From the category archives:

Political theatre

28 post(s)

Award-winning actor Richard McCabe talks about his role in The Audience

6 May 2013

in Actors and Performers, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: RICHARD McCABE The Olivier winning actor talks to Heather Neill about playing Harold Wilson in The Audience, Peter Morgan’s superb new play about the Queen’s audiences with her Prime Ministers (Gielgud Theatre), and which stars Helen Mirren as Her Majesty.

A Thousand Shards of Glass by the Jane Packman Company

1 May 2013

in Directors, Participatory & Interactive, Political theatre, Regional Theatre

INTERVIEW: JANE PACKMAN COMPANY Director Jane Packman, writer Ben Pacey and performer Lucy Ellinson talk to Diana Damian about their surround sound action adventure show A Thousand Shards Of Glass, dystopias, political theatre, graphic novels, Bourne films and insurrectionist texts. The show is currently touring the UK.

Canadian playwright Arthur Milner discusses his controversial Facts

6 March 2013

in International, London Fringe, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: ARTHUR MILNER The Canadian Jewish playwright and theatre practitioner talks to Judi Herman about his play Facts (Finborough Theatre). Set in the West Bank in Palestine and inspired by a true story, two detectives — one Israeli, one Palestinian — put aside their differences to find the killer of an American archaeologist and discover what he was excavating that cost him his life. Milner also reads from the play and speaks about its tour to the West Bank and Israel in an Arabic translation and about his career.

Activist playwright Anders Lustgarten challenges the ideology of austerity

2 March 2013

in New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: ANDERS LUSTGARTEN The playwright and political activist talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest play, If You Don’t Let Us Dream, We Won’t Let You Sleep (Royal Court), which questions the pervading clichés about austerity and challenges the global financial system. He explores the politics of the drama and previews his plans for the future.

Michael Walling’s Border Crossings investigate sex, money and the internet

25 February 2013

in Directors, International, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: MICHAEL WALLING The artistic director of Border Crossings theatre company talks to Suman Bhuchar about their latest show, Consumed (touring), which features a story about Tong Zheng, who returns to Shanghai with money on his mind after spending 20 years in the USA. But the China he finds is very different from the one he left behind.

Royal Shakespeare Company special: Roxana Silbert on A Life of Galileo

22 February 2013

in Directors, International, Playwrights, Political theatre

DIRECTOR’S TALK: ROXANA SILBERT The director of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s A Life of Galileo in conversation with journalist Paul Allen. They talk about what Galileo means to Roxana, who comes from a family of physicists, about working with Mark Ravenhill, who provided the new translation of Brecht’s play, and about how Brecht’s Galileo relates to the real Galileo. A Life of Galileo is playing as part of The World Elsewhere, a season of three plays exploring what was going on in the rest of the world during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

How to play Money: The Gameshow — and survive the experience

20 February 2013

in Actors and Performers, Directors, Participatory & Interactive, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: CLARE DUFFY, LUCY ELLINSON and BRIAN FERGUSON The writer/director and performers of Money: The Game Show, produced by Unlimited Theatre and currently at the Bush Theatre, speak to Ella Parry-Davies. The show is an interactive piece about the human cost of financial crisis, and features £10 000 in real pound coins on stage, asking the participants to bet and hedge the futures of the characters.

Broadcaster and comedian Hardeep Singh Kohli adapts Moliere’s The Miser

13 February 2013

in Asian Voices, Playwrights, Political theatre

ASIAN VOICES: HARDEEP SINGH KOHLI The co-adapter, with director Jatinder Verma, of Moliere’s The Miser, now renamed as Kanjoos (Tara Arts, currently touring), talks to Suman Bhuchar about this re-imagining of the classic, which is set in the money-mad maelstrom of modern Mumbai.

Focus on China: Fat Bird on experimental performance (1/2)

11 February 2013

in Directors, International, Playwrights, Political theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: YANG QIAN and MARY ANN O’DONNELL (1/2) The two founder members of Fat Bird Theatre Company talk to Mary Mazzilli about what it’s like to make theatre in Shenzhen-Guangdong, the oldest and fastest-growing Special Economic Zone in China. This is the only independent theatre company that promotes experimentation and internationalism; they focus on social changes and are dedicated to transforming Chinese theatre through experimental workshops, guerrilla performances and stage drama.

Focus on China: Fat Bird on experimental performance (2/2)

11 February 2013

in Directors, International, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: YANG QIAN and MARY ANN O’DONNELL (2/2) The two founder members of Fat Bird Theatre Company talk to Mary Mazzilli about what it’s like to make theatre in Shenzhen-Guangdong, the oldest and fastest-growing Special Economic Zone in China. This is the only independent theatre company that promotes experimentation and internationalism; they focus on social changes and are dedicated to transforming Chinese theatre through experimental workshops, guerrilla performances and stage drama.

Playwright Richard Vergette explores American Justice

29 January 2013

in Playwrights, Political theatre, Regional Theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: RICHARD VERGETTE The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his award-winning West End success, American Justice (Arts Theatre), which is a psychological thriller, set in the Deep South, about an American Democrat politician and a prisoner who is a murderer.

Professor Tony Howard investigates Multicultural Shakespeare

21 January 2013

in Asian Voices, Black Voices, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: TONY HOWARD The University of Warwick professor talks to Suman Bhuchar about Multicultural Shakespeare, a major AHRC-funded project to record the contribution of Black and Asian artists to the development of Shakespearean performance in the UK.

Playwright James Graham talks about his hit, This House

13 December 2012

in New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: JAMES GRAHAM The prolific young playwright talks to Dominic Cavendish about his politically minded career to-date and This House, his backstage House of Commons drama and look back in detail at the 1974-1979 years of British parliamentary life, a hit at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe stage and which transfers to the Olivier in the New Year.

RADAR Festival – Kieran Hurley: playwright?

20 November 2012

in Edinburgh Festival and Fringe, New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: KIERAN HURLEY The writer-performer talks to Matt Trueman about his award-winning play Beats, a fable about rave culture in the mid-nineties and the legislation against it, about theatre’s remit as a political act and why he’s finally coming round to the idea of himself as a playwright.

Arab Nights: tales of revolution and hope

13 November 2012

in Directors, International, New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: POPPY BURTON MORGAN The co-artistic director of Metta Theatre tells Sophie Reynolds about Arab Nights (Soho Theatre), the company’s new production that brings together six new plays inspired by recent events in the Middle East and North Africa, within the framework of The Arabian Nights.

Playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak examines the Arab Spring in Cairo

17 August 2012

in International, New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: HASSAN ABDULRAZZAK The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest, The Prophet (Gate Theatre), a thrilling play about the Arab Spring in Cairo which enjoyed a successful run earlier this summer and was a long-awaited follow up to his multi-award-winning debut, Baghdad Wedding (Soho, 2007).

Belarus Free Theatre’s Natalia Koliada: Minsk 2011

7 July 2012

in Directors, International, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: NATALIA KOLIADA The Co-Artistic Director of the exiled radical Belarus Free Theatre talks to Diana Damian about the making of Minsk 2011, part of this year’s London International Theatre Festival, and about citizenship and theatre as a political site.

Lebanese director Lucien Bourjeily on an arresting 66 Minutes in Damascus

7 July 2012

in Directors, International, Participatory & Interactive, Political theatre, Site Specific

INTERVIEW: LUCIEN BOURJEILY The innovative director talks to Matt Trueman about his interactive and immersive LIFT production 66 Minutes in Damascus, which subjects its audience to a simulated arrest and detention at the hands of the Syrian regime. He also speaks about evading censorship in Lebanon and the ethics and politics of immersive theatre, especially its relationship to thrill and memory.

Director Polly Findlay explores the tragedy of Antigone

1 June 2012

in Directors, Greek Drama, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: POLLY FINDLAY The director talks to Matt Trueman about her new modern-dress production of Sophocles’s Antigone, which stars Christopher Eccleston and Jodie Whittaker and is currently on at The National Theatre. She also talks about her career and current opportunities for young directors.

Uninvited Guests on their interactive Make Better Please

28 May 2012

in Directors, Live Art, Participatory & Interactive, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: RICHARD DUFTY and PAUL CLARKE The co-artistic directors of Uninvited Guests talk to Matt Trueman about their latest show, Make Better Please, which — under the slogan of “We will make things better!” — involves the audience in the news stories of the day and exorcises their demons.

The Young Vic’s David Lan on staging Wild Swans

20 April 2012

in Directors, International, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: DAVID LAN The artistic director of the Young Vic talks to Mary Mazzilli about the making of Wild Swans, the first stage adaptation of the 1991 best-selling autobiography by Chinese-born writer Jung Chang. The stage version — part of World Stage season — is written by Alexandra Wood and directed by Sacha Wares.

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