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      Review: In ‘Misdemeanor Dream,’ Speaking to the Unseen

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      This experimental work, presented by La MaMa and the Indigenous theater ensemble Spiderwoman Theater, is full of enchanting stories but is missing a few threads.The fairies have stories to share. At least the ones in “Misdemeanor Dream,” who tell tales in English and Native languages, but also via movement and dance, of the births of constellations, the celestial romance that begets all sentient life. But the thicket of music, overlapping dialogue, sounds and projections in this experimental work, presented by La MaMa and the Indigenous feminist theater ensemble Spiderwoman Theater, doesn’t always come together to convey these enchanting stories; in fact, this patchwork often makes the show indecipherable.At that start of the play, a group of fairies from this realm and other realms emerge from the bowels of a large, multicolored cloth tunnel that leads from backstage to the front. They dance around a red cardboard tree that commands the center of the stage; it seems like an artifact of a mythical world, with multipatterned and brightly colored leaves that hang like shimmering Christmas ornaments. (The set and installation design is by Sherry Guppy, Penny Couchie, Sid Bobb and Mona Damian, in collaboration with Aanmitaagzi, an Indigenous company from Nipissing First Nation in northeastern Ontario, and in partnership with Loose Change Productions.)The fairies, dressed just as eclectically as the leaves, with red capes, feather boas, blue tutus, pink wings and light-up sneakers (costumes by Damian), go from recounting traditional Native creation myths, sometimes in the original languages of the cast’s nations (including Algonkian, Ilocano and Ojibwe), to personal stories. The ensemble members, who wrote the script together and are directed by Muriel Miguel, comprise 12 Indigenous actors of different ages, performing onstage and via projections. All the while they interrupt each other with fragmented thoughts and exclamations, that is, when the storytellers aren’t being interrupted by sudden blasts of pop music.This collage-style of storytelling is called “story weaving,” a method that Spiderwoman Theater developed in the 1970s. The technique is just one example of the influence of the company, which has been a pillar of New York’s experimental theater scene for decades. After all, attending a theatrical production whose cast members are of different ages and genders and are from Indigenous nations across the United States, Canada and the Philippines is, unfortunately, a novelty in a predominantly white art form.Clockwise, from bottom left, Matt C. Cross, Donna Couteau, Marjolaine Mckenzie, Henu Josephine Tarrant and  Gloria Miguel.Lou MontesanoHowever, the story weaving in this production leaves too many loosely tied or unconnected threads, and the heart of the show — accounts of communal traditions and personal experiences — ends up getting lost. This isn’t helped when the performance elements don’t readily cohere around a narrative structure. We aren’t grounded in specific settings, or much acquainted with particular characters; everything is so free-floating that there’s not much to hold onto.Some more structure would serve the production well in other areas too. The choreography, by Couchie, could be more fluid in its transitions from traditional dancing to the more contemporary, impressionistic gestures. The movement could also better suit the range of ages and abilities of the actors onstage; there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to a show whose performers represent several generations.The costumes, music and projections similarly seem to function more as pastiche than the means toward illuminating or furthering the story. That would explain the ungainly juxtaposition of, say, a mythic story about a lynx woman and a story about a woman’s love for the actress Julia Roberts, Native round dancing and air guitar, or a reflection on the sounds a decapitated body makes scored to Gene Autry’s performance of “Peter Cottontail.”From left, Tarrant, Mckenzie, Cross and Villalon.Richard TermineThe result is a show that undercuts itself, as in one of the final scenes, when Nisgwamala (Gloria Miguel) delivers a monologue that suddenly breaks from the show’s allegorical and abstract style and lands with an explicit plea for us to love each other in our troubled contemporary world. Any resonance the monologue may have is challenged by what comes next: lively pop songs by the Bee Gees and Cher.The costumes are showy, though if one of the performers could be voted Best Dressed it would be Gloria, Muriel Miguel’s sister and one of the co-founders of Spiderwoman. At a spry 95, she is a dazzling participant, wearing a cosmic star-spangled dress with sleeves adorned with what look like tiny wind chimes hanging from her wrists; every movement of her arms is accented with an airy tinkle and chime.“Misdemeanor Dream,” which runs a brief 85 minutes, is supposedly inspired by “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” though the influence of Shakespeare seems to be another thread lost in this story weaving. The work attempts to use a fluid approach to storytelling to reflect stories that have transcendent themes: bodies change, spaces shift and we slip from one realm to the next like one slips from the waking world into the province of dreams. This kind of storytelling, and these Native stories, are essential in theater, but if you’re going to introduce the audience to the reports, fabrications and hearsay of the fairies and spirits of those alternate realms, make sure there’s some tether — even the faintest little thread — to keep us from getting lost in the magic.Misdemeanor DreamThrough March 27 at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club, Manhattan; lamama.org. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. More

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      Interview: Is It Love At First Sight For This Charming Play

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      Gina Thorley on My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate

      We have to say, sometimes a show name stands out amongst them all. And you have to agree, My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate is one of those times. If nothing else, trying to ensure those apostrophes are in the right place is enough to tax even our wonderful editors. And then trying to work out who it’s referring to is another mind altering affair. Luckily we had the chance to chat with the writer Gina Thorley to guide us through the complexities of it all, and find out whether it’s all love at first sight for the audience?

      You can also enter our competition to win a pair of tickets for the show via our competition here.

      That’s a mouthful of a title, tell us a little about the show?

      It certainly is, but it makes us giggle! My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate (and, breathe!) is a one act play about an alternate world where, about two years before the play is set, soulmates very suddenly became real, and most people could follow a pulling feeling in their chest to find their perfect partner. Our lead characters Adrian and Erin, who haven’t felt this ‘pull’, are blindsighted one day when Erin’s soulmate Johan arrives on their doorstep. The play follows them as they decide what to do next, as well as some funny interludes which give an insight as to how the wider world is reacting to this big societal change. It’s a character led comedy, but with a little flavour of sci-fi or parallel reality – we’ve been compared more than once to Black Mirror which I feel is about right!

      So the show’s about the idea of love at first sight then? Is that something you believe in?

      Oh, definitely not! But yes, the characters experience something a little bit like ‘love at first sight’ when they meet their soulmates in the show. One of the things the story explores is the contrast between that kind of automatic ‘movie’ love, and ‘real’ love, the kind that takes work to keep alight.

      It also sounds like it could be a plot from a soap opera, that love triangle so to speak? But you’ve approached it with good humour – is comedy your forte then?

      The tensions between our three leads in their love triangle do have a soapy-vibe at times. The ‘soulmates’ in our story though are biologically fixed, they can’t be avoided or changed, which does mean our heroes kind of have no choice but to suck it up and get used to it, and the jealousy isn’t quite the same as a normal love triangle. Mudlarks Theatre‘s ethos is about approaching relatable, sometimes difficult topics with humour – comedy is definitely our favourite way of making work. Someone described the play as ‘serious philosophy mixed with proper lols’, which sums it up!

      The show is billed as “a road trip to find Adrian’s soulmate”; so are we going on a big journey with the show, is there lots of backgrounds to take us around the world with you?

      A road trip sure is difficult to stage on a budget, but we’ve come up with some inventive ways to show the passage of time and the changing locations. It may even involve a cheeky musical number, but I won’t spoil it for you!

      The show was first performed way back in 2019, has it changed much since then?

      Absolutely – we work in an ensemble directing style, so everyone has the same power to weigh in and suggest changes. The story hasn’t changed, but actors have ad libbed jokes and changed lines that are now in the current version. One actor even learned Norwegian to link further with his Scandinavian character, so that’s been woven in too. I also cut down the bad language from the first version to the current version after some stern words from my mother…it’s still pretty blue but I appeased her a little!

      Is this going to be a perfect date night play, or should young lovers avoid in just in case, you know, they spot their soulmate somewhere else in the audience?

      It’s a risk! Our first full performance of the show coincided with Valentine’s Day 2020 so we have a history of being a date night show. I think it works both ways – it’s kind of a testament to how romantic relationships can be imperfect but still wonderful, which is nice for the coupled up among us…but on the flip side any singletons witnessing the drama in the story might be thankful that they are!

      And do you think anyone has found their soulmate in your audience yet? Maybe you’ll get a wedding invite in the post soon?

      Not that we’ve heard, but that would be amazing! Four of our cast members are getting married in the next year though, so there’s definitely enough smoochy love to go around.

      My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate plays at The Old Red Lion Theatre 20 and 21 March. Further information and bookings via the below link. More

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      Review: ‘A Song of Songs’ Makes a Sacrament of Remembrance

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      Grief for a lost love is the unhealed wound at the core of this play by Agnes Borinsky, which takes a disquieting turn into the underworld.A few sheets of colored tissue paper, weighted down by a trinket to keep them from fluttering off. This is what audience members find on their seats upon arrival at “A Song of Songs,” Agnes Borinsky’s new theater piece inspired by the biblical Song of Songs, and it’s something of a puzzle. What to do with them?The answer comes at the top of the show, when Borinsky — one of a cast of three in this production, staged in a former Roman Catholic church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — mimes instructions to us for a quick craft project. Following along, we form our sheaves into simple offerings for the altar in front of us. Then row by row, we walk up and place them there, in a shrine to the dead.It feels awkward and uncertain, stumbling through these prescribed motions of lamentation. But grief for a lost beloved turns out to be the unhealed wound at the aching core of “A Song of Songs.” We are, it appears, merely re-enacting it.Directed by Machel Ross and presented by the Bushwick Starr and the playwright Jeremy O. Harris, this play-as-ritual is meant as a kind of remix of the Song of Songs, which my Oxford World’s Classics edition of the King James Bible calls “notoriously, the one piece of erotic literature in the Bible.” But its carnality is drenched in joy, and in the comfort of lavished affection. Its verses revel in love and cherishing.So does “A Song of Songs,” at least at first. Though it’s too stylized to be sexy, its lovers, Nadine (Borinsky) and Sarah (Sekai Abeni), fall for each other in an all-consuming way, besotted to the point of unreason.“I took a pair of your gym shorts so I could smell them at work,” Sarah confesses, hiding her face. “This is completely terrifying.”Their fragmented story, and the loss of their transformative love, constitute the main narrative of “A Song of Songs.” Performed in brief scenes of monologue and dialogue, with occasional voice-overs and snatches of song, it makes a sacrament of remembrance. The set (by Frank Oliva, who also designed the lushly atmospheric lighting) takes full advantage of the architecture of a once-sacred space, and the actors’ flowing robes hint at religious garb. (Ross also designed the costumes.)Agnes Borinsky, Ching Valdes-Aran and Abeni. The set, by Frank Oliva, takes full advantage of the architecture of a once-sacred space.Luke OhlsonIn Sarah’s steady love for her only child, and Nadine’s abundant love for her many friends, Borinsky’s script considers more than just romantic attachment. Nadine’s godmother, Trudy (Ching Valdes-Aran), a revolutionary who loves with abandon, represents a fourth and more diffuse kind of passion: for society as a whole.Onstage at El Puente’s Williamsburg Leadership Center, Trudy’s is the most tentative thread of a production that does not entirely cohere. Patches of it can be hard to follow, and the acoustics sometimes swallow lines before they can land. Yet “A Song of Songs” possesses a surprising ritual power.As the play takes a disquieting turn into the underworld of Greek mythology, it stealthily leads each person in the audience toward a meditative consideration of their own mourning for those they have lost, to death or otherwise.The evening’s first participatory moment, when we placed our offerings on the altar, was preparing us for this: a second interlude when we are all asked to join in — wordlessly, each adding a token of love and sorrow to the set. (I’m not telling you what.) Delicately done, it is far more personal this time, and because of that, deeply affecting.“A Song of Songs” is a communal rite about the void left by the absence of people we love, and the universality of the pain that brings. More consolingly, it’s also about the beauty that can grow because of love, even if that love comes to grief.A Song of SongsThrough March 27 at El Puente’s Williamsburg Leadership Center, Brooklyn; thebushwickstarr.org. Running time: 1 hour 15 minutes. More

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      Radio Drama for a Podcast Age: How Amazon’s Audible Moved Into Theater

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      A company known for audiobooks is mounting starry live productions — and recording them, too.Elizabeth Marvel took off her shoes, stretched out her arms and started describing her horrible dreams. Ato Blankson-Wood offered thoughts on astrology. Bill Camp, cradling a guitar in his lap, asked if someone could go get coffee, while Jason Bowen adjusted his chair.Then, after a bit of banter about the sounds of snacking, the actors nimbly slipped into character, adapting the mien of the four troubled Tyrones in Eugene O’Neill’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning classic, “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.”With just a few performances left of their intimate, searing revival at the Minetta Lane Theater, a small Off Broadway house in Greenwich Village, they were now a half mile east, at the Cutting Room Studios, futzing with headsets and repositioning microphones as they recorded the production for the company that had underwritten it: Audible.The cast staged an abridged version of the classic play before live audiences at the Minetta Lane Theater, then recorded an audio version for distribution by Audible.Amir Hamja for The New York TimesIn a move that echoes the radio dramas of yore, and at a moment when audio is enjoying an unexpected boom, Audible, a subsidiary of Amazon, is making a bold push into theater.The company, which created its theater division just five years ago, has already released 93 audio theater works, and this month it added a theater tab to its app.Along the way, it has become a big player in the theater world: commissioning new work from 55 playwrights; presenting 25 shows in person at the Minetta Lane, which it is leasing; and becoming one of the most active commercial producers in the city. In 2020, Audible took on the entire season of the prestigious Williamstown Theater Festival, remotely rehearsing and recording all seven shows when the pandemic made it impossible to stage them in person.It also has producing credits on two Broadway shows, “Sea Wall/A Life” and “Latin History for Morons,” both of which the company also recorded and released on audio.The pace of production has been quickening — Audible released 24 theater works last year, up from nine in 2018 — and the complexity of its theater work is increasing, as the company becomes more technically sure-footed and more confident in its audience’s openness to multicharacter soundscapes.From “Coal Country”This documentary play, written by Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen and with songs by Steve Earle, explores the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster through the words of survivors and family members. The Public Theater presented the play in person prior to the pandemic; then Audible recorded and streamed it, and now Audible is producing a return in-person engagement at the Cherry Lane Theater.The Audible effort is a descendant of the old-fashioned radio drama, which began in the 1920s and featured work from playwrights including Samuel Beckett and Arthur Miller and directors such as Orson Welles. The form has continued to thrive in Britain, thanks largely to the BBC, but it faded in America after the mid-20th century, becoming a niche sustained by organizations including National Public Radio, which aired Earplay from the 1970s through the 1990s, and L.A. Theater Works, which has more than 600 audio titles in an expanding catalog featuring works by Dominique Morisseau and Tom Stoppard, as well as Miller and Ibsen.The pandemic renewed flirtation with the form: When theaters were closed to protect public health, many turned to audio, as well as video, to continue making work and reaching audiences. But Audible, which says it has subscribers in 175 countries who listened to 3.4 billion hours of audio last year, has the potential to have much further reach because of its huge base of subscribers, and the deep pockets of Amazon.“There’s a lot of audio drama being made by independent people for love, not money, but Audible is able to invest a lot more than independent productions are,” said Neil Verma, an assistant professor of sound studies at Northwestern University who has written about radio drama. “They have the opportunity to experiment, to attract more expensive talent if they want, and they also have the ability to distribute in a way that other entities don’t.”Audible has released plays in Spanish and Hindi, as well as in English. “Our theater titles have been listened to by millions globally,” said Kate Navin, the artistic producer of Audible’s theater division, which has five full-time employees. “We end up getting in front of a lot of people.”Verma said that one looming question is how long Audible will stay committed to theater. “They’re a tech company, so they try a lot of new things that survive or dissolve,” he said. “Radio drama has never been central to the mandate of any of the entities that have made it — it’s always been a side element of whatever the larger project is — so in that sense it’s always a little vulnerable.”Ato Blankson-Wood, the fourth member of the cast, as seen from the control room.Amir Hamja for The New York TimesHeadquartered in Newark, Audible was founded in 1995 by Don Katz, and was purchased by Amazon in 2008 for $300 million. Katz is an avid theatergoer, and Audible quickly turned to actors to voice audiobooks; then, when Audible started creating original content, Katz thought playwrights were better suited than screenwriters to crafting purely narrative stories. And he knew they could use the money.“There was always a purely aesthetic vision, and also a business idea that lives in parallel, which includes the fact that theater is without a really sophisticated electronic analog to supplement its existence,” he said. “Because we were able to have the person in the seat be multiplied, we could inject a new revenue stream into the world, and one that would go directly to writers and actors.”Katz hired Navin, a former theater agent, to run Audible’s theater division. To begin, the company announced that it would allocate $5 million to commission audio plays from emerging writers; since then it has commissioned plays from established ones as well.From “Evil Eye”“Evil Eye” is one of dozens of audio plays commissioned by Audible. Written by Madhuri Shekar, it is an epistolary dramedy about a woman determined to find a husband for her daughter. Amazon, which owns Audible, adapted the audio play for film.“I had seen firsthand how hard it was for playwrights to stay in theater,” Navin said. “So many playwrights were leaving for film and TV. I was struck that this might be an opportunity that would give them more options.”Audible’s initial audio-bound, in-person productions were starry solo shows, including “Harry Clarke,” featuring Billy Crudup, and “Girls & Boys,” featuring Carey Mulligan. But the Williamstown season forced a faster-than-expected reckoning with complexity — the slate of productions included “Chonburi International Hotel and Butterfly Club,” a 13-performer play, and “Row,” a new musical.Some of Audible’s offerings, like “Long Day’s Journey,” are recorded in studios; others, particularly comedies like Faith Salie’s “Approval Junkie,” are recorded before live audiences.During the pandemic, when theaters were closed, Audible’s theater division employed more than 300 artists, Navin said. Now, she said, it must figure out what role to play in a post-lockdown world. “We don’t want volume for the sake of volume,” Navin said.For now, the company has been upgrading its technology, outfitting the Minetta Lane for 3-D audio recording. And it is beginning to imagine whether it could produce a musical. “Interest is high,” Navin said. “But that’s a post-pandemic conversation.”After the actors recorded the play, sound effects would be added in post-production.Amir Hamja for The New York TimesJason Bowen, shown here, and Ato Blankson-Wood played Jamie and Edmund, the two sons in the Tyrone family.Amir Hamja for The New York TimesAudible is an unusual player in the theater world because it is not primarily a theater company. The company’s main source of revenue is from members who pay to listen to audio titles.That means box office revenue is not a make-or-break factor for Audible’s theater productions, which allows the company to do risky work, and, even more distinctively, to stage short-run productions, which in turn allows them to attract film and television stars who have limited time in their schedules. The economics of most commercial play productions generally require stars to commit to runs of at least 15 weeks; because Audible isn’t looking to recoup costs from ticket sales, it can accept fewer. “Long Day’s Journey,” for example, had planned only a six-week run, which was shortened to five when the start of performances was delayed by concerns about the Omicron variant.“They don’t need to make a profit off of everything they do,” said Oskar Eustis, the artistic director of the Public Theater. “What they need is for each project to elevate the brand, and that means they can look with a less bottom-line-driving frame at the works they create.”The “Long Day’s Journey” director, Robert O’Hara, was piped in to the recording session to give feedback. Amir Hamja for The New York TimesAnother upside: Artists are paid more for shows that are recorded as well as staged in person.“The pay is wonderful, and the reach is grand,” said Robert O’Hara, whose planned Williamstown production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” wound up being made for audio by Audible, and who went on to direct the “Long Day’s Journey” at the Minetta Lane and on audio.O’Hara, like other artists interviewed for this story, said Audible has been admirably hands-off. “I’m not getting dramaturgical notes from Audible,” he said. “They don’t have a take on ‘Long Day’s Journey.’ They allow the artists to be the artists.”His “Long Day’s Journey” staging, although backed by an audio company, had a number of striking visual moments, from its quiet opening to projections used onstage. “For me, audio was not the end destination,” he said. “Audio was the gravy on top. I was doing a stage production.”Marvel, who compared Audible to the Medicis, the historic Italian banking family associated with arts patronage, said the shorter run of an Audible production was a plus for her: “It’s a wonderful time model, where you’re not giving four to six months of your life to a play. It’s a reasonable amount of time to give, which, as an actor who is a parent and has to make income in other ways, is realistic and helpful.”There were other pluses. Marvel said she wanted to be part of trying new forms for theatrical storytelling. “We all have to look forward and just keep opening the iris for new ideas and new ways to work and new ways for people to access work,” she said.Marvel and O’Hara also both said that they weren’t sure other producers, either commercial or nonprofit, would have taken on the risk of the abbreviated, contemporary version of “Long Day’s Journey” that Marvel had long wanted to make. “I don’t think there’s another place I could have gone,” O’Hara said. “No one in their right mind would let me cut this play and modernize it.”Kate Navin, center, the head of Audible Theater, conferred with Erik Jensen, one of the writers of “Coal Country,” as that play, already recorded for audio, rehearsed for an in-person production at the Cherry Lane Theater.Amir Hamja for The New York Times“Long Day’s Journey,” with four actors and a rich soundscape, is being followed by a live production of “Coal Country,” the first show Audible is presenting in-person outside the Minetta Lane. The show is an eight-actor documentary play, with music written and performed by the singer-songwriter Steve Earle, about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia. It was first produced by the Public and opened in March 2020, but a week later the pandemic cut short the run.“It was heartbreaking for us,” Earle said. “It was four years of work, and we got it up and had great reviews and were selling out, and then we opened and closed.”While live performances were almost entirely shut down, Audible reassembled the cast and recorded the show, to the relief of its creators. “For us, it has always been incredibly important that this play be seen, heard and experienced outside of New York, and particularly in Appalachia,” said Jessica Blank, the production’s director. “Audible immediately made the play accessible to people who wouldn’t have had access to it otherwise.”Now Audible is presenting a second in-person run of the Public’s “Coal Country” production at the Cherry Lane Theater, through April 17. Earle, who moved to New York hoping to break into the theater business, and who is working on a musical adaptation of the film “Tender Mercies,” said he was relieved to have Audible’s support.“I have long experience with taking corporate money to make art, because I come from the record business,” he said. “Anything that makes theater available to everybody, I’m all for.” More

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      Feature: The Women’s Prize for Playwriting

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      The beginning of something very powerful, promising true advocacy for women in theatre.

      The Women’s Prize for Playwriting was founded in 2019 by Ellie Keel in partnership with Paines Plough. Three years and a pandemic later, on 10 March 2022 it held its second awards ceremony, hosted by The London Library. To start the evening, Keel recounted how the global disruption has affected their work and how frightening it had been to consider having to close down the awards altogether. She remarked on how, standing in that room with so many people, it was humbling to be present, especially as at one point it was very uncertain whether anything like this would ever happen again. 

      The intention behind the prize is to provide better visibility for female (and female identifying) writers within the theatre industry, and to allow more unique narratives to be heard – which, of course, is an admirable cause to champion. 

      In the speeches leading up to the announcement of the winner, we got to hear from many speakers including Amy Trigg, the joint winner in 2020 with her play Reasons You Should(n’t) Love Me. It was inspiring to hear how much support Trigg has received since winning, and this is possibly one of the most important aspects of the award: the continued support system. Many theatre companies fail to deliver upon their promise of backing post-award, so it’s reassuring to discover that Keel and Paines Plough are committed to fulfilling upon this.

      There were also rousing speeches from Keel and Chair of the Judges Mel Kenyon, with both individuals championing the worth of women and celebrating the sacred and constant alliance they have with each other. Though incredibly bolstering to hear, it should be noted that this isn’t the entire picture. Women can be just as oppressive and cruel to other women as men, using their influence to gatekeep opportunities, and with the theatre industry being no exception to this dynamic. Although it is important to promote a sense of unity between women, it is equally important not to build an overly romantic depiction of it. Ultimately, sharing the authentic ebbs and flows of womanhood promotes a safe and honest environment, encouraging writers (who usually do not feel welcomed or comfortable in spaces such as these) to take that intimidating first step and submit their script.

      Each of the finalists selected had arresting and intriguing stories to tell and could have easily won. However, unlike last year there could only be one award recipient and the selected 2021 winner was Consumed by Karis Kelly. Kelly will receive £12,000 in respect of an exclusive option for Ellie Keel Productions and Paines Plough to co-produce her play.

      Though still in its early years, The Women’s Prize for Playwriting shows great promise of being a true advocate for all women writers. And any cause willing to challenge the status quo, making theatre richer and more diverse, is definitely one to congratulate.

      You can find out more about the award and the team by visiting: https://womensprizeforplaywriting.co.uk/

      The full list of the 2021 finalists were:

      Mountain Warfare by Abi ZakarianBirdie by Alison CarrA Bouffon Play About Hong Kong by Isabella LeungFuries by Isley LynnConsumed by Karis Kellyupright enuf by lydia luke4 Decades by Paula B StanicHow I Learned to Swim by Somebody Jones More

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      Competition: Win Tickets for My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate

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      The Old Red Lion Theatre, 20 & 21 March

      Southampton-based new writing theatre company Mudlarks Theatre are touring their production My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate to London, Tetbury and Bristol, having already played in Bath recently. And the lovely company are giving you the chance to win a pair of tickets for either of its London dates next week.

      What’s it all about?

      [embedded content]

      One day the world wakes up just knowing that soulmates exist. Not only that, but the lucky ones also know exactly where to find theirs.

      Erin and Adrian are happily married when Johan arrives on their doorstep. He is Erin’s soulmate. Neither Adrian or Erin know quite what to do with him.

      The three depart on a road trip to find Adrian’s soulmate – the trouble is: he’s not quite sure where to start.

      An upbeat but bittersweet black comedy about fate, romance and the ways we’re taught to think about love.

      How do I enter the competition?

      There are four ways to enter, and the great news is you can enter via all four if you want. All you need to do is follow the below instructions. For entires via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, don’t forget to tag someone in who would make an ideal soulmate (they don’t have to be your perfect soulmate, just someone nice).

      Email us at competitions@everything-theatre.co.uk with “My perfect soulmate is” in the subject lineShare our Facebook post which you can find on our page here and comment below the original post “My perfect soulmate is” and tag a friend.Quote tweet this Twitter post with the phrase “My perfect soulmate is” and tag a friend.Like this Instagram post and comment “My perfect soulmate is” and tag a friend.

      Where is the show playing, and how can I buy tickets?

      20 & 21 March: The Old Red Lion Theatre Book here. Tickets are just £13 (£11.50 concessions).1 April: Tetbury Goods Shed. Tickets are just £10 from here. 12 & 13 April: Bristol’s Alma Tavern and Theatre. Tickets are just £11 from here.

      Terms & Conditions

      The prize is for two tickets to a performance of My Soulmate’s Husband’s Soulmate on either 20 or 21 March 2022. No alternative dates or cash alternative is available.

      Competition closes at 12am (noon) on Thursday 17 March 2022. Winner will be selected at random from all eligible entries, and will be notified by 5pm on the same day. As the show is next weekend, the winner has one day to accept the prize, provide contact details and confirm which date (Sunday or Monday) they wish to attend, otherwise a new winner will be chosen at random.  All additional expenses are the responsibility of the prize winner. Editor’s decision is final. More

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      Interview: Raising his Voice on Stage

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      Akshay Gulati talks about the upcoming tour of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice

      Akshay Gulati may be a fairly new name to many, but you are bound to know his mum, Shobna Gulati, who has been in everything from Coronation Street to Dinnerladies and Doctor Who! Akshay is determined to make us aware of his own career, and his next role as Billy in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is a big step in achieving that. However, he can’t quite escape his mum yet, as she will be playing Mari in the same play. We thought we’d have a chat with Akshay, and yes, we had to ask about Doctor Who, because some of us are a little fanatical about it!

      Hi Akshay, it’s probably best to get this out of the way from the start; how cool is it having a mum who has been in Doctor Who? Surely the street cred from that alone is all you need?

      Don’t hate me, but I’ve never really been into Dr Who. Ma is always working on exciting projects, and Dr Who is just one in a long list of fantastic credits.

      [Interview paused while we decide if we want to go on after that bombshell]

      So more seriously, what’s it like working with your mum in the play?

      It’s lovely. Ma has always brought me to rehearsal rooms and on set from a very young age, and we’ve always had a close relationship, so working together in this context is easy.

      You starred in a previous adaption of Little Voice at Bolton Octagon; did you play Billy there as well, and did that help with getting the role in this touring production?

      I did indeed play Billy in the 2019 Bolton Octagon production of Little Voice. I try to approach every meeting or audition with the mindset that I’m the best person for the job and it just so happened with this one that I’d also recently performed the play so was pretty qualified (I think) to play the part.

      Is The Rise and Fall of Little Voice a play you were very aware of prior to the Bolton production; have you seen any other staged versions? 

      I’ve been studying acting for a long time so was definitely aware of the play – you can’t do GCSE drama without coming across Jim Cartwright plays. I also saw a brilliant production of Little Voice at the Bolton Octagon in 2012

      Most people will know Ewan McGregor best as Billy, the role he played in the film. How daunting is it to play a part that has such a name attached to it? And have you watched the film to see how McGregor plays it?

      No, I don’t find it daunting at all. Ewan McGregor is a fantastic actor but I feel he and I operate in different lanes at the moment. I’ve never seen the film and wouldn’t want to until after the run is over, as I wouldn’t want to be influenced in any way by someone else’s interpretation of the role.

      What is it like working with actors – including your own mum – with some big credits to their name? Is it the best way to improve and better learn the ropes?

      Learning from experienced professionals on the job is so much fun and I’ve been lucky enough to have met and worked with many brilliant actors in my career so far.

      The play is now 30 years old; do you think it’s such a classic play that it stands the test of time?

      Jim has created such wonderful human characters that are a joy to play and I feel that certain themes in the play are more relevant now than ever.

      The play tours for nearly four months solid; how daunting is that for a young actor? Is it four months living out of a suitcase?

      I’ve never toured before so can’t really say what it’s going to be like, but I’m more excited than anything; really looking forward to playing some theatres that I’ve always dreamed of playing since I was little.

      And finally, have you had the chance to think beyond July yet, and what you might be doing next?

      When the tour is finished I’d love to travel somewhere and finish writing an album I’ve been working on, but otherwise I haven’t given it much thought. It’s still quite a ways away!

      Thanks to Akshay for taking time to chat with us, although we are still reeling from the Doctor Who confession!

      The Rise and Fall of Little Voice opens in Southampton on 23 March, and then tours nationally until 16 July. Further information, including all tour dates, can be found via the below link. More

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      in Theater

      Interview: Two thousand years in one night at Questors

      by

      Director Richard Gallagher on bringing Loveplay to Questors Theatre

      We’re becoming quite good friends with the team at Questors Theatre now we’ve made their acquaintance. And what a great bunch they are, supporting the local community as well as being a place for students to learn more about theatre. So, we had no hesitation in spending some time chatting to Richard Gallagher, who as well as being a teacher in their academy turns his hand to directing his young charges in their upcoming revival of Moira Buffini‘s Loveplay, first performed in 2001.

      What is it that attracted you to Loveplay?

      Choosing a play for The Questors Student Group (acting students aged 18-30) is always a bit like doing a Rubik’s Cube. My first consideration is ‘Are there enough parts?’ The second ‘Are those parts all good enough to give everybody a fair crack of the whip?’ Plays with large casts are getting fewer and fewer so we frequently – not always – look for multiple-role plays that can be flexible. Loveplay is such a one. Then there are thoughts about artistic merit and ‘bums on seats’: happily, this play suits that as well. Frequently, we have to keep going back to square one, but Buffini’s play attracted me because of the superb writing, the humour, the observation and it has some really excellent parts for our cast to attack.

      The play spans 2,000 years and ten separate moments in that time; how difficult is it to direct a play like this, when your actors are asked to perform such varying roles?

      Our cast have worked extremely hard on varying their roles and finding the movement, vocal and personality differences that make them distinct. The two thousand years thing looked daunting at first but I decided to keep it very simple. There is almost no stage furniture and we are performing in traverse (audience both sides of a sort of ‘corridor’). Ant Griffiths (our Associate Director) and I have been working in conjunction with voice and movement tutors and also with The University of West London to find a shape for the production. In the end, each different era provides us with a neat one-act play and brilliantly drawn characters that kind of ‘act themselves’. It’s been a really rewarding rehearsal period and we haven’t found it difficult at all.

      Are there going to be some frantic costume changes going on as you flick from one scene to the next?

      When I cast the piece, I was very aware of costume changes. Although incredibly quick changes are doable where they first seem impossible, fortunately, there is ample room to change for each actor. Our wardrobe department have provided us with an impressive range of costumes and I am delighted with their, always excellent, work.

      And how easy it is to ensure the time frames are made clear to an audience? Are you going to be using any little tricks to tell us when we are?

      As I said, my motto has been ‘keep it simple’. Thames Valley University students are working on animation, which will be projected. I haven’t seen the results of their labours yet, but I’m confident they will give us something really exciting. The other marker for period is, of course, the varying costume styles.

      What is it that binds all these completely different moments together then? 

      Binding together the scenes is a rape that happens in Scene Two. The actor playing the woman who’s been raped plays other characters that keep hearing the sounds of this woman’s distress. ‘Is it a ghost?’ ‘Is it a reincarnation?’ We never know, but references are frequently made to the fact that this plot of land has changed over the years and ‘it might be haunted’. Overall, the ‘bond’ between different scenes is the human condition: that search for a partner and/or physical gratification that is in the DNA of most of us. Buffini is also at times quite scathing about the way men have treated women over the years. I think the women come off best in the piece, but it’s not a heavy-handed feminist message and she does give us same sex coupling and genuine love. The play builds to this and leaves us with an optimistic message.

      The play is performed by The Questors Student Group; can you tell us a little about that?

      This is the 75th year group of the Questors Academy (as we now call it). Group 75 are waiting in the wings and will be performing their productions next year. I believe it was set up all that time ago to give the then members some training and to expand their technique. Later, it became a unique part-time drama course, working in a similar way to most drama schools but giving people the opportunity to work at evenings and weekends and, therefore, hold a job down during the day. It’s very intensive and time-consuming (obviously), but it pretty much covers everything that any drama school course does. The first and second years can both be done together, but should anybody want to do the first year and leave it there, that is perfectly fine and we hope they still go forward with a range of transferable skills that may or may not lead them into theatrical careers.

      You’re acting tutor for Questors Academy, so are the performers people you have been working with for a while?

      I am the second year tutor. In the case of Group 74, I knew them in their first year but, because of COVID, it’s been a three year timeframe, rather than the usual two. I get to know them all when they’re in the first year but don’t start teaching them till the autumn/winter term, where we do short excerpts from a range of plays, punctuated by workshops. The winter/spring term is taken up with rehearsals for a studio play and then we have a short break before going into our summer production in the Judi Dench Playhouse.

      Are there any performers we should be looking out for as future stars of the stage? Of course, we’d perfectly understand if you didn’t want to single out any one in particular, so maybe, any past students we may have seen?

      One can never predict how students’ careers might unfold. We are not looking to necessarily push people into the profession: some ex-students are quite happy joining The Questors acting company and, of course, some want to go to a full-time drama school; others have, in the past, fallen into TV work, fringe theatre, film etc. I was very proud to see one of my past students in The Mousetrap a year or two ago and do sometimes see people on TV. Other students go into different jobs in theatre or screen such as one great friend of mine who has found her talent for direction and is currently working in the West End as an assistant director for Disney.

      Finally, why should we come and see Loveplay? What is it about the show and the venue that we should all be excited about?

      Loveplay is a beautifully written piece of drama that I found instantly engaging. As rehearsals have progressed, we’ve found more and more in it. It can be enjoyed on a superficial level, sure, but it can also give you something to think about. It’s funny, touching, accurate and unusual. I think it’s going to be a really enjoyable evening for our audiences.

      Thanks to Richard for taking time out from his teaching and directing to chat to us.

      Loveplay is on at Questors Theatre 25 March to 2 April. Further information and bookings via the below: More