The Everything Theatre Interviews

This week we sat down with one of our own reviewers, Lily Middleton. Lily has written for ET for a number of years, although she took a break before returning at the start of 2021. She is a big advocate of musical theatre, and so we tells us why it's an often misunderstood genre and why it doesn't always get the respect it deserves. She also talks about some of her favourite shows and why reviewing is just so much fun for a theatre lover.

Belinda McGuirk works for Chickenshed, a theatre in North London that is more than just a theatre, it is also a place that provides education and training - many actors have gone on to big things after their involvement with Chickenshed. They also, each Christmas, put on what can only be described as a big production - 800 people, divided over a rolling 4 day rota. This year, Belinda will be directing the show, which will be EverAfter.  So it was a pleasure to chat with Belinda, about directing the show and how you even start directing it when there are 800 people involved, plus why the Chickenshed is a place that once you join, you really don't want to leave. You can find out more about the Chickenshed here

Matt Woodhead is the co-artistic director of Lung Theatre. He also created Who Cares? a verbatim play about young carers in the UK. Listen to Matt talk about the play, how it was created, and the campaign that it launched. More information on the Who Cares campaign can be found here The play is touring the UK throughout October and November. The radio version of the play can also be found on BBC Sounds here.

How To Kill Your Landlord is certainly a provocative title, and so befitting of a show that is going to be making its way to Edinburgh this August, with a quick stop off at Drayton Arms Theatre (20 and 21 July) for a quick tune up beforehand.Harry Conway's show places three very different characters in a house share, and as the title suggests, they begin to plan their dastardly deed. As we discuss with Harry, the title itself has a classic Ealing Comedy feel to it, and comedy was very much at the forefront of his mind when writing this, whilst at the same time acknowleding the difficulties of renting today. You can catch How To Kill Your Landlord at Drayton Arms Theatre on 20 and 21 July (tickets here) before a full run at Edinburgh between 30 July and 25 August (tickets here)

James Haddrell discusses his role as Artistic Director of Greenwich TheatreWith the announcement of two exciting additions to their 2025 programme, plus their usual high quality Christmas Panto, it felt like a great time to chat with James Haddrell, Artistic Director of Greenwich Theatre.Frm starting as Press Officer in 2001, James has worked his way up the ladder in his 20+ years with Greenwich Theatre, so if anyone understands the venue, it's him! We discuss their upcoming programme, why people may not have noticed the Studio space so far, but why it's an important part of the planning, and whether Greenwich Theatre is a London venue or not! You can find details of all Greenwhich Theatre's upcoming programme here.

Emmy Happisburgh grew up when the rave scene was very much at its peak in the early 90s. And it's that time and place that she has returned to with her show Second Summer of Love, described as one-woman’s first-hand trip celebrating the early 90’s UK rave scene.We chat with Emmy about the show and how her experiences of that time inspired it, how the show has developed from a one-woman show at 2022 EdFringe to a three-hander that is about to tour the UK and what difference director Scott Le Crass has made since taking over the reigns. Second Summer of Love tours from 3 July until 4 October. Full dates and bookings can be found here.

Elegy Theatre talk about The ExperimentIt's nearly four years since we first came across Elegy Theatre, with Truth/Reconciliation. Since then they have been busy putting on some amazing work, and are now all set to present The Experiment at Golden Goose Theatre (17 - 21 June). The Experiment takes us into the lives of Sadie and Will, a couple who are thrilled that their brief experiment with an open relationship has been a success. They worked out rules, discussed possibilities – they even wrote a manifesto. But soon, a stranger comes to Sadie with a disturbing alternate history, forcing her to choose between her identity as a woman and her desire to trust her partner.We caught up with the team behind this new show; Elegy's Artistic Director Matt Gouldesbrough, Director Madison Gerringer and writer Serena Berman. It's a very international affair, with Serena joining all the way from America to chat about her play, why it's not really a story about open relationships, and how this play has found its way to London for its full world premiere.Further information and tickets available here.

Tip Top Theatre Collective chat about God, The Devil and MeWe're always trying to expand our coverage outside of the usual London bubble, and one way of doing that is by chatting to those theatre makers who operate outside of the M25. So when we heard from Tip Top Theatre Collective we really wanted to find out more.Whilst they might be bringing their latest show, God, The Devil and Me to London's Drayton Arms Theatre, the team are spread around the country, but all originate from the South West. As well as putting on shows in the South West, they have toured work across the country. They will also soon be taking not just God, The Devil and Me to Edinburgh, but a second show as well!Which all means there was plenty to chat about when we caught up with the shows writer/ director/performer Fionn Donnelly, producer/ performer Noah Edmondson and performer Neo Jelfs.God, The Devil and Me plays at Drayton Arms Theatre 24 - 28 June before heading to Edinburgh for all of August. Further information and tickets available here.

Bridge House Theatre's Artistic Director Luke Adamson joins us to chat about both the venue and it's upcoming show, Penge West.Having now been in charge at the venue for four years, we chat about what lead him here, the importance of fringe venues in the community, and why it is safe to head south of the river.Their upcoming show, Penge West, is an attempt to bring the classic soap opera to the stage, with eight episodes played out over three weeks. As Luke tells us, it could all go horribly wrong, but that is going to be part of the fun of it all, but should still provide plenty of fun and certainly something rsther different.Penge West plays from 17 June to 5 July, with each "episode" playing for two evenings. Further information and tickets available here.

The Hope Theatre's Co-Artistic Directors Laurel Marks and Toby Hampton Just over a year ago, there was a fear we'd be losing one of our amazing pub theatres when The Hope Theatre announced its closure. But thankfully it never happened, with Laurel Marks and Toby Hampton arriving to save the day.A year on from officially taking over as co-Artistic Directors, we caught up with them to find out how it's going, and more importantly, what they have planned for the future - something that includes their first in-house production of Hampton's own play, Grace Mistake.You can find more about The Hope Theatre and Grace Mistake here.

Our latest guest includes the return of Sam Smithson, who last year was telling us all about his show Taking A Love Pill At the End of the World.This time around he is joined by Cameron Wilson, who together make up Not Quite Ready Productions. They are in full preparation to bring a fresh production of Martin Crimp's Attempts On Her Life to Hen and Chicken Theatre later in June. The play, first performed in 1997 at Royal Court Theatre, consists of seventeen seemingly unrelated scenes in which groups of people provide contradictory descriptions of an absent protagonist, a woman who is discussed as a terrorist, the daughter of grieving parents, an artist, and even a new car. The playtext doesn't assign lines to any specific character, meaning that there's a lot to unravel even before you reach rehersals. It also means a lot to unpick as we chat to Sam and Cameron to work out just why they wanted to take on what looks a highly ambitious piece of work, why they decided this time to work on an existing play and not new writing, and why it's a tough old world trying to be a writer!Attempts on Her Life plays at Hen and Chickens Theatre from 10 to 14 June. Further information and bookings can be found here.

Back at the very start of 2023 Eleanor Hill spoke to us about Sad-vents, a show we called "visually impressive" in our 4 star review. In the two years since, she's been rather busy. After her run at VAULT Festival, she then took the show to Edinburgh. And then started to work on her new show, Overshare. Oh and found time for some neurosurgery after expeirencing a medical emergency! Overshare explores the realities of mental health & trauma in the age of social media, but with the same humour that made Sad-vents such a powerful show. It also incorporates much of the same technical genuis of its predecessor, with the whole show performed to her phone instead of the audience, and livestreamed on screens behind her. We chat with Eleanor about how much of Sad-vents has found its way into Overshare, whether there's the worry that the technology will overshadow everything else, and why the aim isn't to try to tell us what's wrong with social media, but rather to generate conversations in the bar after the show.Overshare comes to Greenwich Theatre from Tuesday 6 - Saturday 25 May.

Whilst most of our podcasts are supporting specific upcoming shows, it's always fun to do something a little different. And that's what this latest edition is. Because we're chatting to Matthew Parker - director, actor, PR, and well, just about anything else that is needed to get a show on to the stage. Above all that, just an all round lovely fellow.We chat to Matthew about his career, from starting out at a dance school through to running The Hope Theatre and now a freelancer who has won awards for his work. We also hear about how he found himself flying out to Australia to direct a show, and what he's up to next.You can find out more about Matthew on his website here.

We came across Bespoke Plays in 2024 when Mimi Collins put on their first London show, a staged reading of her own play The Water Party. What we soon found out was that Bespoke Plays is a transatlantic venture, having been brought to London by Mimi in partnership with its LA founders. So the chance to chat about those LA origins with Mimi and one of Bespoke's founders, Ellie Pyle was something we were more than happy to take. We discuss how Bespoke started, how it was used as a way to get through lockdown for so many artists, the difference between LA and London, and even how arts funding differs between the two countries (spoiler: it's a lot better in the UK than USA!). And we find out about Bespoke's fundraising drive and what they want the money for.You can read more about Bespoke Plays on their website here.

We do love a good tag line, and that's just what our latest guests are Libby Boyd and Ruby Blue Tansey-Thomas, who make up two-thirds of Themis Theatre, gave us for their upcoming show, Schrödinger's Lesbians.RIght now they are working on bringing the show to Waterloo's The Glitch, having previously played as part of last year's Camden Fringe. Structured around the fragmented writings of Sappho's, ‘Schrödinger's Lesbians’ is a joyful, irreverent new play from Themis Theatre about love, lesbians, and how to cope with a history that's written you out of it.We discuss the play, the important of representation on stage, lessons learnt from Camden Fringe and whether history is still being written by old white men.Schrödinger's Lesbians plays at The Glitch from 9 - 14 April. Further information and tickets available here.

Synergy Theatre Project is more than just a theatre company. Formed over 20 years ago they work across theatre and the criminal justice system, including within prisons putting on work with prisoners, whilst the shows they put on will often include ex-prisoners in both the cast and creative roles.That's certainly true of their next show, Providers, a new play about family, money and what we do when we don’t have enough of it. Not only does the cast include ex-prisoners alongside professional actors, but so does the backstage team.We chat with Artistic Director Esther Baker about why Synergy does what it does, what it's like working in prisons, and quite why in an ideal world the company just wouldn't exist!Providers comes to Brixton House 25 - 29 March. Further information available here.

Emma Wilkinson Wright and Greg Wilkinson discuss The Last Days of Liz Truss.Poor Liz Truss, forever to be remembered for her failures and not the amazing work she did in promoting Britain's pork markets! But maybe that's all about to change with Greg Wilkinson's The Last Days of Liz Truss surely here to correct the record on her behalf? Well, ok, maybe not...The Last Days of Liz Truss joins Liz in her last morning at number 10, taking us on a tragic-comic exploration of the tensions in politics: between ambition and ability, vision and reality, going short and playing it long. Can a fighter ever quit?We caught up with Greg, along with performer Emma Wilkinson Wright to talk about the show, and find out if they are planning to set the record straight in support of our shortest ever Prime Minister. The Last Days of Liz Truss plays at White Bear Theatre from 18 - 29 March. Further information and tickets available here.

Chris Fung is about to bring his show, The Society for New Cuisine, to Omnibus Theatre, a show that asks "What would you give for a taste of new understanding?"Chris will be known to many for his West End work, including roles in Frozen and Cyrano de Bergerac, but as we discuss, this is his first foray into writing. We also chat about the delights of fringe theatre and how it differs from being on a West End stage, performing to just three people at Edinburgh Fringe and how the play was written whilst performing in Frozen.The Society for New Cuisine will play at Omnibus Theatre from 19 March to 5 April. Further information available here.

Sometimes a show pops up that says it is based on a true story, but well, you have to double check these things when they sound so ridiculous. And that is exactly what we had to do before we sat down with writer Nikhil Vyas to chat about The Mosinee Project, which is coming to New Diorama Theatre from 11 March. The Mosinee Project tells the true story of a fake invasion, when in 1950 a small town in America decided to show what would happen should the Russians invade! We discuss the show, how Nikhil happened upon this surreal story and why playing it straight is the only real way to make it so funny.You can find out more about the show and book tickets here.

Not heard of Mary De Morgan? Don't worry, we have to admit most of us here at ET hadn't either, but that's all about to change as we chat to Claire Parker about her show The Vegan Tigress. Mary De Morgan was a writer, a woman of independent means, a socialist and an activist. She wrote several volumes of fairy tales, tearing up the rule book on expected outcomes for boys, girls and happy ever afters. The Vegan Tigress tells the story of De Morgan through one of her own fairytales, reimagining the moment a formidable ghost from Mary’s past forces her to re-evaluate her own story as she finds herself on the cusp of a life-changing journey. Lily Middleton chats to Claire about the show and why she wanted to write a show about De Morgan. The Vegan Tigress plays at Bread and Roses Theatre from 18 February to 1 March. Further information and tickets available here.