The Archive
Recordings from May 2010
Total Number of Recordings from this month: 14
- ASIAN VOICES: PRAVESH KUMAR The artistic director of Rifco Arts talks to Suman Bhuchar about his latest project, Britain's Got Bhangra (Stratford East/Warwick and touring), a musical composed by Sumeet Chopra which starts with 1980s sequins and evolves into R 'n' B fusion. He also discusses other Rifco shows. Recorded at the Theatre Royal Stratford East.
“British Bhangra is unique to Britain - in India, Punjabi folk music is very different. So I wanted to tell its story.”
- Recording Date: 01-May-2010
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- INTERVIEW: HOWARD DAVIES The director talks to Carole Woddis about his current production of Mikhail Bulgakov's The White Guard (National), a play about Russia during the revolution which was Stalin's favourite drama and is now staged in a new version by Andrew Upton. Recorded at the National.
“Russian plays have the same scale as the best American drama, and the same social commitment. I want to do plays about politics.”
- Recording Date: 05-May-2010
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- WEST END REVIEW: REVIVALS SPECIAL Mark Shenton (Sunday Express) and his guests Kate Bassett (Independent on Sunday), David Benedict (Variety) and Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph) discuss Hair (Gielgud), Women Beware Women (National), Beyond the Horizon/Spring Storm (National), Shirley Valentine/Educating Rita (Menier Chocolate Factory) and The Real Thing (Old Vic). Recorded at Dewynters, London.
“Hair? I just had a really good time. I was expecting not to because I get quite annoyed by all the hippy nonsense.”
- Recording Date: 07-May-2010
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- WEST END REVIEW: NEW PLAYS SPECIAL Mark Shenton (Sunday Express) and his guests Kate Bassett (Independent on Sunday), David Benedict (Variety) and Charles Spencer (Daily Telegraph) discuss Laura Wade's Posh (Royal Court), Lynn Nottage's Ruined (Almeida), Mark Haddon's Polar Bears (Donmar) and Tommy Murphy’s Holding the Man (Trafalgar Studios). Recorded at Dewynters, London.
“Posh is entertaining but by the time it reaches its conspiracy theory finale, I became less and less convinced.”
- Recording Date: 07-May-2010
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- HOWARD BARKER SPECIAL (2/2) The legendary playwright and Artistic Director of the Wrestling School talks to Professor David Ian Rabey (University of Aberystwyth), about tragedy, working with actors, and the ethics of directing. Plus Q&A. Part of the Howard Barker at the Segal Centre Day, a celebration of his work. Recorded live at the Martin E Segal Theater Center at CUNY Graduate Center, New York.
“I love working with actors, and it alters you in some way. But because writers work in solitude it can be difficult to enter a room with 15 people and start organising them.”
- Recording Date: 10-May-2010
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- HOWARD BARKER SPECIAL (1/2) The legendary playwright and Artistic Director of the Wrestling School talks to Professor David Ian Rabey (University of Aberystwyth), about history, abandoning social realism, and creating new definitions of political theatre. Part of the Howard Barker at the Segal Centre Day, a celebration of his work. Recorded live at the Martin E Segal Theater Center at CUNY Graduate Center, New York.
“I never contemplate the existence of the audience at all when I create the text: I enjoy ambiguity and I like contradiction.”
- Recording Date: 10-May-2010
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- SHAKESPEARE: MACBETH Actor Will Keen, who plays the title role opposite Anastasia Hille's Lady Macbeth, talks to Heather Neill about this Cheek by Jowl production, which is directed by Declan Donnellan. Recorded at the Theatre Royal, Brighton.
“The first act is very hard work because there is so much backstory there - it's incredibly intense and fraught work.”
- Recording Date: 14-May-2010
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- INTERVIEW: DREW PAUTZ The Canadian-born playwright talks to Aleks Sierz about his latest play, Love the Sinner (National), which examines the relationship between personal belief and emotional experiences, as well as the tensions between the West and Africa. Recorded at the National.
“The question is what is Michael's wife Shelly willing to swap in exchange for putting up with his lies? The answer is the chance to have a child.”
- Recording Date: 17-May-2010
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- INTERVIEW: DAVID LAN The Artistic Director of the Young Vic talks to Philip Fisher about reviving legendary American playwright August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1984), which is currently at this venue, as well as about his career, and the mission and future of the Young Vic. Recorded at the Young Vic.
“I'm particularly keen to reintroduce to the mainstream, plays which have been left on the side for one reason or another, especially the black repertoire.”
- Recording Date: 20-May-2010
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- SHAKESPEARE: MACBETH Director Lucy Bailey talks to Heather Neill in depth about her current production of Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, which stars Elliot Cowan and Laura Rogers. Recorded at Shakespeare's Globe.
“They are a golden couple, with everything going for them, but Lady Macbeth is also someone who is frustrated in society because she's a woman.”
- Recording Date: 21-May-2010
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- INTERVIEW: THEA SHARROCK The director offers a few thoughts about playwright Terence Rattigan and his so-called lost 1939 play, After the Dance, which she is reviving successfully now at the National Theatre. Dominic Cavendish quizzes.
“There are moments when I think the older generation look at the younger generation and for a split second they realise: 'That was me'.”
- Recording Date: 24-May-2010
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- INTERVIEW: LYN HAILL The Head of Print and Publications at the National Theatre talks to Carole Woddis about how the flagship's programmes have evolved from simple cast lists into the lavish publications that have proved so popular today. Recorded at the National Theatre.
“The programmes now make more of a profit because they are part of the theatregoing experience - one in three audience members buy them.”
- Recording Date: 28-May-2010
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- FOCUS ON FAR AWAY Debates are part of the nightly format for Simon Godwin's revival of Caryl Churchill's Far Away (2000) at the Bristol Old Vic. Here the director invites the novelist Jim Crace and Chris Campbell, literary manager of the Royal Court, to respond to the work - and asks the audience for their contributions too. Sound level: variable. Recorded at the Bristol Old Vic.
“You had three separate emotions each of which unnerved you in different ways and you were left to work out quite what that meant.”
- Recording Date: 28-May-2010
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- INTERVIEW: NICK GROSSO The playwright talks to Philip Fisher about Ingredient X (Royal Court), his new play about the nature of addiction, and also about his close relationship with this new writing venue. Recorded at the Royal Court.
“I really wanted to show how addiction also impacts on those around the addict and how they leave a trail of destruction in their wake.”
- Recording Date: 29-May-2010
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