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- Interview: Clare Higgins. Currently starring as Countess Rossillion in All's Well That Ends Well at the National, the award-winning actress tells Philip Fisher about her life and work, including Vincent in Brixton, and reveals her designs on 'Macbeth'. Recorded at the National Theatre.
“I'm in a state of being really gobsmacked about how fortunate I am. Every time you do a play you think that 'nobody will ever ask me again'. Judi Dench once told me that she still feels that.”
- Recording Date: 01-Jul-2009
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- Focus on site-specific theatre: Adam Curtis, documentary-maker, and Felix Barrett, artistic director of Punchdrunk, talk about It Felt Like a Kiss, the story of the American Dream staged in Quay House, a semi-disused building, and already a sell-out at this year's Manchester International Festival.
“We're both interested in the modern obsession with the self. We're going to indulge it, we're going to play with it, but we're also going to make people reflect and look at it...”
- Recording Date: 04-Jun-2009
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- Interview: Che Walker. The playwright-turned-lyricist and director talks to Aleks Sierz about his new version of Been So Long, a raunchy play with music by Arthur Darvill (Young Vic), and about his The Frontline, which was the first contemporary story to be staged at Shakespeare's Globe.
“The theme is love, and the chaos that love can bring, and the risks that love puts you in, particularly erotic love: it is quite a horny play.”
- Recording Date: 24-Jun-2009
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- SHAKESPEARE: AS YOU LIKE IT Heather Neill talks to director Thea Sharrock about the play, her Shakespearean debut, during a busy and sometimes noisy workshop at Shakespeare's Globe, where the play is in rep.
“In my view Orlando gets closer and closer to Ganymede and flirts with this interesting creature but for me he never loses sight of his Rosalind and why he has chosen to play this game.”
- Recording Date: 18-May-2009
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- NT LIVE SPECIAL: Dominic Cooper. Heather Neill talks to the rising young actor about playing Hippolytus in Phedre at the National Theatre and what he thinks of the bold new experiment to relay the production live to cinemas around the world for NT LIVE on 25th June. More details: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ntlive.
“There are so many things going on in his - Hippolytus's - head. This is also extraordinarily difficult to play because you've got wonderful Helen - who I'm meant to be completely disgusted by, which is almost an impossiblity.”
- Recording Date: 29-May-2009
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- NT LIVE SPECIAL: Dame Helen Mirren. Heather Neill talks to the award-winning actress about playing Phedre at the National Theatre and the plans to relay her performance live to thousands of people in cinemas across Britain and the world as part of NT LIVE on 25th June. More details: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ntlive.
“The point of this, it seems to me, is that it's a live performance of a play - it's not a film, it's not a TV show. It's of that moment and no other. It will never be repeated again.”
- Recording Date: 29-May-2009
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- NT LIVE SPECIAL: Nicholas Hytner. The artistic director of the National Theatre talks in depth to Heather Neill about his revival of Phedre ahead of its live satellite broadcast to 70 cinemas in the UK, and 200 round the world on June 25. He outlines the rationale behind this bold new initiative and discusses working on Racine in detail. More details on www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ntlive.
“We aim to be as creative and imaginative as we can about the way we shoot it but what we are going to be conveying is the excitement of the theatre.”
- Recording Date: 29-May-2009
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- West End Review (1/2): Mark Shenton invites David Benedict (Variety), Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph) and Matt Wolf (International Herald Tribune) to consider: Waiting for Godot (Theatre Royal Haymarket); Time and the Conways (National Theatre); A Doll's House (Donmar Warehouse) and Rookery Nook (Menier Chocolate Factory). Recorded at Dewynters, London.
“Godot is about the pain of living - I felt that this production was wrecked by being in the Theatre Royal Haymarket - they've got two of the biggest acting stars in the world, they know the audience they're going to get. So God forbid that they should get bored... let's entertain them.”
- Recording Date: 22-May-2009
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- West End Review (2/2): Mark Shenton invites David Benedict (Variety), Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph) and Matt Wolf (International Herald Tribune) to assess: The Observer (National Theatre); When the Rain Stops Falling (Almeida); Grasses of a Thousand Colours (Royal Court). Recorded at Dewynters, London.
“When the Rain Stops Falling is one of the best plays I've seen so far this year - it's about the tyranny of genetic inheritance, about relationships between parents and their children, and sexual damage passed through the generations, all done with rigour and intelligence...”
- Recording Date: 22-May-2009
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- Interview: Matt Charman. The award-winning playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his current show, The Observer (National Theatre), which is directed by Richard Eyre and looks at the transition to democracy in a fictional West African state. Recorded at the National.
“For me, the entire play is about language - it is about the fine letter of documents. Countries are built on little documents and tiny words.”
- Recording Date: 04-Jun-2009
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- Interview: April De Angelis. The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about her latest black comedy, Amongst Friends (currently at the Hampstead), set in a gated community, and about her career, which started in acting and in the feminist theatre of the 1980s.
“When you have a competitive society what you create is a resentment of other people's success - and fear.”
- Recording Date: 29-May-2009
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