Can we ever really know what happened between two people behind closed doors? That’s the question at the heart of Anna Zeigler’s provocative new two-hander Actually, and one the company, audience and I grappled with after last week’s performance at Trafalgar Studios.
Q&A video: Examining queer history & terminology with The View Upstairs cast
I had just enough time to wipe away my tears – I was sobbing – at the end of The View Upstairs before jumping up after the curtain call to announce this post-show Q&A at Soho Theatre.
Q&A video: Samantha Womack & The Girl on a Train company ride Paula Hawkins’ runaway success
What is it about a great whodunnit thriller? What makes us keep turning the page? How does that inquisitive excitement translate onstage?
Games for Lovers Q&A video: Just how much has dating really changed… for good or bad?
After The Girl on the Train post-show Q&A, director Anthony Banks and I had to squeeze in another one together to his second current hit in London, Games for Lovers – which also meant I got to return to The Vaults for producer James Seabright’s third offering this summer.
Post-show Q&A: How many different ways can one audience interpret Equus?
How many different ways can one play be interpreted? The company of Equus were very keen not to impose their opinions but the audience at last night’s post-show Q&A at Trafalgar Studios had plenty of their own. Which were right? All of them! And what a knowledgeable audience it was. Many had seen this or other previous […]
Q&A video: Why Creation’s The Tempest is worth travelling for & immersing yourself in
After chairing events for London transfers of Creation Theatre’s The Pit and The Pendulum and Dracula, I was chuffed to be invited to see them on their ‘home turf’ in Oxford and host a post-show Q&A for their new gaming take on Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Q&A video: Why is it so important to know your history in The Time Of Our Lies?
A quick show of hands at this week’s Q&A at the Park Theatre confirmed my suspicion: most people, even left-leaning people, have not heard of Howard Zinn. Like those in the audience, before this show, I counted myself amongst them. So by that measure alone, Bianca Bagatourian’s The Time Of Our Lies is a success.
Q&A video: Talking to Apphia Campbell about Nina Simone & Black Is the Color of My Voice
The “High Priestess of Soul” Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Caroline in 1933, the sixth of eight children. Though she passed away, aged 70, in 2003, she lives on musically with her enduring standards including “I Put a Spell on You”.
Citysong Q&A video: Mapping three generations of a Dublin family’s life at Soho Theatre
I was mesmerised by this time-hopping, Dublin-set urban poem – originally commissioned for a spoken word festival – which, over the course of ninety minutes, captures one day and a multitude of moments and feelings in the lives of three generations of an Irish family.
Q&A photos: Matthew Broderick, Elizabeth McGovern & The Starry Messenger cast discuss loneliness, religion & astronomy
Terri Paddock was joined by Matthew Broderick, Elizabeth McGovern, Rosalind Eleazar, Jim Norton, Sinead Matthews and Sid Sagar to discuss the history of Kenneth Lonergan’s beautifully delicate play The Starry Messenger.
Education Education Education Q&A video: How well do you remember New Labour’s 1997 election landslide?
Remember D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better”? I was bopping along in my seat to that New Labour anthem and so many other chart-topping hits from my youth before curtain up at Education Education Education last week at Trafalgar Studios.
Q&A video: Following another LGBT hate crime on London transport, Vincent River is more timely than ever
With the horrific news this past week of the lesbian couple who were taunted and physically attacked by a group of male teenagers on a London nightbus, the themes discussed at Terri Paddock’s recent post-show Q&A – including the urgent need to for LGBT+ inclusivity education in schools – become more worryingly timely than ever…
Q&A video: How difficult are the stunts in The Comedy About a Bank Robbery?
After The Play That Goes Wrong, I closed out #MischiefMay last month, celebrating the world-dominating achievements of the comedy masters at Mischief Theatre, with my second of two post-show Q&As to the company’s two current West End hits.
Q&A video: Watch Terri interview producer, director & stars of Amour… must now finish 8 Jun
I can’t believe that Amour has posted early closing notices at Charing Cross Theatre. This beautiful production now must finish on Saturday 8 June 2019. So please watch and share this post-show Q&A video – and then book to see the show – ASAP!
#MischiefMay Q&A video: What could possibly go wrong at The Play That Goes Wrong post-show?
At the first of two #MischiefMay post-show Q&As, celebrating the world-dominating success of the comedy genius of Mischief Theatre, Mate Terri Paddock quizzes the West End cast of The Play That Goes Wrong.
The Glass Piano Q&A video: What is the ‘glass delusion’? How did it affect 19th-century royals?
Visits to the Coronet Theatre, until recently known as The Print Room at the Coronet, make me miss the days when I lived in Notting Hill (or rather, near enough, Ladbroke Grove). Recently, I returned to chair a post-show Q&A at the world premiere of Alix Sobler’s The Glass Piano, specially programmed to launch this fresh chapter in the building’s history.
Q&A video: Bromley Bedlam Bethlehem tackles intergenerational mental health matters
Timed to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, the full-length premiere of Rachel Tookey’s award-winning new play Bromley Bedlam Bethlehem is now running at the Old Red Lion Theatre. I got to speak to Rachel and her producer-sister Hannah about how their own family inspired this story exploring how trauma and mental illness can be passed from one generation to the next.
The Reality Q&A video: How do you write, perform & direct a two-hander… with one actor?
The Cervantes Theatre’s headlines its third New Spanish Playwriting season with the full UK and English-language premiere of Denise Despeyroux’s one-woman show The Reality, which had a dramatised reading at the theatre last year.
Heroes Q&A video: What happens when you & your dad share a love of David Bowie?
Are you a David Bowie fan? What first turned you on? Was it seeing his Top of the Pops debut as Ziggy Stardust? Was it your parents taking you to your first Bowie concert when you were still a baby? Was it memorising the album liner notes in your bedroom? Bebe Barry inherited her love of […]
Other People’s Money Q&A video: Are we all motivated by greed & self-interest?
I spend far too much time thinking about Donald Trump. As a thankful respite from trying to read the 448 pages of the Mueller Report recently, it was for positive reasons on the night at Southwark Playhouse.