Philippa Kaur

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    Interview: Making A Show of our Politics

    Emma Burnell on Triggered

    Earlier this year, Emma Burnell‘s Triggered sold out its run in the lovely Lion & Unicorn Theatre. It’s now about to start a second run in the equally delightful White Bear Theatre from 22 November. Although it might be too late to get tickets as this has now sold out too! (We recommend checking with the venue for returns.) But sold out or not, we still grabbed the chance to chat with Emma about the show, reviewing herself and selling out.

    Diving straight in, tell us what audiences can expect from Triggered?

    Triggered is about the fictional deselection of a Labour MP. So first and foremost, it’s a play about political processes and the people to whom they matter.

    But in truth, it’s about the real human beings that get involved in politics. I tried to look at the question of deselections from every angle – without taking a view. When we showed it the first time in the summer, we had the head of Momentum (the pro-Corbyn organisation) in and the head of Labour to Win (the pro-Starmer group) who both enjoyed it and both thought it made their case!

    We get a laugh out of the byzantine nature of the rulebook, but what I wanted to show is that people in politics at all levels are trying to do their best. There aren’t any bad guys in Triggered – just good people with different perspectives.

    Triggered played a short run earlier this year in Lion & Unicorn, how did you feel went? Have you changed or revisited anything in the play for this second run?

    It went really well. We had incredibly responsive audiences who seemed to really love it. It was so interesting talking to them afterward and hearing their responses to it. Everyone has a different theory about it! It is so funny when people tell me that I wrote it with one aim or another in mind – and they all contradict each other. But the joy is – they do want to talk about it afterwards. That makes me feel like we’ve really achieved something.

    I believe you had some Labour MPs attend, did they have any feedback on how the play reflected life in the Labour party?

    They said it was almost too real! One night we even had a Labour whip in at the same time as an MP who was in trouble with leadership and whips. Luckily none of them was Gavin Williamson and everything was fine. The Whip was laughing a lot at the scenes about the discipline so that was good.

    They were actually kind enough to make a video of their reactions.

    [embedded content]

    It must be a fantastic feeling to have sold out your second run but does it also bring any additional nerves or pressure with it?

    In some ways I think it makes it easier. Audiences are lovely and responsive and give the actors so much energy. So, when we play to a full house, I think it just helps us all bring just a little something extra. However, we do need to make sure that whatever size of audience we’re playing for, we give it everything. The cast are so brilliant, I know they could and would deliver to one man and a dog.

    However many people are there though, the thing is that they have paid us their money to be there. That’s not something I take lightly in these times. As someone who has (and still does) reviewed, I know that an audience’s time is precious and valuable. We owe them the best show we can give them.

    During a recent round of chaos in British politics, there was a tweet from James Graham which said Don’t any of you buggers call anything political I ever write again ‘implausible’. It made me wonder, how do you approach presenting a play that audiences can believe and respect in a time when we have such unprecedented political chaos?

    It’s interesting with this play. My first play – No Cure For Love – was set in a world I know nothing about. And yet both characters are me. They’re an extension of an argument I have in my head about love and sex all the time.

    Here this is totally my world. I have worked in politics for 20 years. But none of the characters are me at all. In fact, at times I disagree with all of them.

    But I knew that we would have a lot of people coming who would be really really bothered by us getting details wrong. So I learned the rulebook backwards. I got someone who does sit on an NEC panel to look over the script to make sure we wouldn’t be jarring people out of the action with something unrealistic.

    This is your second play, plus you’re also a journalist and theatre reviewer. How have you found this new role as playwright and director? Has it affected how you approach your own reviews now that you have had a full view behind the stage curtain?

    I learned so much about directing from reviewing. So many night watching plays that either entranced me or left me cold or were even just a bit middling, I wasn’t just responding in the moment, but thinking deeply about why that was. And making sure I understood that well enough for myself that I could articulate it in a way that others could find helpful.

    It is so much harder reviewing now. Because I know so much how it feels to be critiqued in that way. But I also know that I am not – eventually – doing anyone any favours if I am not honest. If I give a play a low score, then I always make sure that I say why in the review. What it was that didn’t work for me and why so that – if they want to – they can address it. I hate reviews that are just about the reviewer showing off and being catty and arch or even about them celebrating the theme of the piece rather than the theatre of it.

    For me reviews serve two purposes: firstly helping a hard pressed audience find something that they might want to go and watch; secondly, championing a piece that has really moved me (to laughter, tears or thoughtfulness) and that I think deserves shouting about.

    If something is not great, I feel a duty to that first audience to say so, but to the second to justify why I think so.

    Will we see more of Triggered, two sold out runs would suggest there might be a bright future for this particular play? Do you have anything else in the pipeline at the moment that you can tell us about?
    I mean obviously if a much larger theatre wanted to develop Triggered that would be great. I am extremely proud of it as a piece (*awaits reviews – GULP*). A lot of people on Twitter have also mentioned that they would love to see it in their town, and I think political theatre like Triggered is having a real moment so I think there’s an audience there. What I don’t have is a budget to tour a four actor show or a producer with the know how! I’m open to conversation though – as that would be the dream.
    I am also already working on my next piece of theatre – a one-woman cabaret show loosely based on the Medusa myth. And if I don’t chicken out, the one woman is going to be me. On stage for real, acting and even bloody singing!
    I am also – somewhat bizarrely – potentially working on a Hollywood film with a guy who used to be my music teacher and is now an Emmy nominated composer. As Ferris Bueller says – life comes at you pretty fast sometimes.

    Finally, for a bit of fun as we touched on your journalism and reviewing background above. What question should we have asked you here but managed to miss out and if you’d kindly answer it for us too 😉

    These have been great questions. I suppose the question I am asking myself as I type these answers late on Sunday night is how I fit it all in. Which I don’t really know the answer to yet.

    I know that the question I get a lot from theatre friends is whether I want to be an MP. My political friends know from the state of my Twitter (I am exceptionally indiscreet about myself) that I never would.

    The truth is I would be a terrible MP. I know lots of people who do it brilliantly and they are so dedicated – I hope that respect shows in the piece. But I like to flit from theatre to politics to journalism. I like to write about sex and love and my past and potentially my future and all of those things would make me very unlikely to get through a selection process or to put up with doing the same job for years and years.

    Thanks so much to Emma for taking time to chat with us, you can follow her on Twitter and visit her website here.

    Triggered plays at White Bear Theatre 22 – 26 November and has sold out it’s run. Look for our Everything Theatre review to follow. More

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    Interview: Mum’s The Word

    Psychonaut Theatre on bring Mums to Lion and Unicorn Theatre

    There’s a reason we love the Lion and Unicorn Theatre so much, and why it is the venue that perhaps comes up fairly regularly in our interviews. It certainly isn’t because of their comfy seats! No, it’s because they provide a place for emerging artists to hone their skill and their shows.

    Which is why when we heard about Psychonaut Theatre and their show Mums which will play at the venue in December, we didn’t hesitate to find some time to chat about the show and their company.

    So we sat down (on comfy chairs) with company founder and Artistic Director Arielle Zilkha, and Mums directors, Lavinia Grippa and Karola Kosecka, to hear more about the play and why venues such as this are so vital to young emerging artists.

    Let’s kick straight off with Mums and what’s it all about then?

    KK: Mums is a collective meditation on the process of grieving. During the performance we try to create a safe space for both audience and performers to draw on their internal landscapes of connotations with this state, through the story of one family who suffered a tragedy which pushed them into a permanent cycle of grief.

    An impulse that had led me to start thinking about the topic was a line that I found in one of my old diaries. It was saying: “I am grieving after my brother’s wellbeing” but the key point here is that my brother was never fully healthy, he has always suffered. How can I grieve over something that was never real? Something that had never happened? We try to unpack those questions but our performance is not at all an answer given to the audience. It’s rather an invitation to go through those questions individually but in connection with others.

    Mums is inspired by a 1994 play by Jean-Luc Lagarce – not a name that is probably known to that many of us, what brought you to this play?

    KK: At the beginning of our creative process, I proposed a few general topics to the other performers to see which one resonated with all of us. I wanted to observe if there was any subject that could be thrown into the room and wake up people’s imaginations, memories, dreams. I started the discussion with giving them four broad terms: longing, grieving, sex, exclusion. We started unpacking those words and each member of our group had a possibility to share. After a short time, it became clear that we were all strongly interested in exploring a state of grieving. I started to collect all the things that can bring a person to grieving. I believe that you can reach this state not only after going through somebody’s death but also after a break-up, losing mental stability, after a job that you no longer have, youth, friendship and many more.

    I started looking for texts that are very much rooted in this weird, ghosted sense of living with grief but I kept in mind to search for a piece that would still have elements of non-fiction storytelling. And that is when I first thought of Jean-Luc Lagarce – French director, actor and theatre maker from the second half of the twentieth century.

    And you say inspired by as opposed to based on, how much is the original text and how much is your original for this play?

    KK: Yes, I never say that we are basing our performance on Lagarce’s play. What I believe we did is that we took his text as a base to build on. After I translated the French script and cut out some bits from it, we ended up using less than one quarter of the original drama. Moreover, we added plenty of multiform content that we created in the process of workshopping. Our piece is immersed in music written by Arielle, which she based on a Polish folk song that I sang at one of our first sessions, during an exercise of creating a soundscape to situations that happened in our lives and that are somehow connected to grief. Later I also added the Parable of the Prodigal Son which became an ending to our story – a confession of the Mother to her kids, her subtle but unbearably honest way of telling her children what a mother is going through when she loses a son. There is also a monologue that Eva’s character gives– it was written by her and it came from her own process of building a relationship with the character she is playing.

    The common thread is one of grief and how we deal with it, have you or the performers brought personal experiences to the performance as a way of making it more personal?

    LG: The subject of grief was decided as the base of our play from the beginning of our process, mainly because we have all experienced grief in some way. It was very clear from the beginning that we didn’t want to restrict the concept of grief to death: we wanted to see it more as the loss of something or the longing that will never be fulfilled, something which is heavily explored in Mums.

    Our process for the play started by exploring this concept further, through workshops and exercises, finding what grief meant for each performer and what their bigger object of grief was. As a company when devising work, we begin our process from the ‘outside’, exploring themes broadly through diving into our personal experiences, and then moving ‘inside’- finding a frame to apply our findings to. The text of Jean-Luc Lagarce was a great fit for our work: a common subject of grief and yet five very clear, personal and different approaches towards it.

    This is Psychonaut Theatre’s first production, is this a sign of what you intend to do with future works? Will we be seeing more European inspired works?

    AZ: Definitely! Because we’re such an international group, it’s really important to us that our work authentically represents the diversity of our ensemble. And through that, we love to discover less well-known international texts that we can translate and adapt as a springboard for our own material. Text has never been the driving force of our work as a group or as individuals, but that’s not to say that it hasn’t underpinned our devising process, like in Mums. Our work tends to be less narrative focussed, and perhaps less of what British theatre audiences are used to. Part of our mission as a company is to introduce these audiences to a more experimental style of theatre, and challenge them to take risks with the theatre they choose to watch- like we take risks with the theatre we make.

    Additionally, because we operate as a collective of artists, the style of our group work will change on a project-to-project basis, representative of the directing member’s practice: a piece led by me would have a different focus and style to one led by Karola. But, we are all part of Psychonaut, and therefore we are driven by the same core principles.

    What was the thought process behind that company name, it certainly stands out!

    AZ: Thank you! Well, a psychonaut is someone who uses hallucinogenic substances to explore their subconscious. And that’s basically the experience we want to give to audiences who come to our shows. As performance-makers in the 21st century, we place a lot of focus on theatre as a live art form, and how that liveness can create new and perhaps unexpected events for the audience. Our aim for Mums is for it to take the audience to a place of meditation around grieving, where they can totally immerse themselves in the thoughts, feelings and experiences that come with it.

    How did you get involved with The Lion and Unicorn Theatre?

    AZ: Mums is a piece we developed during our final term at university, in preparation for our graduate showcase. We’d built the company during our time on the course so everything would be ready for us to launch into the industry once we graduated. Mums received really positive feedback from all different age groups, so I didn’t hesitate to take the plunge and get it out there! The Lion and Unicorn Theatre really stood out for me as a venue for emerging artists and companies, where the work doesn’t have to tick a specific box, but rather artists are free to take risks and experiment however they wish to. I’m really thankful that they saw something in our company and invited us to be part of their curated programme!

    With the play called Mums, we have to ask, are you inviting your mums along to see it in December?

    LG: With our mums all from different countries, it will be tricky- but we’ll definitely film it for them! However, there are a few different reasons why we chose this title. The first one is because of the more common name for the flower Chrysanthemum that is usually put on the graves of loved ones.

    Grief, and the burden of pain sometimes distances us from all of the characteristics that usually represent motherhood, such as looking out for others, putting oneself as second and putting others as a priority. When grief comes along, especially grief for one’s child, all of this can fail. For our mother in the play this is exactly what happened: to nurture her pain and her grief she stopped nurturing her children, which led to them all trying to nurture themselves. We started to see them all as possible motherly figures, especially my character, the Oldest, who takes on the duty to do what her mother, destroyed by her own grief, is no longer able to do.

    What do you have planned for 2023 after this then?

    AZ: Our main goal for 2023 is to focus on taking Mums to more audiences and build more relationships with venues, perhaps also exploring non-theatrical spaces where it can be performed. We’d love to secure a longer run in London and maybe even take it out of the capital. In addition to that I’m also producing the UK premiere of a piece by collective member Juraj Benko, made in collaboration with Nordisk Teater Laboratorium-Odin Teatret in Denmark. And I’m going to start thinking about our next project which we’ll likely start working on in 2024. So, a lot to look forward to.

    Our thanks to the team at Psychonaut Theatre for chatting with us. Mums will play at Lion and Unicorn Theatre 6 – 10 December 2022. Further information and bookings can be found here.

    (Photo credits: Christina Sarkisian, Sanna Hofker and Alex Forey) More

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    Interview: Tellling The Truth for Pinocchio

    Justin Audibert and Eve Leigh on Unicorn Theatre’s Pinocchio

    This Christmas at the Unicorn Theatre there’s not just one, not two, but three shows for families to choose from, both live and streamed. We were delighted to have the opportunity to chat with Artistic Director Justin Audibert and Playwright Eve Leigh about one of them, Pinocchio, and ask them about what they are getting up to with this classic family favourite.

    Hi Justin, Hi Eve! It’s fabulous to get a chance to chat with you about Pinocchio – the Play at the Unicorn this season. I was going to start very rudely with “Duh, why Pinocchio AGAIN? Everyone does that!”, but having seen the incredible Gulliver‘s Travels you guys came up with earlier this year I now know better than to doubt you. What prompted you to choose this play?

    EL: We’re in a moment that many people describe as “post-truth.” In a post-truth world, what is the value of telling the truth? Why teach our children to tell the truth? What kind of behaviour is encouraged in a world where your word is assumed to essentially be worthless?

    I wanted to make a version of Pinocchio that was incredibly joyous and satisfying as a seasonal play, that also, quietly but persistently, asked these questions. How are we in relation to each other?

    JA: Eve spoke with such a clarity of vision about how she felt the story sang to her that I was compelled to commission, and she duly delivered with her first draft. But what additionally surprised and moved me so much was how rich and true to life the relationship between Pinocchio and Gepetto was. In this version you see Gepetto struggling to be a good parent just as much as Pinocchio is struggling to be a good boy, and that is where the heart of the story lies.

    The story originated in Italy way back in 1883, in Carlo Collodi’s brilliant book: are you going for a traditional style of Christmas show reflecting its heritage, or can we expect some twists and tech?

    EL: Justin will talk more about this, I’m sure, but this is a playful, theatrical production that makes great use of puppetry and a very physical ensemble!

    JA: We have all the festive bells and whistles that you could possibly want; sparkles, dances, live music, a set so delicious that you want to eat it right up, but we also have not shied away from the danger, darkness and surrealism of the original. Collodi mixes light and shade up so powerfully in the novel and we have been inspired to do that with this production. Any moment you find yourself belly laughing you are probably in for a nasty shock thirty seconds later…

    I see there are puppets in the show, designed and made by the amazing Chris Pirie, and you have the fantastic Laura Cubitt directing puppetry and movement – both top talent! Can you tell us a bit about this?

    EL: Chris taught Jean Chan, our wonderful designer, when she trained at Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama so she was the first person she thought of when we realised we wanted to play with scale and puppetry in the production. Chris works with such love, care and attention to detail, but he also has a very funny sense of humour. I think the children will be scared of his hulking dogfish and I think the parents will be chortling away at his interpretation.

    Laura has been someone I have wanted to work with for ages because I have followed the shows she has made and her work as a performer. It’s been a dream collaboration. She has such a wide range of skills and influences that have fed into the show. Special mention of course has to go to the delicate work she has done with Peyvand Sadeghian, our Pinocchio, in slowly turning the character from a marionette puppet into a real boy. Also, she has done some wonderful work with Susan Harrison in creating Marmalade the Cat and in giving us a Blue Fairy in Eleanor Wyld with a whole heap of world weariness, but also true magic. It’s been such a lovely experience.

    What about the rest of the cast? I’m presuming there are also some humans onstage?

    EL: For me, something that’s given the production a lot of richness is that Peyvand, playing a puppet, is also a professional puppeteer. I feel like you can really see that in what they bring to Pinocchio –  there’s just a specificity and delicacy in their performance that helps the production language between puppets and actors come together.,

    JA: Tom Kanji as Gepetto likewise brings such a tenderness to his portrayal and yet such a vulnerability and humanity. He isn’t the doddery old man in the Disney film; he is so much more rounded and flawed. And then Tom gets to absolutely let his comic chops rip in portraying the raffish and dastardly Fratello who leads Pinocchio astray. Additional shout outs to Pinocchio’s sticky fingered, studious best friend Polpetta (Eleanor Wyld), who is maybe the pinkest thing on the planet and to Sam Pay’s utterly terrifying bully Mommo, part giant manbaby part arsonist. My personal favorite character though is Eleanor as the toy obsessed Duchess, with a golden wig from the heavens. It has to be seen to be believed.

    Using puppetry as part of the production, I’m guessing it will be taking us on adventures to places we wouldn’t normally get to go. What can you tell us?

    EL: Did you ever wonder if there were glow-in-the-dark fish skeletons inside a shark’s belly? WONDER NO MORE (and spoiler alert).

    JA: Ha ha ha! Eve, I can’t believe you’ve spilled those beans! We also do some very fun and magical flying too – well, it is Christmas after all.

    Many of the audience will know the story from the Disney movie, which has some fabulous songs in it. Will you be having music too?

    EL: Yes we do! Our brilliant music is by Barnaby Race, played mostly on the accordion by Sam Pay and sung by the cast.

    The original story is about Pinocchio’s moral development, which sounds a bit heavy going on paper. Will there be themes that are fun and relevant to today’s audiences at Christmas?

    EL: Absolutely. I’m tempted to list some of the more obviously fun and ridiculous things the production has – con artists! A murderous ginger cat! The Blue Fairy as played by Carol Kane from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt! – but really, what the production is about is the ways in which we are real to each other. We can’t understand that we’re real until we understand that other people are real, that the impact we have on other people is real. Being reminded that we’re real, that other people are real, and that our actions matter, could not be more important going into this winter.

    JA: Amen to that. We want to spread joy, laughter and hope with this beautiful show this festive season.

    Many thanks to Justin Audibert and Eve Leigh for taking the time out of their busy schedules to talk with us. Pinocchio runs at the Unicorn Theatre from 6 November – 31 December 2022 and is aimed at ages 7+. Check the website here for full dates plus a range of access performances. More

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    Interview: Diving into The Drought

    Playwright Nina Atesh and Director Chloe Cattin talk about The Drought

    A psychological horror in an original setting with a tight, smart script and performances to match.

    That’s how we described The Drought in our review when it played at King’s Head Theatre. With the play now returning to Old Red Lion Theatre as part of Grimfest, we caught up with its writer Nina Atesh and director Chloe Cattin to talk about life on the seabed.

    Tell us a little about The Drought, what can audiences expect?

    Nina: The Drought is a story set on a Victorian British Navy ship, several months into an unexpected disaster where all the ocean all over the world has disappeared. The crew have left their ship, and the only two people remaining aboard are the Captain and his steward. I would say don’t expect your typical horror story. There are no jump scares – not a lot of graphic gore. What I tried to create with this play is a sense of desperation, a chilling dread in the wake of something terrible and unimaginable happening… and what that does to the human mind. Essentially it is a story about madness – but there are other major themes in there of colonialism, hierarchy and servitude. 

    Chloe: Nina has written a beautiful play – even on the second run of it, it still brings up questions and interpretations in the rehearsal room. I think audiences can be expected to be confronted with their own humanity. The pandemic is still quite recent – our lives were disrupted for a time and we entered into our own modes of survival. That’s where we meet the Captain and his Steward – in survival mode. They cling and claw onto what is familiar in the midst of this unspeakable happening.

    How did you feel the run at King’s Head theatre last month went? Reviews, including ours, were quite positive, you must have been pleased? Have you made (m)any changes for this second run?

    Nina: This is my first ever play – so to have it debut at the King’s Head was just an incredible experience! It’s a really hard time for Fringe theatre at the moment, so the support I had from the theatre and the audiences was so great. The feedback was really positive, I was certainly surprised considering we didn’t have the chance for previews or any R&D’s in the lead up. I just kind of threw the production in at the deep end! But I had faith in the story, and a lot of faith in the performers, who are all incredible – so I think it worked out well for us. As a writer, you’re always thinking of tweaks, or what could be done differently. I watched the show every night, and I knew we had another run coming up in November so I came away sort of buzzing to get back into the script again. There hasn’t been a great deal of time to make too many drastic changes, and you’re always limited by what you can do on a Fringe stage(!) but there are certainly some things I took away from that first run that we’re trying to inject into the upcoming one. 

    Chloe: Alex McCarthy and Nina did such a wonderful job for the run at the King’s Head. Alex – for his beautiful direction and sound design and Nina for her incredible script. It’s exciting to have another chance to work on the play in a different space because every performance is site specific in a way. It’s not a question of transposing the play from one venue to another but looking at what challenges and opportunities the space yields. So whilst the script has had a few tweaks, the staging has changed quite a bit.
    The King’s Head Theatre was laid out in the traverse so the actors could be seen by the audience from all angles – there was nowhere to hide! The two sides of the audience were seeing two sides of the story. We performed on the set of another show as well so had a few elements we had to work with at the last minute.
    In the Old Red Lion, there is a more traditional, end on, configuration and the space is ours for our entire run so we can really settle in! It feels more intimate and confrontational, almost claustrophobic. Walking up the stairs up to the theatre feels like a ship. It feels a bit more immersive.

    Chloe, you are taking over as director in Old Red Lion, have the cast been welcoming or have you had to stamp your authority down immediately? Tell us a little about first working on the show in King’s Head and now moving to directing it in ORL? 

    They’re such a great group, it’s lovely to be working together again after the first run!

    The creative team made it clear early on that I shouldn’t have a carbon copy of the show at the Old Red Lion but to use the second run as an opportunity to take on the feedback from the first run, and have another iteration of the show. Alex said he wasn’t ‘precious’ about the work but just to make it even better. Which is quite a unique position to be in as an associate director because usually the originating artist is very specific about what they want. 

    As the stage manager for the King’s Head run, I got to know the production on a technical level – doing pre-show checks, writing lists, giving the actors calls, operating sound and lights and generally holding the space for the cast and creative team. Whilst operating the sound and lights, you get a feel for how the piece breathes and moves with the performers. As a director I’ve still got all those elements in my head but I’m now in a position to influence the piece with feedback from the first iteration and my own understanding of the play.

    Nina, take us a step further back in the development of the show: how did Andrew Callaghan, Jack Flammiger and Caleb O’Brien come together to become your naval trio?

    We did group auditions and funnily enough, Andrew, Jack and Caleb all auditioned together. For me it was a thing of just seeing these performers instantly gel, and thinking to myself almost as soon as they walked through the door – oh my god. This is our cast. These are my characters! There was an instant dynamic there, and they brought things to the characters I hadn’t even thought of whilst writing it. I think that’s what you look for in a performer – someone who can see things between the lines. It was a fascinating process for me, someone who’s come from a performance background myself and being on the other side of it was just so thrilling. I remember loving that day – it was such a rewarding part of the process. 

    Listening to our recent podcast where we chatted with Nina and a couple of the cast, it sounded like The Drought became a very collaborative process once the script met the rehearsal room, can you expand a little on that?

    Nina: Yes, it really was. Again it’s that thing of the actors finding so much in these characters, that you don’t want, or even need, to push them back and say – no he wouldn’t do that, or say that – because they understand the story and their characters so well, that it’s easy to make those edits in the rehearsal room because you know they work and make sense. I remember Andrew (who plays the Captain) coming in on one of our first rehearsals with this whole fleshed out background for the character, with a family and a career history and everything! And I just thought wow… this guy knows the character even better than I do!
    What was great about the creative process too, is that the team weren’t afraid to question things in the script, maybe even things about the characters or their intentions that I had overlooked. So it was a really fun process. I think writers can have a tendency to be quite insular – can get stuck away in their own little world and then just shield themselves from the rehearsal room. I’m the complete opposite of that – I want to see it grow and take a shape. I think it makes you realise things about your own writing that you never would’ve thought of before. The Drought is one of those stories with lots of unreliable narrators… there’s a lot of deception – who is telling the truth? So it’s really important for a play like this to be worked through in a way that is collaborative.

    Chloe: And it’s still a very collaborative process going into the Old Red Lion! It’s my favourite way to work as a theatre maker! Everyone takes an active part in the making of the work, the work is never done. The actors know these characters so well and are constantly interrogating the work. Nina’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the Navy is indispensable in staging the work too. It really is a very collaborative process. 

    You are back in rehearsals this week; we imagine it’s a somewhat different process when everyone knows each other already and has at least some familiarity with the script. How has it been going?

    Nina: Honestly I couldn’t wait to get back into rehearsals, not just to get stuck into the play again, but also because I genuinely just enjoy everyone’s company! It sounds cliche – but they really are just a lovely bunch to work with. I think there’s been enough time since the first run that it feels a bit fresh, but not too long that it’s been easy to get back into the swing of it and immerse ourselves back into this world. It’s a different space so it’s interesting to think of the set up of the cabin (which is where the whole play takes place) and think about new things we can do with the set with the extra time we have.
    Chloe: There’s a shorthand not only with the group but with the play itself so we have been able to dive right back in! It’s so rare to get the opportunity to work on a play again, to look at it with all the experience of the first run but with the novelty of a new space. 

    Moving on from The Drought, what is next for you both and for Pither Productions? Is there anything coming up you can tell us about?

    Nina: The British Navy and Victorian expeditions really are enveloping my life at the moment! There’s some very very brief and early stage discussions about possibly adapting The Drought for TV but that really is dependent on some higher up the food chain powers that be! For now I’m just really enjoying it being on stage, and would love to take the show on tour next year if we can get the funding for it. But away from dried out earth and hairy sea captains… I’d love to bring more horror on to the stage. I’m really keen to promote more of these chilling, atmospheric tales that can have such an impact in small intimate venues like fringe theatres – and not just for the Halloween season(!) So I plan on spending this winter putting pen to paper again and maybe writing something new. So watch this space… 😉 

    Chloe: I’ve got a busy and varied season of work coming up! After The Drought, I am directing a rehearsed reading of The Prophet of Monto by JP Murphy which we have just cast. Then I’m directing a Christmas show Deck the Stalls, an anti-panto written by Lydia Brickland, for a mini London tour in December. I’m also prepping for Dead Positive by Hannah Kennedy which has a run in February next year. We’ve also just finished casting it so it’s wonderful to have it slowly come together.

    Our thanks to Nina and Chloe for taking a break from rehearsals to chat with us. All photo credits: Bethany Monk-Lane 

    The Drought plays at Old Red Lion Theatre from 1 – 4 November . Tickets and further information can be found here. More

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    Feature: Shaftesbury Theatre: Dramatic Transformation

    How Shaftesbury Theatre’s exciting renovations are helping put heart into the art of the West End

    The Shaftesbury Theatre, currently home to & Juliet, this week revealed the latest stage of its £10 million ‘Dramatic Transformation’ programme, and Everything Theatre was invited along to see what they’ve been up to. It’s an impressive project; but the tour revealed that what’s unique about the theatre is more than just the building itself.

    The Shaftesbury is the largest independent theatre in the West End. A gloriously ornate Edwardian structure, built in 1911, it has withstood two world wars and a more recent global pandemic. Our host, Executive Director James Williams, explained not only how the Grade II listed building has been carefully future-proofed with a massive investment in its infrastructure, but spoke with passion of community connections, networks and wellbeing.

    In 2013 a series of building improvements began, including installation of offices and an impressive £5 million flytower, which are visible from the roof. The foundations and steel legs for this were installed during just two eight week dark periods back then, and the top section followed, in 2015. The theatre remained open throughout, with construction work during the day and performances of Memphis and The Illusionists each evening. In 2016 a lift was fitted down to stage level, where there is an accessible dressing room and toilet for performers with mobility issues.

    The seed for further improvements began when Camden Council announced its intention to develop Princes Circus, including pedestrianising areas around the site. Realising that the theatre owned the land beneath the road, they seized on the opportunity to extend their basement premises. This week sees the launch of the beautiful 1911 stalls bar, constructed 3.5 metres underground. The renovation process revealed layers of the past, such as the bare bricks of the bar, which have been kept. The white tiles of the former heating plant also remain, but the space is now innovatively reinvented as a cosy hospitality area: the new Taffner Suite, named in honour of the late Don Taffner Sr (former Chairman of the Shaftesbury’s Theatre of Comedy Company and father of the current Chairman, Donald Taffner Jnr).

    The theatre’s beautiful historic ceilings have now been renovated, allowing for working platforms in the technical void above the dome ceiling. Formerly technical staff would be unable to stand when working above stage.

    Further refurbished public spaces have also been unveiled, including over fifty new toilets, a state of the art air-conditioning system and reconfigured seating in the auditorium. Access needs have been enhanced with the fitting of a public lift from street level to the stalls, along with thirteen new wheelchair spaces and removeable seats, which will eventually be installed throughout.

    All of these improvements set the theatre up for a great future. But clearly there is more to it than bricks and mortar. James spoke of the Shaftesbury as above all a space for people; a place to “feed the soul”. Wellbeing is at the heart of many of the changes. A flat space set back from the steels of the flytower offers a peaceful rooftop recreation area for staff, whilst the stylish entertainment spaces open the building to new visitors by day, for meetings and creative events. And it’s good relationships in the industry, at the council and in the local community that forge the distinctive, independent personality of the Shaftesbury, making it unique.

    This is a fabulous West End theatre that truly has a beating heart beneath its art. Its new features will allow it to welcome customers new and old to fabulous shows for many years to come.

    & Juliet is booking at the Shaftesbury Theatre until Saturday 25 March 2023. Details are available at https://www.shaftesburytheatre.com/events/juliet/ More

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    Interview: Now with Not Now

    Max Elton and Matthew Blaney talk Not Now

    Finborough Theatre 1 – 26 November.

    In advance of David Ireland’s Not Now opening at Finborough Theatre in November, we chatted with Director Max Elton and actor Matthew Blaney about the play, playwright and bringing the show to London audiences.

    What can you tell us about the show.

    Max: The show is about a young man, Matthew, who is about to travel to London for an audition at RADA. The timing is not good, his father has just died, and in his place, his Uncle Ray emerges as confidant. The question is, is Ray able to help him navigate this difficult time, or is he a bit useless? David Ireland writes two types of plays. In one type babies are brutally murdered and dogs are romanced. This is the other type – though I think giving away anything more at this stage would be a bit of a spoiler and we wouldn’t be caught dead doing that. I think people will laugh a lot and feel like they’ve been treated to a deeply satisfying evening at the theatre – all in about 50 minutes. 

    Matthew: The play takes place in real time, in Ballybeen, East Belfast, where my character Matthew (an aspiring actor) prepares for his RADA audition that afternoon in London. It’s the day after his father’s funeral. He’s rehearsing the opening soliloquy from Richard III when his Uncle Ray interrupts him. Matthew is naturally feeling underprepared and is having second thoughts about going at all, and what unfolds is an examination on grief, identity, loyalty and love between the two men. It’s also feckin hilarious. 

    Ballybeen is where David’s from originally and listening to interviews he’s done in the past, and discussions in rehearsal, Matthew feels alot like how he may have been as a youngster; Matthew’s a very sweet kid: angry and awkward, but also very sincere. There’s a decency that slowly reveals itself in him I also find very touching.

    Max, you directed the very successful Yes So I Said Yes at Finborough last year, what was your first exposure to David Ireland and what made you want to direct his plays?

    Before Yes So I Said Yes, I’d directed The End of Hope at Soho Theatre which was a lovely show. I had come across it after seeing Cyprus Avenue at the Royal Court Upstairs. My response to David’s writing was completely different to anything else I’d ever seen. His characters get pissed off about the same sort of things that I get angry about. I don’t come from Northern Ireland and I don’t share the same history as many of David’s characters but on some level I strongly identify with them.

    Matthew, were you familiar with David Ireland?
    He’s the best! I’m delighted he’s known now in London and that his work has travelled successfully. He was writing for the Lyric Theatre in Belfast when I was taking classes at the Drama Studio nearly ten years ago. I was hooked right away – I distinctly remember Can’t Forget About You was a breath of fresh air.

    David Ireland has previously said that he thinks he is only ever writing for a Belfast audience but his work clearly has wider resonance and success. In London, Not Now will be his third play at Finborough and the Royal Court staged Cyprus Avenue to great success. What do you think is behind his success?

    Max: David’s flair and insight are on a different level to the vast majority of playwrights working today. He’s a one off and that quality resonates with people, wherever they’re from. 

    Matthew: He doesn’t shy away from the darkness. Certainly with Cyprus Avenue. I think audiences everywhere crave a safe space to be challenged, and seeing the horrors we are capable of doing to each other. Not Now is a quieter piece, but the anger is similar.

    Did you know each other before coming together for Not Now, had you crossed paths socially or worked together previously?

    Max: They had not but I was aware of both Matthew and Stephen. I’m thrilled to be working with both of them.

    Matthew: Unfortunately not. Stephen’s brilliant to watch and learn from, and I’m excited for audiences to see what he’ll bring to Uncle Ray.

    How has the first week of rehearsals gone, are you discovering anything new about the text or characters now that you are together in the room?

    Max: Rehearsals have been very exciting. Reading Not Now only gives you a glimpse of the iceberg with regards to its depth. We’re several feet under sea level now. 

    Matthew: It stops being funny very quickly! For us I mean – the jokes are class but it’s all coming from a painful place. You’ve got to really go there a little to find the truth behind the words, which Max has been encouraging us to do. By the time we get it up and running, the audiences should be reminding us we’re in a comedy again.

    Matthew, as a Northern Irish actor and given some of the plays themes of identity, how does it feel to bring this to London? Is there a little extra joy or satisfaction in taking on a role where you are playing a Northern Irish character in a play by a Northern Irish playwright? 

    I think it’d be difficult to tackle this without the lived experience, which David obviously has. I’m excited for people’s response to the play. The identity question is clearly a frustrating one (as the text explores) which hit me hard personally at Drama School. I’m delighted to bring some of that into my performance, and for audiences to see the complexities unfold in a very immediate and intimate way.

    Many of our ET team list The Finborough as one of our favourite London venues, tell us a little about working with the team? Max, we believe this is your third production here, you must enjoy working with Finborough?

    Max: I think Neil (McPherson – Artistic Director, Finborough Theatre) is brave enough to program work that other Artistic Directors shy away from. It is heartening to know that Neil prioritises excellent writing above all other factors when programming the space. 

    Matthew: Everyone’s been fantastic. I’m very chuffed to be a part of the team, and to get onto the stage pronto. 

    Max, originally you were due to bring back Yes So I Said Yes after its successful run last year but some scheduling issues got in the way. Was there a sudden ‘oh s**t’ moment when you realised you won’t be able to go ahead?

    Yes there was an ‘oh shit’ moment. It was very sad and it made me want to run away and start applying for jobs in the civil service. 
    There are many good days working in theatre and those of us able to do it should consider ourselves very lucky but the bad days can be really very miserable. That said, out of the ashes has come the opportunity to work on a play that I loved the first time I read it so the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport will have to wait until at least the new year.

    Tell us what you each have coming up after Not Now finishes? 

    Max: I’m directing a version of The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol at St Mary’s University, which I’m very excited about. Gogol characters can be truly repulsive but there’s something very clear and true about the way they act that I find very funny. 

    Beyond this I’ll be returning to my day job of repeatedly emailing Artistic Directors and Producers to assure them that I do indeed “hope they’re well” and am available for coffee at 1 hours notice.

    Matthew: I’m going to be doing a few nights at The Hope Theatre next year in January with a new play called The Best Pints by Jack Gallagher. He’s also a brilliant writer from back home and that’ll be nice to kick start the new year for sure.

    You can follow Not Now Play on Twitter. Our thanks to Max and Matt for taking the time to talk to us. Our thanks also to 19th Street Productions and credit to Lidia Crisafulli for the rehearsal photos.

    Not Now plays at Finborough Theatre from 1 November to 26 November. Tickets and further information can be found here. More

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    Feature: Singing Along at Musical Con

    Excel Centre 22 – 23 October

    We sent Lily Middleton along to the first ever Musical Con to find out just what it is all about, and whether it could become an annual event for the legions of musical theatre fans.

    I think we’ve found the place where we belong

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    Strolling from Custom House station up to the ExCel Centre and it’s easy to spot my fellow musical theatre fans. Whilst I’m sporting a “The show must go on” charity t-shirt, there are also a plethora of Queens from Six, residents of Oz, students of Westerberg High and much more. We’re all heading to the first ever Musical Con – a convention for fans of musical theatre.

    The convention is a mix of performances, panel discussions and opportunities to meet the stars as well as workshops for budding performers. There is a small selection of stalls with musical theatre themed gifts, temptingly charming embroidery kits and the newly launched Musicals magazine. If you’re looking to train in the industry, there are plenty of theatre schools on hand to offer advice and guidance. I met Sam Rowe, a musical theatre student at Trinity Laban with dreams of being Javert in Les Mis, who is there to inspire prospective students. He stresses how everyone in the industry must be a fan to start with, and there’s no shortage of them in this hall today.

    There’s a lot going on at Musical Con. And sadly, this is slightly to the detriment of the event. It’s very loud. Very, very loud. When watching the incredible Jenna Russell, she caveats her performance of one of Sondheim’s most exquisite songs, by saying “This is gonna be hilarious. It’s such a quiet little song.”, and she comically wonders what her friend, Sondheim himself, would have made of the situation.

    The whole event is in just one hall at ExCel, so the music and shouting from the workshops easily carries across to the main stage. It’s distracting at best, but at worst it completely spoils the performances on stage. In the ‘Backstage’ area, home to many fascinating talks, there are headphones on each chair (the type you’d have at a silent disco) but again it’s quite hard to focus. You can’t help but feel sorry for the stars on stage, battling with the general volume of the event. We had to keep leaving the event space every now and then to give our ears a break.

    Musical Con has also received some criticism online around accessibility issues, from not being clear in advance of the event for fans who were trying to work out if it would be possible and safe for them to attend, to issues on the day for those that did go. There is very little seating around the main stage; as a result you either have to stand for long periods of time, hope you can find a chair or just sit on the floor – not an option for all attendees.

    Having said that, when this event is good, it’s fantastic. The opening performance on the main stage featured six West End icons performing a real mix of classic show tunes and more recent hits. Highlights were Ben Forster with his goosebump-inducing performance of ‘The Music of the Night’, Alice Fearn charming us with ‘Into the Unknown’ and Trevor Dion Nicholas thrilling the crowd with ’Friend Like Me’. And it was an absolute treat to hear the crowd erupt when Layton Williams burst onto the stage in his icon-making role from Everybody’s Talking About Jamie.

    But my personal highlight was witnessing four past Elphabas, Alice Fearn, Louise Dearman, Laura Pick and Nikki Bentley, discuss their experiences of playing this iconic role in Wicked and performing some of Elphaba’s showstopping songs. Watching them perform ‘Defying Gravity’ together was an overwhelming experience, a real treat for the fans in the room.

    A new event will always have issues, but Musical Con has some work to do for next year to make the event more accessible and find a way of controlling the noise levels. It’s also an expensive day, at £45 for the most basic day ticket and up to £195 for a weekend VIP ticket. At first, I questioned whether the event felt worth the money, and when you can’t get a seat at the Backstage talks stage to hear the panel discussions, or need to leave the event space just to avoid a headache, it feels hard to justify.

    However, most of the visitors I spoke to were flying high on the buzz of the day. A sibling pair had travelled from Glasgow and said they hope it happens every year whilst friends who’d travelled for 2½ hours to be there loved the variety of things to see. A group of Phantom cosplayers told me about their “stand-off with Les Mis” with glee, before explaining how they felt the event was a safe space, where they can be whoever they want to be without judgement. It’s a place for musical theatre fans to come together and freely share their passion.

    Hopefully Musical Con will iron out its teething problems and address the communication and accessibility issues to make this event a safe and welcoming staple in the musical theatre calendar, for all its audiences.

    Musical Con took place on 22 and 23 October 2022. Check the website here for future announcements for 2023. More

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    Feature: Adriana Randall on Method Acting

    Why method acting is more suited for the stage than the screen

    All images courtesy of Adriana Randall
    Adriana Randall is a film and theatre actress, and experienced theatre producer. A trained method actor, Adriana found the switch to film acting challenging in some unexpected ways. She also gained unique insights as an executive producer on a number of films into the world of method acting.

    She trained in method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute, having previously been at University College London. Since graduating with a degree in Method Acting, Adriana Randall landed key supporting roles in a number of films, including The Price of Desire and Experimenter.

    Below, Adriana argues why The Method is different for acting on the screen versus on the stage.

    Adriana says: “I found that, even after the two-year conservatory programme in method acting, you still are not totally prepared for acting on screen. For me personally, there is a huge difference in the necessary method preparation for theatre versus film acting.”

    The development of The Method

    Method acting was, of course, developed in the theatre. At its core, The Method encourages expressive and sincere performances through living, breathing, and identifying with the character’s inner world.

    Based on the acting methodology formulated and developed by Russian theatre expert Konstantin Stanislavski in the first half of the 20th century, method acting is all about truly experiencing the part.

    Three key practitioners are widely considered to have built on Stanislavski methodology to create The Method:

    Lee Strasberg for the psychological insights.Stella Adler for the sociological insights.Sanford Meisner for the behaviour insights.

    Together they created the method acting approach when they worked at the Group Theatre in New York.

    Method acting on stage versus on screen

    Adriana Randall argues: “Method acting is all about saturating yourself in the real-life sensory experience of the subject that you’re portraying. In order to bring the requisite truth to the character, you have to become the character, not the actress. This takes a lot of time, focus, energy, and the kind of approach that is more difficult to deliver when acting on film.

    “For me personally, it was immediately more difficult to keep the level of focus you need on a film set. The nature of film production means a lot of distractions all around you. Added to this is the time constraints and the sheer number of people executing their own parts to play in the process.

    “So, while you’re trying to immerse yourself in the psychological makeup of the character, there’s the costume designer or make up artists needing to complete their tasks between takes. There is a lot of chat and downtime on a movie set between cast and crew and a totally different pressure on the actor compared with theatre. You have to account for that.

    “On stage and in plays you have time to focus and prepare in your private space beforehand. There are far fewer people involved in the whole process compared with on film sets with more space and time to focus.

    “Of course, when you step on stage it’s with the knowledge that all of the preliminary preparation is complete. Your character unfurls and develops on stage and your body becomes the instrument to play your emotions. There’s no interruptions or stopping and starting.

    “On camera, by contrast, you complete take after take using different camera angles that it becomes very difficult to maintain the level of energy and focus that method acting demands. You can find that you’ve wasted efforts on a shot that ends up being a wide or establishing scene, rather than on you.

    “So, if you are full of the complexity of emotions that are necessary to bring your specific character to life and subsequently find out that the camera was not on you, this can take its toll on the next shot and the next. This can make it extremely tiring to maintain.

    Final thoughts

    “I’ve found that film acting is more about technique and repetition while theatre acting allows you to live and act more in the moment. Acting on stage allows time to feel your way into the character and enjoy the linear experience of the story unfurling. You may find that your reactions on stage aren’t controlled in the same way as they are on film, but they tend to be more real.

    “That’s not to say that the method acting techniques (many of which I learnt at the Lee Strasberg Theatre) before you go on stage don’t count. If you do the work before, then sooner or later you will find a plethora of real-life emotions to draw on.

    “At Lee Strasberg, I learned through the technique of dedicated relaxation followed by sensory and emotional memory exploration. It can feel difficult graduating from a school of method acting into a space where you have to make fast choices for your character scene by scene. There is also the added pressure on the film and television set of being under time constraints, and it can be extremely difficult to maintain the depth of sensory experience that keeps you grounded in authentic characterisation.

    “Method acting goes far beyond the surface portrayal of a character and, I think it can be argued, often separates good actors from great actors. You need to tap into your lived experiences, emotions, that you have gained over your many years. Lee Strasberg himself always said that method acting is what all actors do when they’re acting well. Immersing yourself in The Method can result in the performance of your life. However, transitioning to film acting brings with it new challenges that must be overcome for the actor keen to fully inhabit their character. In many ways I would have liked to have done post graduate degrees in pure method acting (if the even exist).”

    About Adriana Randall

    Adriana Randall is a professional film actor, and a feature-film producer and theatre producer (West End and Broadway) with her father David Randall at Marzipan Productions where she has multiple co-producer credits. Adriana made her motion picture debut in The Price of Desire. For more information on Adriana, please visit her personal website or theatre production company. More