The script for Time Machine by Steven Canny and John Nicholson takes the 19 century novella as a springboard for a three-person meta-theatrical romp in show-goes-wrong style, the fourth wall abolished and the audience primed for involvement.
New post-show Q&A: Join Terri Paddock in a free online discussion about Original Theatre’s Into the Night
To celebrate the re-release of Original Theatre’s critically acclaimed, on-demand online production of Into the Night: The Story of the Penlee Lifeboat, and to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the real-life disaster, I’ll chair a FREE online discussion with playwright Frazer Flintham and Michael Sagar-Fenton, Cornish author of the book on which the play is based.
‘Dialogue whizzes back & forth like leather on willow’: STUMPED – Original Theatre (Online show)
When in 1964 Samuel Beckett (Stephen Tompkinson) and Harold Pinter (Andrew Lancel) play in the same cricket match in the Cotswolds, you might expect something out of the ordinary. Filmed live at Lord’s, the ‘home of cricket’, Original Theatre’s Stumped imagines what might have happened in such a meeting between two playwrights known for pauses and a sense of the absurd.
‘Quirky & complex piece’: THE FALL – Original Theatre (Online Show)
New play The Fall, by Drew Hewitt, forms part of the triple bill of readings staged at the Riverside Studios and now available via on-demand streaming.
‘Clever, sharp & heavily detailed’: THE END OF THE NIGHT (Online Show)
A tight 80-minute three-hander (two other minor characters appear briefly), Original Theatre’s The End of the Night is not an easy watch but it is quite brilliant, and lends itself perfectly to the digital format.
VIDEO: Exploring history onstage – The End of the Night writer Ben Brown & journalist Kurt Barling discuss how in Park Q&A
What is theatre’s role in exploring political and historical subjects? What echoes are there with contemporary events in Europe? Could The End of the Night be staged in Germany today – or in Russia? For this post-show discussion, Terri Paddock explores these issues with playwright Ben Brown and the award-winning journalist, author and academic Professor Kurt Barling.
New post-show Q&A: Join Terri Paddock for tense & absorbing drama The End of the Night at the Park Theatre
What role does theatre play in exploring historical and political themes? Mates founder Terri Paddock will explore that very question with an expert panel following a performance at the Park Theatre of The End of the Night, the new World War II-set drama based on a true story.
‘Delves deep into what it truly means to be an addict’: THE RED – Original Theatre (Online show)
This psychological examination of what it means to be an addict is surprisingly moving – but it does feel as though it goes around in circles.
‘Immerses us totally in a community facing indescribable loss’: INTO THE NIGHT (Online review)
We are in Cornwall, forty years ago, on the 19 December 1981. A lifeboat in Penlee Station answers a distress call, but never returned, with the loss of sixteen lives.
‘A fantastically funny take on Sherlock Holmes’: THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES – Touring
The game is afoot. Or, perhaps more accurately, apaw. The Hound of the Baskervilles is bounding across the country, pursued by Sherlock Holmes and chums.
‘Unapologetically both theatrical drama & a tense piece of work adapted for the screen’: THE SYSTEM (Online review)
Paul is dead, killed at his own party. Everyone is a suspect, and most of them had a motive. Written and performed by Emily Head, directed by Guy Unsworth, The System is filmed live in one take. We meet each suspect to see how they react under interrogation, and see if the mystery can be solved.
‘Dark & thrilling play’: THE SYSTEM – Original Theatre (Online review) ★★★★
Written and performed by Emily Head, The System is a compellingly dark watch that has been cleverly filmed.
‘Fascinated by the script & staging throughout’: BEING MR WICKHAM – Original Theatre Company (Online review)
Being Mr Wickham is a lovely idea: we are not just seeing the change in Wickham, but in Adrian Lukis portrayal. He clearly has a close affinity with the character and fits back into it perfectly.
‘Engrossing from the first moment’: A SPLINTER OF ICE – Original Theatre Company (Online review)
A Splinter of Ice is a ‘tell, not show’ play but it is engrossing from the first moment, and the characters feel completely believeable with their moments of resigned boredom, creaks of ageing, and acceptance of the card fate dealt them.
‘It is the small moments that matter’: APOLLO 13 – THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON – Original Theatre (Online review)
While Original Theatre’s Apollo 13: The Dark Side of the Moon is largely filmed in the homes of actors, the audience is taken straight into the interior of the spacecraft as a mission which seems routine goes badly wrong.
‘At the darkest moments I have to believe there is a future for our industry’: Why the arts are viable
At the darkest moments I have to believe there is a future for our industry. I have to believe we will defy our government and prove to be viable. I absolutely believe the way that this will happen is through the invention and enterprising energy of creative producers making stuff happen.
‘Matthew Kelly & David Yelland are more than a match for each other’: A HABIT OF ART – Original Theatre (Online review)
Original Theatre’s touring production of The Habit of Art was one I missed in 2018. It was due to return this year, but circumstances being as they are, here is a streamed version available to purchase for a small donation.
‘A story about isolation has a particular resonance’: THE CROFT – Original Theatre (Online review)
This touring theatre’s new tartan gothic thriller is complex, but also a bit overwrought and conventional.
How do we open doors for others to experience theatre?
I loved the Michael Webborn and Daniel Finn musical when I saw it premiere at the Landor last year and whilst we wait patiently for a cast recording (I asked Santa again and I have been a good boy this year…), this felt like an ideal opportunity to revisit the show, appropriate too as Webborn is an alumnus of this very institution.