The Play Podcast

05/11/2024

Clint Dyer and Roy William’s trilogy of plays, 'Death of England', is a searing state-of-the-nation drama voiced by both black and white working-class characters. Having been performed individually at intervals at the National Theatre through Covid lockdowns, the three plays were greeted with acclaim when they were finally brought together at the Soho Place theatre in the summer of 2024.

I am delighted and honoured to welcome playwright Roy Williams to the podcast to discuss this important work.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/086-death-of-england-by-clint-dyer-and-roy-williams/

17/10/2024

Tom Stoppard is renowned for his intellectual wit and playful dramatic form, both of which are certainly on show in 'The Real Thing', but the play also explores more personal emotional territory: on what constitutes the real thing in love, politics and art.

As we record this episode, a new production of the play is on stage at The Old Vic Theatre in London. My guest to help us navigate the romantic entanglements and structural twists in the play is the renowned arts journalist, Mark Lawson.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/085-the-real-thing-by-tom-stoppard/

James McArdle and Bel Powley at the Old Vic
Photo by Manuel Harlan.

27/09/2024

Mike Leigh’s 1977 ‘tragi-comedy’, Abigail’s Party is renowned for its iconic snapshot of the material and social fabric of its time. The play’s portrait of suburban social pretensions is both hugely funny and excruciating to witness. It is not just an exercise in period kitsch, however, because underneath there are universal human truths, about aspiration and identity, as well as about honesty and generosity, or the lack thereof, in intimate relationships.

As we record this episode a vibrant new production of the play is on stage at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director, Nadia Fall. I’m delighted to talk with Nadia about this classic of British theatre.

In this episode director Nadia Fall joins us to explore MIke Leigh's iconic 1970's tragi-comedy 'Abigail's Party'.

10/07/2024

When it premiered in London’s West End in 1960, 'The Caretaker' catapulted its author to fame and fortune. The play is set entirely in a single room in a dilapidated house, and presents the territorial battle between three men living on the margins of society. The psychological manoeuvrings of the men are dramatised in what we now recognise as Pinter’s cryptic mix of comedy and menace, along with his characteristic relish in the precision and panache of language.

As we record this episode a new production of the play is playing in the Minerva theatre at the Chichester Festival Theatre, and I am delighted to welcome its director, Justin Audibert, to the podcast to help us explore Pinter's enigmatic work.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/083-the-caretaker-by-harold-pinter/

20/06/2024

Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places & Things is a blisteringly frank and funny portrait of addiction and invented identity. When the play premiered at the National Theatre in 2015, Denise Gough won awards for her electrifying performance, and as we record this episode she revives her role in London’s West End.

It is a fascinating and challenging play, and an exhilarating piece of theatre. I am delighted to talk with its author, Duncan Macmillan, and the production’s director, Jeremy Herrin.

In this episode writer Duncan Macmillan and director Jeremy Herrin join us to talk about 'People, Places & Things'.

31/05/2024

Vladimir Nabokov described The Government Inspector as the “greatest play in the Russian language”. Gogol’s comedy of mistaken identity is an unexpected mix of fantastical farce and serious social satire. that has survived as a paradigm of political corruption and social hypocrisy in any age or place.

As we record this episode a new adaptation of the play written and directed by Patrick Myles arrives on the London stage, and I’m delighted to talk with Patrick about this classic play and its enigmatic author:

In this episode director Patrick Myles joins us to explore Nikolay Gogol's classic comedy of mistaken identity, 'The Government Inspector'..

10/05/2024

Eugene O’Neill wrote his autobiographical magnum opus, 'Long Day’s Journey into Night', in 1941, but because of the personal revelations it contained he gave explicit instructions that it was not to be published until 25 years after his death, and that it should never be staged. In the event his widow allowed both to occur in 1956, only three years after his death, when the play won O’Neill his fourth Pulitzer prize.

As we record this episode, a powerful new production of the play is playing in London, with Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson heading the cast. I am delighted and privileged to talk with the production’s director, Jeremy Herrin, about O’Neill’s monumental play.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/080-long-days-journey-into-night-by-eugene-oneill/

📷 by Johan Persson

In this episode director Jeremy Herrin joins us to explore Eugene O'Neill's autobiographical magnum opus 'Long Day's Journey into Night'.

19/04/2024

A new Jez Butterworth play is a theatrical event. 'The Hills of California' is currently running at the Harold Pinter theare in London’s West End, directed by Sam Mendes. Do not be misled by the title, however, we are not in sunny California, but in the back streets of Blackpool, where four daughters come together to say goodbye to their dying mother. The play is a portrait of lost dreams, of deeply ingrained patterns of love and hurt within a family, and of suppressed and mutable memories.

I’m joined to explore this major new work by Sean McEvoy, author of 'Class, Culture and Tragedy in the Plays of Jez Butterworth.'

In this episode Dr Sean McEvoy joins us to explore Jez Butterworth's new play 'The Hills of California'.

06/04/2024

We have a double-bill in this episode of two short plays written by Harold Pinter in the early 1960s: The Lover and The Collection, both of which explore sexual compulsion and the manipulation of truth within marriage or partnerships. As we record this episode a new production of both plays is playing at the Theatre Royal Bath, directed by Lindsay Posner.

I’m delighted to welcome Lindsay back to the podcast to talk about these two Pinter gems.
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/078-the-lover-and-the-collection-by-harold-pinter/

Claudie Blakley and David Morrissey in The Lover
Photo by Nobby Clark

08/03/2024

I am pleased and proud that as of today The Play Podcast has registered 100,000 listens. Thank you to everyone for listening, and to the wonderful guests who have joined me on the podcast. You can find a complete list of our esteemed guests on our website:
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/category/contributor/

There are lots more plays still to do!

07/03/2024

Henrik Ibsen’s play 'An Enemy of the People' is a fable of truth and lies, politics and power, and the challenge and costs of pursuing an unpopular crusade to speak truth to power. It’s a story of ‘fake news’, manipulation of the media, the dangers of populism, and the environmental cost of capitalism. No wonder it strikes a chord in our time, for as we record this episode there are two major new productions of 'An Enemy of the People' on the world stage.

I’m delighted to welcome back to the podcast, Ibsen expert, Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, who I was privileged to talk with in episode 74 on Ibsen’s wonderful play 'Ghosts'.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/077-an-enemy-of-the-people-by-henrik-ibsen/

Matt Smith as Thomas Stockmann
Duke of York’s Theatre, London
Photo by Manuel Harlan

13/02/2024

Shakespeare’s devastating exploration of race, reputation and jealousy, 'The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice' was a popular success when it was first performed during Shakespeare’s lifetime, but in the centuries since it has provoked a wide range of responses as successive generations have grappled with the racial identity of the eponymous character. As we record this episode a new production of Othello at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London views the play’s treatment of race through a contemporary lens, setting the play within the London Metropolitan police force, a topical environment for racial inspection.

I am privileged to welcome as my guest someone especially qualified to help us navigate the tricky waters of Shakespeare’s play, Farah Karim-Cooper, Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe , Professor of Shakespeare Studies at King's College London, and the author of 'The Great White Bard – Shakespeare, Race and the Future.'
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/076-othello-by-william-shakespeare/

Ken Nwosu as Othello and Ralph Davies as Iago
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Photo by Johan Persson

In this episode Farah Karim-Cooper of Shakespeare's Globe theatre joins us to explore William Shakespeare's tragedy of race and jealousy, 'Othello'.

26/01/2024

Harold Pinter’s disturbing exploration of toxic masculinity and sexual maneuvering, 'The Homecoming' premiered in 1965. The play’s portrait of misogyny, and even more disturbing, the apparent female complicity, was shocking at the time it was written. Nearly 60 years on the sexual politics is if anything even more difficult to watch. So what was Pinter’s purpose in presenting such a provocative piece, and how do we process it in the post Me-Too age?

I am joined by Matthew Dunster, the director of a scintillating new production of the play at the Young Vic Theatre in London, who can help us answer those questions about Pinter’s challenging classic.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/075-the-homecoming-by-harold-pinter/

📷Lisa Diveney as Ruth and Joe Cole as Lenny
Young Vic Theatre
December 2023
Photo by Dean Chalkley

In this episode acclaimed director Matthew Dunster joins us to explore Harold Pinter's challenging classic 'The Homecoming".

15/01/2024

Although Henrik Ibsen’s dark family drama 'Ghosts' was written more than 140 years ago it still retains the power to shock. Its treatment of sexual disease, in**st and euthanasia caused outrage in 1881, with critics describing it as “unutterably offensive”, “an open drain: a loathsome sore unbandaged”, a “putrid play”. Booksellers returned copies unopened, and no European theatre would produce it. The play did not receive its English language premiere until 10 years later, and that evaded the censor only by being presented in a single private performance. The play’s unflinching portrait of repressed truths and social hypocrisy has proven enduring because the conflcit between truth and hypocrisy is a universal source of human drama.

As we record this episode a new adaptation of 'Ghosts', written and directed by Joe Hill-Gibbons, is playing in the Sam Wanamaker theatre at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London until 28th January 2024.

To discuss this wonderfully powerful play, I am joined by Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, who is Professor of English and Theatre Studies at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. Kirsten’s research interests include the relationship between modernism and theatrical performance, and more specifically for our purposes, the writings of Henrik Ibsen.
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/074-ghosts-by-henrik-ibsen/

During our conversation, Kirsten and I referred several times to Ibsen’s earlier play A Doll’s House, which was the subject of our very first episode:
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/001-henrik-ibsen-a-dolls-house/

📷Hattie Morahan as Helene Alving
Sam Wanamaker Theatre
December 2023
Photo by Marc Brenner

In this episode Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr joins us to explore Henrik Ibsen's famously shocking drama 'Ghosts'.

03/01/2024

Federico Garcia Lorca’s unsparing drama 'The House of Bernarda Alba' is not only a tragic family drama, but its portrait of oppression and social conformity also reflects the dangerous political landscape in which it was written. Lorca finished the play in June 1936, two months before he was murdered during the first days of the Spanish Civil War.

As we record this episode a new adaptation of the play is on stage at the National Theatre in London. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to explore this inescapably powerful play, and its author, with an expert on both, Professor Maria Delgado.
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/073-the-house-of-bernarda-alba-by-federico-garcia-lorca/
Harriet Walter as Bernarda Alba
at the National Theatre
December 2023
Photo by Marc Brenner

In this episode Professor Maria Delgado joins us to explore Federico Garcia Lorca's unsparing tragic drama 'The House of Bernarda Alba'.

13/12/2023

Oliver Goldsmith’s ‘sentimental’ or ‘laughing’ comedy She Stoops to Conquer is both a romantic comedy and a deft social satire of town and country in late 18th century England. It’s merry-go-round of romantic intrigues comes complete with mistaken identities, stolen jewels and a midnight coach ride that ends mired in a horse pond. There is never much doubt however that in the end it is the women who will conquer.

She Stoops to Conquer premiered at Covent Garden Theatre in March 1773, and for the past 250 years has been a staple of English language theatre programmes and educational curriculae. As we record this episode a sparkling new production is on stage at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, and I’m delighted to be joined today by its director, Tom Littler, who is perfectly placed to tell us why this play has proved so enduringly popular.

https://www.theplaypodcast.com/072-she-stoops-to-conquer-by-oliver-goldsmith/

Tanya Reynolds as Kate and Freddie Fox as Marlow
at the Orange Tree Theatre
📷 by Marc Brenner

04/12/2023

Lynn Nottage’s play Clyde’s is set in a truck-stop diner on the outskirts of Reading, Pennsylvania. This is no ordinary diner though, because the short-order cooks that make the sandwiches that the diner is famous for are all ex-cons. The eponymous proprietor, Clyde, has not offered these characters a second chance out of the softness of her heart, but they discover some unexpected hope for their futures in their communal sufferings and support.

Lynn Nottage has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama twice, and as we record this episode the European premiere of 'Clyde’s' is on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in London. I am delighted to be joined by the show’s director Lynette Linton, who also directed Nottage’s last play 'Sweat' at the same theatre in 2018.
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/071-clydes-by-lynn-nottage/

Photo of the cast of Clyde's at the Donmar Warehouse by Helen Murray.

In this episode director Lynette Linton joins us to explore Lynn Nottage's funny and inspiraitonal play 'Clyde's'.

17/11/2023

The poet Percy Shelley called King Lear “the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world”. It is a prodigious play in every sense. There are ten major roles, it has multiple significant plot lines, an elemental stormy setting, intense domestic conflict, and acts of war and violence which roll on with a propulsive tragic energy and conjure a challenging philosophical vision.

As we record this episode a new production directed by and starring Sir Kenneth Branagh arrives in London’s West End.

I am very pleased to be joined in this episode by Paul Prescott, who is an academic, writer and theatre practitioner specialising in Shakespearean drama.
https://www.theplaypodcast.com/070-king-lear-by-william-shakespeare/

📷 Sir Kenneth Branagh at Wyndham's Theatre, London, by Johann Persson.