Posts tagged as:

political theatre

70 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.

Julia Pascal and Ailin Conant: war crimes, guilt and trauma in Nineveh

30 April 2013

in Directors, London Fringe, New Writing, Playwrights

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: JULIA PASCAL and AILIN CONANT The writer and director of Nineveh (Riverside Studios) talk to Judi Herman about Theatre Témoin’s powerful play, born of Conant’s year speaking to ex soldiers about the trauma of guilt, explored by Pascal through the Biblical story of Jonah, the prophet swallowed by a whale in punishment for not taking God’s word to Nineveh.

The Tricycle’s Indhu Rubasingham celebrates her first year as artistic director

5 April 2013

in Asian Voices, Directors, Theatre buildings

INTERVIEW: INDHU RUBASINGHAM The new artistic director of The Tricycle Theatre in north London talks to Suman Bhuchar about her first year in the job, and about the pleasures as well as the challenges of running this high-profile Off-West End venue, whose 2012 hit, Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet, has just been nominated for an Olivier Award.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

David Edgar’s masterpiece, Pentecost, revived

28 March 2012

in New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: DAVID EDGAR The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his 1994 RSC play, Pentecost, a panoramic sweep through European history, culture and art that covers the new world order after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and which is currently being revived in a production at St Leonard’s church, in Shoreditch, East London, directed by Gavin McAlinden.

Elgiva Field explores the dark world of Sofi Oksanen’s Purge

12 March 2012

in Directors, Feminism, International, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: ELGIVA FIELD The Artistic Director of Oblique House theatre company leads Aleks Sierz through the dark deeds and political complexities of Sofi Oksanen’s Purge, the play version of her bestselling novel, and a powerful production which is currently enjoying a successful run at the Arcola Theatre.

Angus Jackson directs Edward Bond’s flinty study of the bard

10 March 2012

in 1970s Drama, Directors, Playwrights, Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama

INTERVIEW: ANGUS JACKSON The director talks to Aleks Sierz about his sellout revival of Edward Bond’s Bingo: Scenes of Money and Death (1973), which is currently at the Young Vic in a co-production with the Chichester Festival. The play, which stars Patrick Stewart, looks at Shakespeare’s last weeks of life.

Theatre 503 develops the latest in speedy new writing

3 March 2012

in Directors, New Writing, Playwrights

INTERVIEW: STEVE HARPER, PAUL ROBINSON and KAZIA COLE Theatre 503′s Literary Manager, Co-Artistic Director and Literary Assistant talk to Sophie Reynolds about Rapid Write Response Nights – the theatre’s fast-paced new writing programme. They also discuss the upcoming Rapid Write Rewind, a writing extravaganza which will showcase some of the best of these responses from the past two years.

Playwright David Eldridge revisits his Essex roots

1 March 2012

in New Writing, Playwrights, Political theatre

INTERVIEW: DAVID ELDRIDGE The playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest hit, In Basildon (Royal Court), a family play which includes a battle over an inheritance, class antagonism and an epic account of working-class migration from the East End of London to south Essex. He also reveals the origins of his 2005 play, Incomplete and Random Acts of Kindness, and encourages playwrights to stand up for themselves.

A Walk On Part: Changing the World after New Labour

2 December 2011

in Directors, Reviews and Roundtables

DEBATE: CHANGING THE WORLD THROUGH POLITICS AND THE ARTS Panel discussion chaired by Michael Crick with participants Diane Abbott MP, Don Foster MP, Artistic Director Steve Marmion and actor John Hodgkinson, about the political background of Michael Chaplin’s adaptation of Chris Mullin’s diaries, A Walk On Part: The Fall of New Labour (currently at the Soho Theatre).

The Riots – discussed by Nicolas Kent and Gillian Slovo

9 November 2011

in Directors, Political theatre, Verbatim Drama

1 Comment

INTERVIEW: NICOLAS KENT and GILLIAN SLOVO The artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre and writer talk to Dominic Cavendish about The Riots, an attempt to create a rapid-reaction verbatim drama in response to the riots that swept across England in August 2011.

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.

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.

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