The Everything Theatre Interviews

This week's guests are Writer Ewen Moore and director Elizabeth Huskisson, who are about to bring their show, Battersea Bardot to the studio at New Wimbledon Theatre. Battersea Bardot is a one woman musical about the life of actress Carol White, who found fame in the 60s, including in the iconic Ken Loach drama Cathy Come Home. We chat about what inspired Ewen to write this musical, why White&...

This week we are joined by Dodie Finamore and Kieran Dee, who are about to star in The Shatter Box, the latest play from Proforca Theatre, who we've been big supporters of over the years. The Shatter Box is "a rollercoaster dystopian cat-and-mouse tango of interrogation, confession, staying alive and lying through your teeth", so there was plenty to ask about when we sat down with Do...

This week we were joined by three of the team behind Friction Burn, which is playing at The Hope Theatre from 20 August as part of Camden Fringe. The three were Sophie Faurie, who wrote and will be acting in her play, Leah Bonaventura, who directs, and Grace Bown, who co-composd the music with Sophie and plays fiddle for the show. We chat about the play and how the theme of suicide developed witho...

This week we handed the mic over to our wonderful Lily Middleton who chats with Jak Malone. Jak is currently starring in the West End smash hit Operation Mincemeat , a show that begun life in fringe theatre (our first review for the show was way back in 2019), so we're very proud to see how it has grown and grown in that time to now be the West End success. And it's just announced another...

This week we were joined by Amy Tickner and Gabriele Osella from Act II Festival, who are just about to hit Camden Fringe with their new show Neverland. We met Amy and Gabriele earlier this year for the Act II Festival that played at The Space, a collection of 12 short plays created by young artists, all under the guidance of the organisers. Neverland sees Amy and Gabriele continue the success of...

This week's guests were Fergus Head and Michael Zwiauer from Face Oddity, who are about to take their latest show This Isn't Working to Edinburgh in August, with a quick stop off at Canal Cafe on 29 July before that. We caught up with the pair to discuss the show, how they manage to put it all together when you've got a team of writers all bringing ideas to the table, and why sketch sh...

Ahead of two nights at Applecart Arts on 7 and 8 July, before then heading up to Edinburgh for August, we caught up with Monia Baldini to find out what Be My Guest is all about. We discuss the show, where it came from, why she writes in English even though she is Italian, and how audiences vary from country to country. Plus a whole lot more.

Our latest guests on our Runn Radio show were Nicky Diss and Vicky Gaskin , Artistic Directors of Open Bar Theatre . This summer they are taking two of the bard's finest works on a tour of Fullers pub gardens, come rain or shine. We chat about the originals of the company, why pub gardens are actually the perfect place to perform Shakespeare, and how they cope with the variables of the British...

This week our guest on our Runn Radio Show was Molly O'Gorman , the writer of new musical Ghost Light . This new musical that tells the story of a washed-up child star named Kat trapped in a cycle of emotional and financial abuse, and the toll that the nature of being a woman in the public eye takes on her mental health. When her sister returns and finds Kat at her lowest, dissatisfied with he...

Tom Derrington has been writing a monthly diary for Everything Theatre during 2023, giving a fascinating insight into what he gets up beyond actually writing plays. So when he informed us back in March that it looked like he would be putting a play on in London soon, we did get rather excited. As soon as it was confirmed that his play Bounce would be coming to Lion and Unicorn Theatre in June, we...

Lucinda Coyle and Samuel Xavier join us this week to talk about their show Our Last First. On first glance, it may seem a simple love story, but it doesn't need much digging to discover why this is so much more. For a start, it's written without any character features, so no gender, age, appearance, or anything else that might usually be used to place a character into a particular category...

Our latest guest on our Runn Radio show was Georgie Bailey, well known on these pages for his work with Chewboy Productions. Their latest show, these words that'll linger like ghosts till the day i drop down dead comes to The Pleasance from 13 June , so it seemed the perfect time to sit down and ask the one question that is surely on everyone's lips - why on earth have you given your show...

Our latest guest is Sarah Thom, who has been working in theatre for over 30 years. She is currently putting on her own one woman show, Beak Speaks, which she describes as an "homage to the fringe". The show finds Gillian Beak putting on a masterclass for actors, and as you will hear, is very much based on experiences she has had in her career, all wrapped around a story about Gillian&#39...

We chat with writer Andy Walker and director Lesley Manning as they prepare to bring their new show Happy Hour to Upstairs at the Gatehouse . Happy Hour finds Jacqui confronting her inner demon, who happens to be called George, and who is constantly tempting her to keep drinking. As we hear, whilst a work of fiction, the play comes from Andy's own fight with drink, although he has been sober f...

We first came across Ruby Shrimpton when she brought her show Unstitching to Camden Fringe in 2022 . The show is centred around Ruby's love of the Eurovision Song Contest, although as with all great theatre, that is just a starting point for something much more fulfilling. We said about the show at the time "when you accept the randomness of it, it can be genuinely enjoyable and unironic...

Back at the start of 2022 we spoke to Maya and Rosa from Hooky Productions, who were deep in preparations to take their show Experiment Human to VAULT Festival. A few days after we recorded the interview the festival was cancelled! Thankfully it didn't stop them, and the show found new places to play throughout 2022, including Edinburgh Fringe Festival. It also picked up a few awards on its tr...

Our guests this week are writer Andy Walker and director Leslie Manning, chatting about their upcoming show, Happy Hour. Happy Hour is a comedy/ drama about Jacqui and her relationship with drink, and her demon George who encourages her to keep drinking. As he tells us, Andy has been sober for 40 years now, but has tapped into his past to write this play. So we obviously have to discuss that, and...

Our latest guest is Aaron-Lee Eyles. Aaron-Lee is no stranger to Everything Theatre, having reviewed for us in the past inbetween working on his own shows. And his latest show is Mi$fortune, which tells the tragic story of Billie-Bob Harrell Jr, an American lottery winner, who quickly found that winning big isn't always that good. The show started life a couple of years ago under a different t...

Our guest this week is Jonathan Oldfield. Jonathan is bringing his new show, One Way Mirror to The Pleasance from 24 April. The show is about his experiences of watching people through the one way mirror that is the frontage of the solicitors office he has been living in as a guardian since 2019. This means people outside see their own reflection in the office windows, completely unaware that on t...

This week's guest is Amy Tickner, Artistic Director of Act II Festival. The festival returns to The Space on 8 and 15 April, and so it seemed a great time to sit down with Amy to find out what it's all about. ACT II is a creative programme bridging the gap between student theatre and the industry. They provide a creative development programme for London Students, giving them access to skil...

This week we were joined by writer Molly Anne Sweeney, whose latest play, Decommissioned, is coming to Pleasance Theatre in April. It's a funny and confronting play about how we're meant to care for children, fall in love and stay sane while tackling the climate catastrophe. The play was inspired by the true story of Fairbourne, the Welsh village that has been earmarked for "managed retreat" due t...

This week's guests over on our Runn Radio show were Zena Barrie and Michelle Flower, who between them set up Camden Fringe back in 2006. Since then it's grown and grown, and is now a vital cog within the Fringe Theatre calendar. We chat about its history, but more importantly, how people can get involved this year.  You can find out more about Camden Fringe on their website here . You can als...

This week's guest is Matthew Jameson. Matthew is most well known as being part of the team at The Space on Canary Wharf. But as well as his day job, he has also been busy writing his play, Ten Days. Well, we say busy, but as he tells us, it has been ten years in the making! Ten Days is a slice of intensified history, based on the memoirs of those that  lived it and adapted for 2022. An epic,...

Improv theatre is a genre of theatre that both scares and excites us, although probably more scares if we're being honest. But luckily we aren't the ones getting up on stage each night having to think on our feet and come up with funny and surreal scenario’s. Instead we can leave it to the pro’s who in this case are Pinch Punch Improv. Pinch Punch are bringing their latest show, Locomotive for Mur...

We are massive fans of the VAULT Festival, which takes place over January to March each year. It's grown year on year, and in 2023 will be hosting over 500 shows, ranging from theatre, comedy, cabaret and anything else you can put on in one of its many spaces.  But they have now been informed by the venue landlord that their lease is not being renewed for 2024, and so they are now seeking a n...