Theatre Interviews

Ian Rickson: 'I'm an introvert, I want to stop talking about myself' - interview

Jasper Rees Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Ian Rickson’s route into theatre was not conventional. Growing up in south London, he discovered plays largely through reading them as a student at Essex University. During those years he stood on a picketline in the miners’ strike, and proudly hurled the contents of an eggbox at Cecil Parkinson. He is a lifelong supporter of Charlton Athletic.

10 Questions for Sharon Smith of Arts Collective Gob Squad

Thomas H Green Thursday, 26 April 2018

Gob Squad is a “seven-headed” Anglo-German arts collective who specialise in multimedia performance. Beginning in Nottingham in 1994 and now based in Berlin, their work ranges from site-specific to installation and film but, more recently, mainly theatre. They major in using technology to “make connections with places outside the theatre or to...

10 Questions for Performer Seth Kriebel

Thomas H Green Thursday, 05 April 2018

Seth Kriebel, 45, is a performer, much of whose work involves audience participation. He is bringing the show A House Repeated to the Brighton Festival 2018 between 6^th and 11^th May. Of American origin, born and raised near Philadelphia, Kriebel moved to the UK in 2001 and,...

'Why we understand each other': Peter Gill on The York Realist

David Benedict Monday, 12 February 2018

Fingers on buzzers… Question: What’s the connection between Days of Wine and Roses, Small Change, Making Noise Quietly and Versailles? Answer: They’re all past Donmar productions directed by Peter Gill.

Jeremy Irons: 'I was never very beautiful' - interview

Jasper Rees Monday, 22 January 2018

In 2016 the Bristol Old Vic turned 250. To blow out the candles, England’s oldest continually running theatre summoned home one of its most splendid alumni.

Douglas Henshall: 'You can get stuck when you’ve been in the business for 30 years' - interview

Jasper Rees Monday, 06 November 2017

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” In 1976 American anger about the state of the nation was channelled into Network, in which cinema satirised its kid sibling television as vapid and opportunistic. Paddy Chayefsky’s script, directed by Sidney Lumet, starred Peter Finch as Howard Beale, a news anchor who has a nervous breakdown on screen in which he starts preaching and becomes the news.

David Oakes: 'I haven’t done anything as bad as my characters'

Jasper Rees Monday, 16 October 2017

“He has something of Dillane about him.” Thus Patrick Marber on David Oakes. “I rate him very highly indeed. One of the very best of his generation.” Audiences at the Theatre Royal Haymarket will be able to judge for themselves this autumn. Oakes, 34, stars opposite Natalie Dormer in Marber’s production of Venus in Fur, a sizzling two-hander by David Ives.

Nikki Amuka-Bird interview: 'There’s huge enthusiasm among actors of colour'

Heather Neill Tuesday, 10 October 2017

Nikki Amuka-Bird spent the summer in Antigua, swimming and scuba diving and could have claimed to be working. She is playing Ellida in Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea at the Donmar, in a version directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah transposed to the Caribbean.

Olivia Williams interview: 'Are you on drugs?' 'No I've just spent the day acting'

Jasper Rees Monday, 24 July 2017

Olivia Williams’s first film was, (in)famously, seen by almost no one. The Postman, Kevin Costner’s expensive futuristic misfire, may have summoned her from the depths of chronic unemployment, but the first time anyone actually clapped eyes on her was in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, in which Bill Murray most understandably falls in love with her peachy reserved English rose. Then came The Sixth Sense, in which with great subtlety she in effect gave two performances as...

10 Questions for actress Tracy-Ann Oberman: 'it's made me pretty fearless'

David Benedict Monday, 03 July 2017

What do you call a woman who murdered Dirty Den, is the darling of TV comedy producers, writes radio plays about the golden age of Hollywood, hosted and judged Channel 4’s Jewish Mum of the Year, was until just a few weeks ago tap dancing through eight shows a week in Stepping Out in the Wes

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