From the category archives:

Playwrights

306 post(s)

Interview: Sean Holmes talks about Saved

11 November 2011

in 1960s Drama, Directors, Playwrights

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: SEAN HOLMES The artistic director of the Lyric Hammersmith discusses in detail, with Aleks Sierz, his revival of Edward Bond’s landmark 1965 play, Saved, which features the stoning to death of a baby in a pram by a group of London youths.

Nicholas Wright on Caroline Blackwood and Wallis Simpson

8 November 2011

in New Writing, Playwrights

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: NICHOLAS WRIGHT The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest work, The Last of the Duchess (Hampstead Theatre), which is based on the book of the same name by Caroline Blackwood, and tells the fascinating story of the last years of Wallis Simpson, widow of Edward VIII, who abdicated in 1936.

Playwright April De Angelis on sex, sense and feminist comedy

2 November 2011

in Comedy, Feminism, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: APRIL DE ANGELIS The playwright talks to Carole Woddis about her new play, Jumpy (Royal Court), which is a hilarious comedy about the relationship between mothers and daughters in the new digital age.

Interview: Edward Bond talks about Saved

22 October 2011

in 1960s Drama, Directors, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: EDWARD BOND and SEAN HOLMES The playwright joins the artistic director of the Lyric Hammersmith to discuss the latter’s revival of his landmark 1965 play, Saved, which features the stoning to death of a baby in a pram by a group of London youths. Extracts from a conversation with Dominic Cavendish for a Daily Telegraph article to coincide with this production, the first London showing for the play in 27 years.

Playwright Julia Pascal dramatises a Mossad honeytrap

21 October 2011

in Feminism, London Fringe, Playwrights

3 Comments

INTERVIEW: JULIA PASCAL The director and playwright explains to Aleks Sierz the politics and psychology behind her new play, Honeytrap (New Diorama), which tells the story of a Swedish-born mother who decides to work for Mossad, helping to avenge the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games.

Playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell on The Faith Machine

3 October 2011

in New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: ALEXI KAYE CAMPBELL The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest play, The Faith Machine, an ambitious drama of ideas which starred Ian McDiarmid and has just finished its run at the Royal Court theatre.

Playwright Steve Thompson gets a laugh out of Monty Python

20 September 2011

in Comedy, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: STEVE THOMPSON The playwright chats to Aleks Sierz about his latest comedy, No Naughty Bits (Hampstead Theatre), which tells the story of the censorship of Monty Python’s Flying Circus in the United States in 1975, and puts a fictional Michael Palin on stage.

Playwright Chris Hannan: new play and career overview (1/2)

13 August 2011

in New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: CHRIS HANNAN (1/2) The award-winning Scottish playwright discusses his latest play, The God of Soho (Shakespeare’s Globe), which is an extraordinary satire on celebrity and sex partly set in heaven, with Carole Woddis. He also talks about his career and his playwriting.

Playwright Chris Hannan: new play and career overview (2/2)

13 August 2011

in New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: CHRIS HANNAN (2/2) The award-winning Scottish playwright discusses his latest play, The God of Soho (Shakespeare’s Globe), which is an extraordinary satire on celebrity and sex partly set in heaven, with Carole Woddis.

Director Max Stafford-Clark revisits Caryl Churchill’s wonderful Top Girls

11 August 2011

in Feminism, New Writing, Playwrights

FOCUS ON TOP GIRLS Author Kate Mosse introduces a pre-show talk, ‘Directing Top Girls: Then and Now’, which features director Max Stafford-Clark discussing his Chichester Festival Theatre revival of Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982), which has now transferred to the West End. The platform includes his assistant director Tim Hoare and most of the cast: Lucy Briers, Laura Elphinstone, Stella Gonet, Suranne Jones, Lisa Kerr, Catherine McCormack and Olivia Poulet.

Co-creator of Yes, Prime Minister Jonathan Lynn explores comedy

7 August 2011

in Books, Comedy, Playwrights, Theatre People

INTERVIEW: JONATHAN LYNN The actor, director and co-writer, with Antony Jay, of the hit West End comedy show, Yes, Prime Minister (Apollo) – an updated theatre version of the classic 1980s BBC series – talks to Philip Fisher about his new book, Comedy Rules (Faber), political satire, and about his extensive and globetrotting career.

Palestinian director and writer Amir Nizar Zuabi adapts Kafka

22 July 2011

in Directors, International, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: AMIR NIZAR ZUABI The director and writer, whose Haifa-based Palestinian ShiberHur theatre company is currently performing an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony at the Young Vic, talks to Amardeep Sohi about the play, the question of freedom and why he does not accept subsidy from the Israeli state.

Playwright Penelope Skinner on The Village Bike

20 July 2011

in Feminism, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: PENELOPE SKINNER The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about her new Royal Court play, The Village Bike, which explores the sex lives of a couple who have just moved into the countryside, and about Eigengrau, which was at the Bush Theatre in 2010.

Actor Danny Webb on Wesker hit revival

27 June 2011

in 1950s Drama, Actors and Performers, Playwrights

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: DANNY WEBB The actor discusses Dominic Cooke’s well-received revival of Arnold Wesker’s seminal 1958 play, Chicken Soup with Barley (the first part of the Wesker Trilogy about a politically motivated East End Jewish family across 30 years of history), with Carole Woddis.

Lindsay Posner, director, on staging Simon Gray’s Butley

25 June 2011

in Directors, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: LINDSAY POSNER The director talks about his current West End revival of the late Simon Gray’s Butley. Dominic Cavendish quizzes.

Arnold Wesker reads two letters from Terence Rattigan

18 June 2011

in 1950s Drama, 20th-century Drama, Playwrights

WESKER EXCLUSIVE Sir Arnold Wesker reads private letters from Terence Rattigan. Currently enjoying the successful revival of his play Chicken Soup with Barley at the Royal Court, Arnold Wesker reads two letters of admiration sent to him at the time of the original production from Terence Rattigan. Excerpt from an interview with John Nathan.

Epic: a show that spans the 20th century!

25 May 2011

in Actors and Performers, Directors, Live Art, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: LUCY FOSTER and CHLOE DECHERY Diana Damian talks to the theatre-makers about their show Epic (Soho, and touring), and about Brecht, staging history, merging the small with the big and the challenges of an epic show.

David Slack of Manchester’s 24:7 Festival

23 May 2011

in Actors and Performers, New Writing, Playwrights, Regional Theatre

INTERVIEW: DAVID SLACK The Executive Producer of the 24:7 Theatre Festival, an event that focuses on new writing in Manchester and is now in its eighth year, chats to David Chadderton about the origins, significance and influence of the festival, which runs annually in late July.

Esther Baker describes the Synergy theatre project

20 May 2011

in Directors, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: ESTHER BAKER The artistic director of the Synergy theatre project, which works with prisoners, ex-prisoners and young people at risk, tells Aleks Sierz about her work, with a focus on Convictions, the company’s first festival of new writing, which includes Every Coin by Carlon Campbell Robinson and The Archbishop and the Antichrist by Michael Ashton.

Controversial playwright Richard Bean: full career overview

18 May 2011

in Comedy, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: RICHARD BEAN The playwright tells Philip Fisher about his latest, One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre), an adaptation of Carlo Goldoni’s The Servant of Two Masters, and then gives an overview of his career, from his Royal Court debut, Toast (1999), to his controversial England People Very Nice (2009), taking in his formative days in the world of stand-up comedy.

West End Review: April 2011 (2/2)

25 April 2011

in 20th-century Drama, Playwrights, Reviews and Roundtables

WEST END REVIEW Mark Shenton (Sunday Express) and his guests David Benedict (Variety), Libby Purvis (Times) and Matt Wolf (International Herald Tribune) assess Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Cause Celebre (Old Vic); Blithe Spirit (Apollo); Ecstasy (Duchess Theatre); Moonlight (Donmar Warehouse); Rocket to the Moon (National Theatre).

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