Saturday, November 30, 2013
Tricycle, LondonA controversial play from the 70s no longer shocks in Kathy Burke's spirited revivalMary J O'Malley's comedy about piety and puberty at a Willesden convent school in the 1950…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMWednesday, November 20, 2013
Penelope Wilton talks about the effect Downton Abbey's success has had on her career, the importance of actors listening to each other and why dressing up for premieres is her idea of hellWh…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMTuesday, October 29, 2013
The comic talks about the mundanity of fame, the difficulty of doing alternative comedy when you went to Cambridge, and how Andrew Lloyd Webber keeps mistaking him for Ben EltonWhen did you …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:20PMTuesday, October 22, 2013
'No one ever says: "You're a composer? Wonderful! Why don't I give you lots of money?"'What got you started?I wrote my first composition when I was nine, but I never thought I'd be a compose…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:15PMWednesday, October 16, 2013
Preparing for his new show Fylm, the comic talks about stress, Ginsters sandwiches, crayons and punching boxersWhen did you discover you were funny? Still waiting.What was your big breakthro…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMSaturday, October 5, 2013
The Shed, the National, LondonThe human cost of China's growth is scrutinised in a damning but somewhat one-dimensional playThere is a great drama to be written about Chinese migrant workers…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMSaturday, September 21, 2013
Wyndham's, LondonEven a quality cast can't save the late Clive Exton's foul-mouthed, old-fashioned farceMaybe it's because I'm the daughter of an Essex girl, but I've never quite understood …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:05PMTuesday, September 17, 2013
Theatre designer Hildegard Bechtler talks about jettisoning film, putting live horses on stage, and why she isn't a fan of awards seasonWhat got you started?We didn't have much when I was gr…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMWednesday, September 11, 2013
The political comic on why telly's 'battery viewers' should be liberated, and the best advice he ever hadWhat got you started?The fact that the one time the whole family came together was du…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:55AMSaturday, August 31, 2013
Globe, LondonJessica Swale highlights female students' fight for the right to graduate in 1896"A woman who expends her energy exercising the brain," proclaims the psychiatrist Dr Henry Mauds…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMThe performer and theatre-maker stars in George Brant's Grounded, which portrays war as soul-crushing shift workFor the past few months, Lucy Ellinson has been living inside the mind of an A…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06PMFriday, August 30, 2013
He started work on his greatest verse cycle; she painted, wrote and danced. Laura Barnett reports on a new play trying to uncover the truth about the relationship between the poet and his ma…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:24AMTuesday, August 13, 2013
Philip Glass talks about the stars he'd like to work with, the price of fame and why an artist has to be true to himselfWhat first drew you to music? I can hardly remember: I was playing by …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:15PMTuesday, August 6, 2013
In between Edinburgh gigs, Lucy Porter talks about the itinerant life of the standup, why Kate Bush is such an inspiration, and reveals her greatest ambition – to go on CountdownWhen did y…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMMonday, August 5, 2013
As their show tackling the London riots opens at the fringe, two of Scotland's top playwrights talk to Laura Barnett about teens, tweets – and why the wrong people always seem to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33PMMonday, July 22, 2013
This brilliant celebration of North America's lumberjack heritage taps cleverly into nostalgia for old-time skillsWhen it comes to lumberjacks, Monty Python has a lot to answer for. I've los…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:46PMTuesday, July 16, 2013
'Until a few years ago, I was endlessly playing villainous, smug, posh guys on telly'Your parents [Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens] were both famous actors. Was following in their footsteps…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:59PMOur Glass House, a production at the Edinburgh fringe next month will, its creators hope, encourage victims of domestic abuse to come forwardIt is an ordinary house, on an ordinary street. O…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:00AMFriday, July 12, 2013
At a theatre summit in Spain, each critic's opinion seemed to bear the influence of their nationality. What's your own experience of how prejudices play out?How much does our nationality inf…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:15AMTuesday, July 9, 2013
'My low point? Sending designs to Shakira – while I was in labour'What first drew you to theatre design?Going to the English National Opera with my family from the age of 12. If you booked…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:16PMSaturday, July 6, 2013
Gielgud, London"Everything that happens is chance," says Amanda Prynne, one half – with Elyot Chase – of the warring couple whose abusive co-dependency is the subject of Noël Coward's a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:00PMTuesday, July 2, 2013
'Playwrights are no wiser than anyone else – but people start asking you about the economy'What first drew you to writing plays?I wrote my first, based on a story I took from a comic,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMChantal Coady of the Rococo chocolate company applauds a new stage production of Roald Dahl's book – and remembers her own real-life Willy WonkaI first read Roald Dahl's book when I was fi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:33PMSaturday, June 29, 2013
Open Air theatre, Regent's Park, LondonIn the six years since he took over as artistic director of London's Open Air theatre – lovely on a warm evening, though booking a ticket always invo…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:01PMTuesday, June 18, 2013
Stage and screen actor Francesca Annis talks about the cult of celebrity, going nude for Roman Polanski and the pressure of playing a famous beautyWhat first drew you to acting?It happened b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:36PMSaturday, June 15, 2013
London Wonderground; the Shed at the National Theatre, LondonOn a summer evening, few places in London can rival the South Bank for atmosphere, even when, as on the two consecutive nights I …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:04PMTuesday, June 4, 2013
'If I hadn't been able to make people laugh, I'd have ended up hitting someone with a brick'When did you first discover you could make people laugh?When I was 13. I got into lots of fights a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:59AMTuesday, May 21, 2013
Casting directors are among the most powerful figures in showbusiness, able to make or break careers. But what exactly do they do? Laura Barnett talks auditions, callbacks – and tearsUp in…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:30PMCasting directors are among the most powerful figures in showbusiness, able to make or break careers. But what exactly do they do? Laura Barnett talks auditions, callbacks and tears Continu…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:30PMWednesday, May 15, 2013
Contemporary dance pioneer Siobhan Davies talks about accidentally becoming a choreographer, Strictly Come Dancing and painful reviewsWhat first drew you to dance?It was completely random. I…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00AMThursday, April 25, 2013
Nerves, speeches, practising their fake-congratulation face – five nominees for this year's Olivier awards, including Luke Treadaway and Hattie Morahan, tell Laura Barnett about one of the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:30AM 
