you give for a taste of new understanding?"

Chris will be known to many for his West End work, including roles in Frozen and Cyrano de Bergerac, but as we discuss, this is his first foray into writing. We also chat about the delights of fringe theatre and how it differs from being on a West End stage, performing to just three people at Edinburgh Fringe and how the play was written whilst performing in Frozen.

The Society for New Cuisine will play at Omnibus Theatre from 19 March to 5 April. Further information available here.

This week's guest is David Brady, returning for his third time! Which means we must be doing something right. David is Artistic Director of Proforca Theatre, who are the company running Lion and Unicorn Theatre. So as well as programming in artists to perform at the theatre, they also put on their own show.

And it's their latest show, FlashBang, David is here to chat about, although as always we get into other subjects, such as the art of lighting a show and what they have playing for Camden Fringe in August. 

As for Flashbang, it's an exuberant, explosive and gut-punching rollercoaster ride through the ties that bind five best mates together and what happens to those friends when that world is blown apart. We've never been let down by a Proforca play in the past so it was a pleasure chatting about the next play, and just increased our excitement to be seeing the play in September.

You can book tickets now to see FlashBang when it plays at Lion and Unicorn between 6 and 17 September here.

Our guests this week are writer Andy Walker and director Leslie Manning, chatting about their upcoming show, Happy Hour. Happy Hour is a comedy/ drama about Jacqui and her relationship with drink, and her demon George who encourages her to keep drinking.

As he tells us, Andy has been sober for 40 years now, but has tapped into his past to write this play. So we obviously have to discuss that, and why they decided to make the protaganist female and not male then. We also chat about how his background in animation means he writes very visually, and how this helps or hinders Leslie when it comes to directing his work.

Happy Hour plays Upstairs At The Gatehouse from 16 - 28 May. Further information can be found on the venue website here.

Happy Hour

Jacqui has a problem: herself.

She’s controlled by an internal demon named George. George is everything Jacqui would like to be: funny, attractive, sociable.

But George’s purpose is tempting Jacqui to drink alcohol. Jacqui doesn’t need much tempting. And drinking is killing her.

Jacqui needs to break free from the self-slavery of addiction and regain her soul. However, George isn’t prepared to free his captive without a titanic struggle.

HAPPY HOUR tackles a truly universal subject – alcohol addiction – with an imaginative blend of comedy and drama.

We grabbed five minutes with Alice Motta during the recent Camden Fringe Launch Party, firstly as we needed someone to take a photo of our little team who were there, but also so we could chat about her show.

Find out about her show and why she has stopped using an actual bath in her set!

You can read more about the show in a fuller interview we did with Alice here.

Our latest guest is Sarah Thom, who has been working in theatre for over 30 years. She is currently putting on her own one woman show, Beak Speaks, which she describes as an "homage to the fringe". The show finds Gillian Beak putting on a masterclass for actors, and as you will hear, is very much based on experiences she has had in her career, all wrapped around a story about Gillian's life.

The show was first performed back in 2017 at Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and only returned this year after a chance encounter with the AD of The Hen and Chickens Theatre. And after a very successful run, she has been invited back for another week's run (9 - 13 May). Tickets are available here.

Belinda McGuirk works for Chickenshed, a theatre in North London that is more than just a theatre, it is also a place that provides education and training - many actors have gone on to big things after their involvement with Chickenshed.

They also, each Christmas, put on what can only be described as a big production - 800 people, divided over a rolling 4 day rota. This year, Belinda will be directing the show, which will be EverAfter. 

So it was a pleasure to chat with Belinda, about directing the show and how you even start directing it when there are 800 people involved, plus why the Chickenshed is a place that once you join, you really don't want to leave.

You can find out more about the Chickenshed here

Our latest guests are Grace, Hen and Sadie, who together are Full Frontal Theatre. Their latest show, Rodney Black: Who Cares? It's Working is about to hit the stage at Lion And Unicorn Theatre, so it seemed a good time to sit down and chat to the trio.

We discuss the show, cancel culture, being young females in the arts and whether the audience should be naked during the show (spoiler, no, especially not in December!)

Rodney Black: Who Cares? It's Working will play at Lion and Unicorn Theatre from 17 to 21 December, with tickets available here.

Noga Flaishon makes a welcome return to chatting with us about Harpy Productions' latest show, Lethe. As weith much of their work, it's set in a future dystopian world, where you can now have bad memories erased permenantly. But at what cost?

Lethe was scheduled to play at Vault Festival, and this interview was recorded ahead of the festival's cancellation. At the moment there are no confirmed dates for the show, but we suspect that won't be the case for long.

in the meantime, hear us talk about how influencial Black Mirrors is to Noga's work, the experiences and joy of putting on a night of horror shorts with The Fright Before Christmas and we make another attempt to convince her to watch Dark on Netflix.

We were joined this week by Laura Sampson, whose show, Hide, will be playing at VAULT Festival Saturday 25 February, and then Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 March. Tickets are available here

We chat about the shows themes of identity, and how the show mixes together fairytale and modern day, using the Lindworm story as an analogy of Laura's own life. We also discuss spoken word and story telling in general, and why it can such an incredibly powerful device when done right.

About Hide.

There’s a legend that says the power to shed one’s skin was given to snakes by accident: the gods meant it for us. But instead of being able to shuck off each identity as we grow out of it, our human skins layer up and harden into leather – a Hide, to hide inside.

Inspired by timeless folktales such as THE LINDWORM, Laura Sampson will speak of the challenges she faces as a person of mixed heritage. Is that story’s monster-prince, tricked into shedding his hide to reveal what’s underneath, a way to understand the protective layers of identity Laura’s grandparents had to build when they first arrived in England from Trinidad & Tobago?

What is the cost of growing a thick skin?

About Laua Sampson

Laura Sampson is a performance storyteller and writer whose mixed heritage and myth studies have led her on many adventures. Recent London credits for adult audiences include THREE-CROSSING RIVER (White Conduit Projects), WOMEN WHO GAVE NO FUCKS with Story Jam (Rich Mix; Tobacco Factory), and LEGEND OF THE BURNING BELL (British Library), plus appearances with top storytelling collective The Crick Crack Club. Previous collaborations with Sam Enthoven include THE OLD BLACK DOOR (RADA Studios) THE NEW MIRROR (Bloomsbury Festival), and DEADTOWN (AMP Studios, also with Andrea Aste).

Jane was another writer we came across as part of The Fright Before Christmas, a night of short horror plays at The Space Arts Centre. It was a very abstract play that left as many questions about what it all meant as we had answers! So we thought it would be great to sit down with Jane and get her to explain it a little more to us. We were surprised by how much we'd missed, so it turned into a fascianting chat about violence against women, and how some woman can turn from prey to predator. 

This week's podcast was a little different to normal as we asked one of our reviewers along to just chat about theatre in general. Some might say it was because we weren't organised enough to arrange a proper guest, but we like to think it just made a nice change. You decide!

Dave Bushe was that lucky reviewer. Dave's only been writing for Everything Theatre since the start of 2022, but he has a depth of theatre knoweldge, having immersed himself in London theatre since moving back to the capital a few years back. So we discuss some of his favourite theatre experiences, from the West End to the best that the fringe has to offer, plus why he is seeking out that elusive Irish/ New Zealand cross over play.

Oh and we push him to say why it is so great writing for Everything Theatre, if only because it's free tickets!

This week we chat to Andrew Muir and Georgia Bates. Andrew is co-creative director of Ardent Theatre, plus the writer of their latest show, Rethink. Georgia is a young actor involved with the play as well as part of Ardent8, the theatre company's project that takes eight young actors from outside of London and helps them put on a show.

Rethink, the show that has come out of this, is a direct response to the government's ad campaign early on in lockdown that suggested those in the arts could retrain elsewhere. Hear what Andrew and Georgia thought of that suggestion.

You can find out more about Ardent Theatre at https://www.ardenttheatre.co.uk/

It wouldn't be Christmas without some festive horror to enjoy on stage. And this year that is being provided by Jacob Lovick & Jack Robertson, writers of Midwyntar.

To find out more, we caught up with Jack to chat about the show, how we should pronounce the title, and just why seeing the show on its final night could be a murderous occasion!

Midwyntar plays at Old Red Lion 12 - 22 December, more information and bookings can be found here.

https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/sht-faced-showtime-a-pissedmas-carol/Sh!tfaced-Showtime, and sister company, Sh!tfaced-Shakespeare have entertained audiences now for over ten years with their high energy shows. It looks a simple idea on paper; one cast member each performance drinks for four hours prior to the start, and so whilst the rest try to carry on with the script, have to work around the antics of a drunk colleague. Mayhem will usually follow!

About to bring A Pissedmas Carol back to Leicester Square Theatre in December, it felt a great time to sit down with producer and actor, James Murfitt, about how the company came about, answers allegations from some critics who claim they aren't really drunk, and tells us about the craziest thing a drunk colleague has ever done during a performance.

A Pissedmas Carol plays at Leicester Square Theatre from 6 December until 15 January. You can book your tickets at https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/sht-faced-showtime-a-pissedmas-carol/ 

We chat with writer Andy Walker and director Lesley Manning as they prepare to bring their new show Happy Hour to Upstairs at the Gatehouse.

Happy Hour finds Jacqui confronting her inner demon, who happens to be called George, and who is constantly tempting her to keep drinking. As we hear, whilst a work of fiction, the play comes from Andy's own fight with drink, although he has been sober for a few decades now.

The play comes to Upstairs at the Gatehouse from 16 - 28 May

When we were offered the chance to chat with Fred Deakin, well, as soon as we realised Fred was one half of Lemon Jelly, whose CD's adorn many a record collection, how could we not be excited.

Fred has brought his life of the 80s and 90s in and out of clubs to the theatre stage in what could well be a whole new genre; club theatre! It was a big success in Edinburgh, winning 2023 Edinburgh Fringe-First Award for innovation, and now it's making its London debut at Omnibus Theatre in Clapham.

Fred is joined by director Sita Pieraccini, who was vital in helping him move his ideas onto a very different stage to what he was use to in the past.

We discuss what to expect, why audience interaction is absolutely allowed, and what it's like performing to a very different audience that when he was created music for clubs.

Club Life plays at Omnibus Theatre from 12 - 24 November. Further information and tickets available here.

Lucinda Coyle and Samuel Xavier join us this week to talk about their show Our Last First. On first glance, it may seem a simple love story, but it doesn't need much digging to discover why this is so much more. For a start, it's written without any character features, so no gender, age, appearance, or anything else that might usually be used to place a character into a particular category. And then to mix it up even more, all four actors are cast each evening for any of the four roles, which means the show could, and will, be different every night as the dynmaics between characters change.

There's a lot going on, and so we try to cover it all as we chat to the writer (Lucinda) and director (Samuel) on why they choose to set the bar so high, whether this makes rehersals a whole lot harder, and just what this means for the audience.

Our Last First comes to The Space on Canary Wharf 6 - 14 June, bookings here. The show will also be livestreamed and available on demand for two weeks afterwards.

Having only just recovered from Camden Fringe, we were thinking we'd have a couple of quiet weeks. But then we realised Lambeth Fringe was around the corner.

So instead we headed south of the river to catch up with one of the festival organisers, Velenzia Spearpoint.

We discuss why the festival has been rebranded for this year, having previously been known as Clapham Fringe, why they cannot walk through Lambeth without looking at possible new venues, and try to push Valenzia to pick her favourite shows!

Lambeth Fringe opens 19 September to 20 October. Further information can be found on their website here.

This week's guests over on our Runn Radio show were Zena Barrie and Michelle Flower, who between them set up Camden Fringe back in 2006. Since then it's grown and grown, and is now a vital cog within the Fringe Theatre calendar.

We chat about its history, but more importantly, how people can get involved this year. 

You can find out more about Camden Fringe on their website here. You can also hear more from them on their own podcast, available from all the usual podcast providers, including Spotify here.

Charlotte Anne-Tilley came to our attention a year ago when her show Twenties was online as part of TheSpaceUK's short online festival showcasing many of the artists who would normally have been planning to head off to Edinburgh that summer. The show caught our attention for both its inventiveness and for being what felt a very true portrayal of a young girl moving to London where she believed she would soon be heading off to all the celeb parties and bumping into famous names every street she walked down.

Since then Charlotte and the team have been busy rewritting Twenties into a live full length show, which will be playing at The Space in Canary Wharf from 13 to 15 January 2022, before they hope to then take it to this year's Edinburgh Fringe. So it seemed the perfect time to sit down with Charlotte to find out how the show has changed, not only with its name now being Almost Adult, and how her life has changed since we presented her with an award as part of TheSpaceUK's festival season.

When you call your show Thanks For Having Me, well, the intros just write themselves. But the show is more than just a clever title, as we found out when we sat down with writer/ performer Keelan Kember and director Monica Cox.

Thanks For Having Me is a comedy about getting over breakups and navigating the rules of modern romance at the end of your twenties. Who is really seducing who?

We discuss why 30something is an important age, what it's like directing the writer, and what's it like spreading your time between theatre and TV.

Thanks For Having Me plays at King's Head Theatre from 3 - 8 February. Further information and tickets available here.

This week's guest is Kieran Dee, one half of Moon Loaf. We're big fans of their work, so always pleased when we get the chance to chat with Kieran, although that's usually when we bump into him all too regularly at Lion and Unicorn Theatre. But this week was planned and recorded!

Moon Loaf are about to bring their latest show, Insult To Injury, to Lion and Unicorn. The show is a dark satirical look at social media and its moderators. So as well as chatting about the show itself, it seemed appropriate to ask Kieran his thoughts on social media, along with a question we ask quite a lot - what is it about Lion and Unicorn that makes so many artists want to hang out there?

Insult To Injury plays 2 - 13 April, more information available here.

This week we are joined by Dodie Finamore and Kieran Dee, who are about to star in The Shatter Box, the latest play from Proforca Theatre, who we've been big supporters of over the years.

The Shatter Box is "a rollercoaster dystopian cat-and-mouse tango of interrogation, confession, staying alive and lying through your teeth", so there was plenty to ask about when we sat down with Dodie and Kieran.

We talk about the play, what it's like for an actor to perform in the round, and discuss why The Lion and Unicorn Theatre is a place where artists always seem to be.

The Shatter Box plays from 5 - 16 September, more info here.

We have a soft spot for gig theatre, at least gig theatre when it is done right. So when Rona Johnstone and Katie Slater got in touch to tell us not just about their Edinburgh Fringe bound show, Mary: A Gig Theatre Show, but also that they had done some research into gig theatre as part of their degree course, how could we not want to chat with them about it all.

So, as well as telling us all about their show, based on Mary Queen of Scots, they also talk about what they feel gig theatre is. We may also disagree a little on their definition but we do agree that it shows just how varied the genre can be! We also get very close to begging them to bring the show to London, because we all want to see it now!

Mary: A Gig Theatre show plays at theSpace for EdFringe from 12 - 17 August. Further information and tickets available here.

Our first podcast guest of 2024 is Nell Hardy from Response Ability Theatre (RAT). RAT's new play, I, Lord, tackles the difficult subject of spiritual abuse. It's a term that perhaps many of us don't quite understand its meaning, but Nell helpfully explains what it means.

As well as that, we discuss what to expect from the play, what it is they hope to achieve with it, and why they are putting on an accompanying children's show playing at the same time, so you can bring your kids along for the evening and leave them in safe hands.

I, Lord plays at The Space from 13 - 17 February. Further information and bookings can be found here.

Sierra Sevilla is a woman on a mission. And that mission is to convince us that spam (the food not the junk email) is worthy of another chance. For too long us Brits, as well as many other countries around the world, have scoffed at spam as just a cheap food from a forgotten era. But to Sierra it's much more than that, it's a memory of her home country, the tiny island of Guam, and it's a versatile one as well, as she plans to show us in her show.

That show is For The Love of Spam, where she talks about spam, what it means to her, and its connection with modern-day colonialism. And here Sierra tells us more about that, as well as does a good job convincing us that we really should give this food another chance.

GrimFest is, as the name tells you, a festival of all things grim. So you can expect plenty of shows with a little spookiness.

We took ourselves along to the recent launch party for the festival, and grabbed some time with a few people involved.

Finella Waddilove's The Blair Bitch Project takes us deep into the woods where Fay is waiting for her friend to arrive. But something seems terribly wrong.

We chat about the show and what brings Finella to GrimFest, plus our shared love of good horror films!

The Blair Bitch Project plays at Old Red Lion Theatre from 15 to 18 October.

Note that the interviews were recording at the launch party, and as such, the noise of the party can be heard!

We've been massive fans of Conrad Murray's work for a number of years. His work with Batterseas Arts Centre's Beat Boxing Academy alone would be enough in itself, but Conrad has also devised shows that uses all his beatboxing and rap skills in creating new exciting ways to tell a story. So when we bumped into him at the recent OffWestEnd Awards, where he won for best TYA Production, it was a great opportunity to ask him if he'd like to join us on our podcast. And thankfully he said yes.

Right now he is working on a hip hop retelling of Romeo and Juliet, playing at Polka Theatre, aimed at a younger audience. He's also bringing Pied Piper back for a short run at Southbank Centre. On top of that, he has a few other projects in development, so there was an awful lot to pack in to our chat.

Note: We recorded this after he had just come off stage at Polka, and so you will hear a little background noise of the theatre going about its business! The sound also goes slightly odd for the final minute, apologies for that.

You can find out more about Romeo and Juliet here, and Pied Piper here.

Camden People's Theatre's The State We're In Festival is three weeks of theatre and performance lifting the lid on Britain’s democracy, politics and public life at the dawn of a new government. It seems the perfect home for Worklight Theatre's It's The Economy, Stupid, which sees Joe Sellman-Leava, alongside Worklight colleague Dylan Howells, embark on a quest to uncover how the economy wins elections, and why the force that dominates our lives is so bloody complicated!

It might sound all rather dry for a theatre show, but as Joe tells us, it promises to be anything but. Of course the best way to find out is to head along to check the show out when it comes to Camden People's Theatre on 25 and 26 October. The show also plays at Theatre Royal Bath on 28 and 29 October. It will then return in 2025 with a fuller London run promised, so watch this space.

In our first episode, we chat to Georgie Bailey, Artistic Director of Chewboy Productions and Jack Sunderland, who is starring in their new show, DJ Bazzers Year Six Disco. They tell us more about the show, how they are finding their first time working at Golden Goose Theatre, plus so much more.

DJ Bazzers Year Six disco is performing at Golden Goose Theatre 7 - 17 September. You can get tickets at www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/dj-baz

Find out more about us ET here

Emma Wilkinson Wright and Greg Wilkinson discuss The Last Days of Liz Truss.

Poor Liz Truss, forever to be remembered for her failures and not the amazing work she did in promoting Britain's pork markets! But maybe that's all about to change with Greg Wilkinson's The Last Days of Liz Truss surely here to correct the record on her behalf? Well, ok, maybe not...

The Last Days of Liz Truss joins Liz in her last morning at number 10, taking us on a tragic-comic exploration of the tensions in politics: between ambition and ability, vision and reality, going short and playing it long. Can a fighter ever quit?

We caught up with Greg, along with performer Emma Wilkinson Wright to talk about the show, and find out if they are planning to set the record straight in support of our shortest ever Prime Minister.

The Last Days of Liz Truss plays at White Bear Theatre from 18 - 29 March. Further information and tickets available here.

Our latest guest on our Runn Radio show was Georgie Bailey, well known on these pages for his work with Chewboy Productions. Their latest show, these words that'll linger like ghosts till the day i drop down dead comes to The Pleasance from 13 June, so it seemed the perfect time to sit down and ask the one question that is surely on everyone's lips - why on earth have you given your show such a long title?!

But we do more than just moan about the length of that title, we also discuss what the play is all about, whether due to its space themes if there will be any zero gravity special effects and what else Chewboy are planning for the year. We also get a little history about how Chewboy came into being, something we cannot believe we've never actually asked when he has been our guest before.

About these words that'll linger like ghosts till the day i drop down dead

Two living, breathing people face each other in a theatre space. One is here to help. The other is here for redemption.

These words that’ll linger like ghosts till the day I drop down dead is a brand-new experimental play from the multi-award-winning playwright Georgie Bailey, exploring the things we wish we’d said to those that have left, how effective art is as a coping therapy mechanism, how we manage grief and how ultimately, we can never change the past no matter how hard we try.