Mate Terri Paddock chaired a post-show discussion at the West End revival of A Day in the Death of Joe Egg with director Simon Evans and the cast.
Danelaw Q&A video: Is there a difference between racism & ‘racist attitudes’?
Why revive the play in 2019? How are people separate from their beliefs? What happened to the real Combat18 (and what does its name stand for)?
The Comedy About a Bank Robbery Q&A video: How do a new cast put their stamp on a long-running show?
What fun to return to the Criterion Theatre to see a brand-new cast put their stamp on Mischief Theatre’s The Comedy About A Bank Robbery, as the first in a series of monthly post-show Q&As with the comic geniuses. Watch the full discussion.
HighTide Festival video: Terri Paddock interviews leading director Deborah Warner OBE
At this year’s annual HighTide Festival in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, I was privileged to chair an hour-long “In Conversation With” platform discussion with legendary director Deborah Warner, reflecting on nearly 40 years in the business.
Q&A video: 20 years after she wrote it, Paloma Pedrero witnesses the UK premiere of The Eyes of the Night
I thought it was especially interesting to have lighting designer Nigel Lewis involved in the discussion – I was fascinated to hear how terrifying it was for him to plunge the stage into darkness for a lengthy portion of the evening.
At Last Q&A video: Can kindness be a form of rebellion against fascism?
Are you worried about the state of politics and society in the UK today? That’s the question I asked at the start of my post-show Q&A for At Last at London’s Lion & Unicorn Theatre.
Q&A video: Why did Arrows & Traps reset Jekyll & Hyde during the US presidential race?
Arrows & Traps’ 18th production in its five-year history is also its tenth at London’s Brockley Jack Theatre, where it is now an associate company, and its third in a Gothic trilogy. And it’s a corker.
Q&A video: How does Kander & Ebb’s Cabaret resonate even more strongly in 2019?
A musical about loss of rights, freedoms and humanity as a far-right populist party takes over a once-liberal society? Nothing familiar about that…
The Crown Dual Q&A video: How do you tell the Queen’s life story with a cast of two?
We were all madly checking our phones for news in the bars afterwards, but while Westminster dramas were going on, at Wilton’s Music Hall this week, we were getting to glorious grip with the (affectionate) comedy potential of the monarchy with The Crown Dual.
Queen of the Mist Q&A video: How does it feel to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel?
How does it feel to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel… and survive? Michael John LaChiusa, who wrote a musical on just this subject, was on his way back to the States by the time I chaired my post-show Q&A to his Queen of the Mist.
Actually post-show Q&A: Grappling with the grey areas around truth & consent
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 the 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.
WATCH: Spider-Man gets the first question in at The Falcon’s Malteser post-show
How did New Old Friends come to adapt Anthony Horowitz’s 1986 children’s novel The Falcon’s Malteser into a hit family stage show? What do the kids (including a keen young Spider-Man!) – and parents – in the audience think?
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.