Michael Brandon

Michael Brandon is sitting in an office above the King’s Head theatre in north London, where’s he’s currently playing in Paul Minx’s The Long Road South. The drama, set in the midst of the Civil Rights movement in mid-sixties Indiana, sees some strong wit among the...

Lois Chimimba: Alice...

Striking and engaging to watch, Lois Chimimba is currently starring as Aly, the teenager struggling to find herself, in Damon Albarn and Moira Buffini’s musical Wonder.land at the National Theatre. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s literary classic Alice in Wonderland, the show reflects...

Indhu Rubasingham, T...

Fresh from a clutch of awards, a West End transfer for Handbagged and announcing record audience figures, Indhu Rubasingham, Artistic Director of the Tricycle theatre, is keen to talk diversity and doesn’t grab for positive pronouncements when I ask her how the last couple of years have...

Rasa Theatre’s...

As a Sri Lankan Tamil, born in Malaysia but educated in Singapore, Rani Moorthy knows first hand the life as an outsider and one who has had to reinvent herself. States of Verbal Undress is her tenth play for Manchester-based Rasa Theatre. Combining verbatim interviews with her own writing,...

National Theatre Con...

Spotlight on: National Theatre Connections I wrote a piece for the Guardian a couple of years ago about the importance of school plays and it prompted many memories. Whether it was the thrill of being on stage for the first time or the realisation that non-sporty types had found something...

Jackie Sibblies Drur...

Brooklyn-based American playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury draws an audible breath down the phone from the Bush Theatre in west London when I ask her about the differences in discourse about race on stage between the US and the UK. She’s is the middle of teching for the European première...

Park Theatre Panto

Tis the season for men in tights and audience interaction. Panto can be a sure-fire box office winner for most theatres, but in a crowded market and as a new theatre, how do you make your production stand out? At Park Theatre, I met Jez Bond and Mark Cameron, two new kids on the panto block....

Wet Wet Wet

  I still recall the ‘I’m staying over at a friend’s so we can revise’ lie I told when I first snuck out to go to a Wet Wet Wet concert. My mother eventually cottoned on and used to berate me for spending all my time ‘going to see that Wet Wet’. She...

Bryony Kimmings

There’s nothing as exciting as seeing fresh, vibrant new writing and performance. The Bush theatre’s inaugural RADAR festival in 2012 brought together more than a hundred talented artists and leading theatre-makers from across the country, and provoked debate about the future of...

Katie Hims/Clean Bre...

Award-winning writer Katie Hims writes for television, radio and theatre.  Her stage plays include Bill (Contact Theatre) and The Breakfast Soldiers (Contact Theatre studio and Finborough). Her first radio play The Earthquake Girl won the Richard Imison Award. She has recently completed a...

The Hoosiers

Having sold a million records through Sony, scoring a number one album with ‘The Trick to Life’, including hits Goodbye Mr A , Worried About Ray and Cops and Robbers, The Hoosiers suffered the curse of difficult second album syndrome, taking longer than planned with the eventual...

Manjinder Virk

Manjinder Virk on her new film, Out of Darkness  As an actress, Manjinder Virk won great critical acclaim for her role as Lorraine Dunbar in Clio Barnard’s award winning film, The Arbor, about the life of playwright Andrea Dunbar. She also played the lead role of a British suicide bomber,...

Riz Ahmed

Actor and rapper Riz Ahmed stars in Mira Nair’s film The Reluctant Fundamentalist. He plays Changez, a young Pakistani man pursuing the American corporate dream, but who post 9/11 returns to his native Pakistan as a radicalised university lecturer.  I caught up with him about how the...

Mark Thomas

Mark Thomas: Ascending Dissent Mark Thomas is describing his current show: “My shows have a certain element of participation. I love that idea – that the show exists outside the theatre; that people do things, become part of the show, or become part of the idea of the show. That’s...

Fin Kennedy

Fin Kennedy has been busy. “It all came about because of a chance meeting with the Culture Minister Ed Vaizey.” He’s referring to In Battalions, his report report about the effect of Arts Council cuts on new plays and playwriting in England. Kennedy is a playwright, teacher, University...

Crowning Glory

Crowning Glory: To weave, or not to weave? I like to put the spotlight on new and emerging theatre voices.  London-born Somalia Seaton’s debut play, Crowning Glory, is about the trials and tribulations of hair. It opens soon at Theatre Royal Stratford East. Somalia told me why and how...

Hurley’s Beats

Beats is described as a coming-of-age story exploring rebellion, apathy and the irresistible power of gathered youth. With techno. Lots of techno. It tells the tale of Johnno McCreadie, a teenage living in a small suburban Scottish town at the time of the 1994 Criminal Justice Act – a new...

Chains

With each being able to boast a strong musical pedigree, singer/songwriters Ben Parker and Kate Aumonier have come together as Chains, making their own brand of beautiful acoustic/electronic folk. Currently gigging and with an album due out next year, they’ll be taking time out to play...

Watford Palace

Watford Palace Theatre’s Artistic Director, Brigid Larmour, talks about their current rep season, the digital revolution and multi-platform theatre. What led you to develop the Ideal World season? I think theatres need to create space for reflection on what is happening in the society...