Transcripts

SHAKESPEARE: MEASURE FOR MEASURE Director Michael Attenborough talks to Heather Neill about his modern-dress production of Shakespeare’s problem play, currently on at the Almeida, and starring Rory Kinnear and Anna Maxwell Martin. Recorded at the Almeida.

NEW WRITING SPECIAL Lecture entitled Blasted and After: New Writing in British Theatre Today, about in-yer-face theatre in 1990s and its aftermath, given by Aleks Sierz (Visiting Research Fellow, Rose Bruford College) at a meeting of the Society for Theatre Research, at the Art Workers Guild, London. Expletives not deleted.

FOCUS ON VIDEO Jill Evans, producer of the V&A’s National Video Archive of Performance, and Kate Dorney, curator of Modern and Contemporary Performance, tell Aleks Sierz about the V&A’s extensive collection of video recordings of theatre performances, and discuss the hazards as well as the joys of creating them.

FOCUS ON KANE Graham Saunders of Reading University talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest book, About Kane: The Playwright and the Work (Faber), which examines the output of Sarah Kane in the context of 1990s British theatre, and of her growing reputation.

STATE OF PLAY (2/2) Q&A: Guardian critic Michael Billington considers plays today, with a panel of industry insiders: Almeida artistic director Michael Attenborough, producer Sonia Friedman, director and writer Peter Gill, director Edward Hall and playwright Roy Williams. Part of Society of London Theatre’s Celebrate the Play initiative, marking SOLT’s 100th anniversary. Recorded at the Royal Court.

STATE OF PLAY (1/2) Guardian critic Michael Billington considers plays today, with a panel of industry insiders: Almeida artistic director Michael Attenborough, producer Sonia Friedman, director and writer Peter Gill, director Edward Hall and playwright Roy Williams. Part of Society of London Theatre’s Celebrate the Play initiative, marking SOLT’s 100th anniversary. Recorded at the Royal Court.

INTERVIEW: PETER GILL (1/2) The veteran director and playwright speaks to Aleks Sierz about his own production of his 1976 play, Small Change (currently revived at the Donmar), and about his early career at the Royal Court in the late 1950s and 1960s.

INTERVIEW: PETER GILL (2/2) The veteran director and playwright speaks some more to Aleks Sierz about his own production of his 1976 play, Small Change (currently revived at the Donmar), and about his early career at the Royal Court in the late 1950s and 1960s.

WEST END REVIEW Mark Shenton (Sunday Express) asks David Benedict (Variety), Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph) and Matt Wolf (International Herald Tribune) to share their verdicts on God of Carnage (Gielgud), Never So Good (National) and Jersey Boys (Prince Edward). Recorded at Dewynters, London.

FOCUS ON YOUTH THEATRE (1/2) Heather Neill talks to Roy Williams, Dennis Kelly and Lin Coghlan about their plays – Baby Girl, DNA and The Miracle – which originated in the NT Connections festival of work for young people.

FOCUS ON YOUTH THEATRE (2/2) Heather Neill continues her chat with Roy Williams, Dennis Kelly and Lin Coghlan about their plays for the National Theatre: Baby Girl, DNA and The Miracle.

INTERVIEW: DAVID PUGH The top West End producer, who has been responsible for hits such as Art, The Play What I Wrote, Equus and now Yasmina Reza’s The God of Carnage (Gielgud), chats frankly to Philip Fisher about the art of being a theatre impresario.

FOCUS ON DESIGN Anya Sainsbury, who set up the prestigious Linbury Biennial Prize for theatre design, talks to the Theatre Museum’s Geoffrey Marsh about 20 years of helping young designers, and comments on this year’s winners.

WEST END REVIEW (1/2) The National’s sell-out production of Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse is discussed by David Benedict (Variety) and Jane Edwardes (Time Out). Dominic Cavendish (Daily Telegraph) hosts. Recorded at Dewynters, London.

INTERVIEW: MATTHEW BOURNE The adventurous choreographer chats to Philip Fisher about the current revival of his 2000 ‘dancicle’ show, The Car Man, and about his career, which also includes Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Edward Scissorhands.

INTERVIEW: MIKE BARTLETT The playwright talks to Andrew Haydon, theatre editor of Culture Wars, about his 40-minute debut, My Child (Royal Court), and about life at the Royal Court under Dominic Cooke’s new regime.

REVIEWERS on REVIEWING (1/2) Journalist Uchenna Izundu quizzes Dominic Cavendish (Telegraph), Jane Edwardes (Time Out) and Lyn Gardner (Guardian) about the business, and art, of theatre criticism. Where did they start and how can other people get in on the act?

THEATRE FORUM IRELAND 2006: ASKING FOR TROUBLE (1/3) The public debate on Censorship and Artistic Freedom, with Neal Foster, Stewart Lee, Peter Sellars and Janet Steel. Conall Morrison chairs.

REPUTATIONS: DAVID HARE (3/3) Q&A: Michael Billington, Richard Boon, Sir Richard Eyre and Charles Spencer conclude the session. Dominic Cavendish chairs. Recorded live.

REPUTATIONS: DAVID HARE (2/3) Michael Billington, Richard Boon, Sir Richard Eyre and Charles Spencer continue to consider Hare’s contribution to British theatre. Dominic Cavendish hosts. Recorded live.

REPUTATIONS: DAVID HARE (1/3) Michael Billington, Richard Boon, Sir Richard Eyre and Charles Spencer consider Hare’s status. Dominic Cavendish hosts. Recorded live.

REPUTATIONS: MARTIN CRIMP (2/2) Lindsay Posner, Dan Rebellato, Auriol Smith and Anne Tipton conclude their reflections on Crimp’s varied body of work. Aleks Sierz hosts. Recorded live.

REPUTATIONS: MARTIN CRIMP (1/2) Lindsay Posner, Dan Rebellato, Auriol Smith and Anne Tipton begin their comprehensive survey of Crimp’s formidable dramatic output. Aleks Sierz hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: CHILDREN’S THEATRE (3/3) Q&A: John Retallack, David Wood and Annie Wood conclude their discussion. Heather Neill hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: CHILDREN’S THEATRE (2/3) John Retallack, David Wood and Annie Wood continue the discussion. Heather Neill hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: CHILDREN’S THEATRE (1/3) A discussion with John Retallack, David Wood and Annie Wood. Heather Neill hosts. Recorded live.

MARY POPPINS David Benedict, Jane Edwardes and Mark Shenton love every minute of the long-awaited Poppins premiere, the final big musical opening of the season. Matt Wolf hosts.

INTERVIEW: STEPHEN SEWELL The Australian playwright talks to Philip Fisher about his acclaimed war-on-terror thriller, Myth, Progaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany… and Contemporary America.

DEBATE: THE STATE OF BLACK THEATRE (2/2) Kwame Kwei-Armah, Steven Luckie and Paulette Randall continue to ponder the boom in black work. Andrea Enisuoh hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: THE STATE OF BLACK THEATRE (1/2) Is there a renaissance? Andrea Enisuoh consults Kwame Kwei-Armah, Steven Luckie and Paulette Randall. Recorded live.

MASTERCLASS: CAN ACTING BE TAUGHT? (1/3) In conjunction with the Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass series, Geoffrey Colman, Patricia Hodge and Steve Larcher tackle the big question. David Benedict hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: NEW WRITING (2/3) Richard Bean, Mark Ravenhill and Simon Stephens consider the impact, or otherwise, of Blair and 9/11. Aleks Sierz hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: NEW WRITING (1/2) Playwrights Richard Bean, Mark Ravenhill and Simon Stephens take the measure of the new writing scene. Aleks Sierz hosts. Recorded live.

DEBATE: NEW WRITING (3/3) Q&A: Richard Bean, Simon Stephens and Mark Ravenhill answer questions, including: whatever happened to in-yer-face theatre…? Aleks Sierz hosts. Recorded live.

INTERVIEW: MARK RYLANCE (2/2) Heather Neill continues her conversation with the artistic director of Shakespeare’s Globe, looking at original pronunciation productions.

INTERVIEW: MARK RYLANCE (1/2) Prior to the 2004 season at Shakespeare’s Globe, ‘Star-Crossed Lovers’, Heather Neill talks to its tireless artistic director.

INTERVIEW: MAX STAFFORD-CLARK The artistic director of Out of Joint talks to David Benedict about The Permanent Way by David Hare and the genre of documentary theatre.

INTERVIEW: STEVEN BERKOFF The maverick playwright talks to Rachel Halliburton about his controversial Messiah, the critics he reviles and what he’d do if he ran the National Theatre.

INTERVIEW: NICOLAS KENT The artistic director of the Tricycle Theatre talks to Rachel Hallibuton about Justifying War, a staging of the Hutton Inquiry transcripts.

DEBATE: POLITICAL THEATRE Lisa Goldman, artistic director of the Red Room, joins Aleks Sierz and Carole Woddis to talk politics. Dominic Cavendish hosts.

DEMOCRACY Jane Edwardes and John Nathan applaud Michael Frayn’s complex account of high-level politics and espionage in 1960s West Germany. David Benedict hosts.