The Base

We spoke with Caroline Blakiston about her life and career.

West by Steven Berkoff directed by Steven Berkoff produced by The Base Audio play coming soon. Starring Oliver Bennett, Steven Berkoff, Tim Faulkner, Lily Hardy, Mary Lincoln, Fabrizio Santino, Morgan Watkins and Sam C Wilson Sound recording - James Scott Linville

Nina Power joins us to discuss 'The Father' written by August Strindberg in 1887. Nina talks with us about the play and Strindberg's turbulent relationships with women. We use this as a jumping off point to discuss some of the challenges in the battles between the sexes over the last two centuries. Please follow Nina's work, she is really one of the great minds of today. https://ninapower.substack...

Today we are joined by historian and author, Justine Brown. Justine is a specialist in the Stuart period and the vibrant world of restoration theatre. Justine's work delves into the political and cultural shifts that shaped drama, from the court of James I to the Puritan firebrands and then the dazzling resurgence of the stage under Charles II. Her recent book, 'The Private Life of James II', expl...

This is Part 2 of our discussion with Professor Donald Rayfield. Professor Rayfield takes us from the mid 1890s until his untimely death in 1904. We ask him end the show with some questions on Anton Chekhov. Mr Rayfield is the foremost biographer of Chekhov and we were honoured to explore his extraordinary biography with him. Please buy his book wherever you can to learn more about one of the grea...

In this episode Professor Donald Rayfield guides us through the life and times of Anton Chekhov. In Part 1 he takes us up to the 1890s just before Chekhov writes The Seagull. Mr Rayfield is the foremost biographer of Chekhov and we were honoured to explore his extraordinary biography with him. Please buy his book wherever you can to learn more about one of the great dramatists in human history. ht...

A brief summary of the life of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Maximilian Stecher.

Written in response to Anna Sebastian’s paintings, Oliver Bennett's play ‘What We May Also Do’ was performed in the gallery Verdurin in Hoxton in 2024. An older woman, Gloria, attempts to gain admittance to ‘The City’ – a place of supposed sexual liberation and social climbing, but which breeds a life destroying ennui. An exploration into our contemporary attitudes to sex and repression. Written b...

Howard Barker is a playwright, poet, painter, director, designer and essayist. He is, in many people's opinion, our greatest living playwright. His work is extremely difficult to categorise. He has coined the term Theatre of Catastrophe and has argued for the reintroduction of the tragic mode. His style is unique - poetic, tragic, speculative, full of wild imagination, contradictions, anachronisms...

A reading of East by Steven Berkoff. Written in 1975 Mike - Morgan Watkins Les - Oliver Bennett Sylv - Charlotte Spencer Mum - Helen Bang Dad - Alec Newman

We talk to Steven Berkoff about his life and work. Steven Berkoff was born on the 3rd of August 1937. He is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director. He is a towering figure in the dramatic world. Steven takes us through his earliest memories and tells us what he would do to pull the dramatic arts out of a 'quagmire of nothingness'. www.thebasecreates.co.uk h...

We sit down with Sebastian Milbank to discuss his thoughts about Goethe's Faust Part 1. Sebastian is a writer and Executive Editor of the magazine The Critic. Sebastian gave a response to our staged reading of Faust Part 1 in March in St Bartholomew the Great's church in Smithfield in London. We talk about why Goethe was so drawn to this myth and what the 'Faustian Man' might symbolise in the chan...

We talk to Dominic Frisby about the financial subsidy system in the Theatrical world and the dramatic world at large. We talk about how art is paid for and what other systems might be possible. Dominic Frisby is writer and a performer. He has written numerous books about economic philosophy and has an incredibly popular Substack. He has vast experience in comedy and has become some what of a viral...

We talk to Esmé about Prometheus. We discuss Aeschylus's play Prometheus Bound, what the Promethean myth might mean and how Plato might think about the dramatic form. Esmé Lily Katherine Partridge is a writer and consultant working at the intersection of religion, philosophy and politics. She holds a First Class BA in the Study of Religions from SOAS, University of London, and has just finished an...

We discuss Sartre's play 'No Exit' with Nina Power. Nina was our speaker in our December 2023 performance of Sartre's classic play. Nina takes us through some key ideas in existentialist thinking and explores with us what Sartre might have been asserting about the human condition. The Base Creates is a new production company founded by Oliver Bennett and Morgan Watkins. We want to rediscover, expl...