One of the highest profile events in Nottingham Playhouse’s Unlocked Festival was Bubble, a hybrid production, performed in-house and live streamed over the weekend to a potential international audience – a new James Graham comedy about life in lockdown.
NEWS: A new play from James Graham will feature in Nottingham Playhouse’s reopening season
A line-up including a new work from playwright James Graham will feature in Nottingham Playhouse Unlocked, Nottingham Playhouse’s three-week reopening season which runs from 21 October to 7 November 2020.
‘We’ve shown we’re not going without a fight’: Who really cares about what has happened to the theatre industry?
I accidentally wrote a viral tweet. It came out of a moment of possibly ill-thought frustration. Out of feeling brushed aside, dismissed one too many times. But wow did that tweet resonate.
‘These short pieces will provide valuable testimony for what people got up to in the great pandemic’: UNPRECEDENTED – Headlong Theatre (Online review)
Life as it is currently lived in 14 playlets: Most of the plays are about ten minutes in duration and punch well above their weight featuring writing by the likes of James Graham and April de Angelis.
Parliamentary power plays: Considering This House & other recent political dramas (not just by James Graham!)
When it was first performed in 2012 James Graham’s This House was an affectionate satire, using its 1970s setting to examine the still young Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government formed in 2010.
‘It is immediately clear how prescient it was’: THIS HOUSE – National Theatre (Online review)
The chaos of national politics in the mid-1970s seemed light years away in 2014, but how arrogant that assumption seems now.
‘Power is shown to be almost totally male-dominated’: THIS HOUSE – National Theatre (Online review)
The plotline of James Graham play covers several years during a period when majorities were slim and politics was a brutal business.
NEWS: Industry leaders launch coordinated effort to lobby for government support & welcome new taskforce
The theatre industry’s fightback was raised to a new level as, after more than two months of enforced venue closures, leaders coordinated efforts to pressure the government for further support, and DCMS appointed a new commissioner for Cultural Recovery.
NEWS: National Theatre at Home screens Tom Hiddleston’s Coriolanus & A Streetcar Named Desire with Gillian Anderson
The National Theatre has announced its third tranche of archive shows that will be streamed every Thursday at 7pm BST via its YouTube channel as part of lockdown initiative National Theatre at Home.
10 wish-list productions for future National Theatre At Home screenings
Following on from the instant success of National Theatre At Home streaming event, it’s got me thinking about all the other wonderful NT Live screenings that I’d love to come to the small screen as part of this series. I have narrowed it down to my top 10.
NEWS: Headlong & Century Films announce major new digital series of short plays
Award-winning theatre company Headlong, in association with the BAFTA-winning Century Films, have announced Unprecedented: Real Time Theatre From a State of Isolation, a major new digital project, bringing together celebrated playwrights to create a series of short digital plays, as a response to the current global crisis.
NEWS: Elton John, Sam Mendes, Natasha Gordon, James Graham & Giles Terera feature in the New Year Honours List
Elton John, Sam Mendes, Christopher Hampton, Natasha Gordon, James Graham, Giles Terera and Stephen Mear are among the list of theatre and showbusiness luminaries who feature in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
‘Writes with wit & clarity’: HANSARD – National Theatre
Simon Woods’ debut play Hansard, about the parliamentary ruling class is timely, and amusingly preceptive, but ultimately unsatisfying.
‘I guess having two plays on the same West End street was lots of fun’: 10 questions for 10 years – James Graham
Playwright James Graham may have had two plays in the West End at the same time but can he handle ten questions from me?!
10 questions for 10 years – Samuel Barnett
Original History Boy Samuel Barnett takes on the 10 Questions for 10 Years challenge.
NEWS: The Ferryman scores high in Tony Awards nominations, closely followed by Ink
Sam Mendes’ Olivier Award-winning production of Jez Butterworth’s The Ferryman received equal top billing at this week’s Tony Awards 2019 nominations announcement alongside the hit Broadway production of To Kill a Mockingbird. The productions both have nine nods including ones for Ferryman actors Paddy Considine (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play), Fionnula Flanagan and Laura Donnelly. The …
Mark Shenton views the week of news, openings & radical overhauls of Shakespeare in the West End, Broadway & beyond
Mark Shenton offers the week’s news, reviews, quotes and tweets in theatre from both sides of the Atlantic, including an interview with Sonia Friedman, reviews of Shakespeare in three different abbreviated versions, and a YouTube star appearing on Broadway.
‘There’s some crisp writing’: PEOPLE LIKE US – Union Theatre
Mike Leigh’s genius was to offer Abigail’s Party to audiences who roared with laughter without recognising themselves on the stage. Julie Burchill and Jane Robins may have pulled off the same trick with People Like Us.
What’s Debbie looking forward to in October 2018?
It honestly doesn’t let up. At all. After an Edinburgh-focused August, and a ‘keep myself busy at all costs’ September (mostly to avoid the hell that is rush hour transport), October has rolled in, bursting at the seams because there is too much to do.
‘A city’s darkest, funniest, kindest, quirkiest facets’: SKETCHING – Wilton’s Music Hall ★★★★
There are eight authors who have contributed to Sketching and as their leader – and contributor of three of the strands – the ever-fertile, ever-fascinated James Graham.