The Everything Theatre Interviews – Détails, épisodes et analyse

We invited a group of artists who had shows on at this year's Camden Fringe to discuss the experience - what they learned from putting their show on, what problems they encountered, and why ultimately it was a worthwhile experience.

Participants:

Ruby Blue Tansey-Thomas

Zofia Zerphy 

Hassan Govia

Benedict Esdale

Jon Hague

You can find out more about the participants on our website.

Lady Montagu Unveiled promises us a blend of Gossip Girl, Bridgerton, with dashes of Hamilton. What's not to like about that combination.

Throw in Thesy Surface, an actor with some fine pedigree, including a recurring role in It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia as the rather disturbing and monobrowed Margaret McPoyle. But she's given up the glamour of working in America to bring her one woman show to Camden Fringe. She reckons Lady Montagu Unveiled will be the hippest historical stage memoir in town, and who are we to disagree?

The show comes to The Courtyard Theatre for three performances only - 23/24th at 8.30pm and 25th at 1.30pm. Further information and bookings available here.

This week we're talking all things Wandsworth Arts Fringe, which is heading back to the borough for 17 days and nights over June. Here to tell us more of what to expect is Festival Producer Cath Mattos, along with Dodomu's Tom Sargeant and Nataliya Kharina, who are Associate Producers taking charge of The Arches at St Mary's Church.

We chat about the festival and what to expect, what Associate Producers actually do, and some of the highlights to look out for at this year's festival.

Wandsworth Arts Fringe runs from 7 - 23 June, with over 100 events happening across more than 40 venues ranging from parks, streets, churches, estates, libraries, pubs, and dedicated performance spaces all across the borough.

Find out more on their website here.

This week we caught up with Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead from Lung Theatre. A campaign lead theatre company, there have recently launched Unmute, a monologue writing competition for 11 - 18 year olds. 

We had a great time chatting about the competition, why they wanted to aim it at 11 - 18 year olds, and just what they might be looking for in a winning entry. And along the way we found time to chat about how the past two years have affected youths and why schools are sometimes scared to allow the kids to speak.

For our latest episiode, we sat down with playwright Andrew Sharpe. Andrew's play, The Spiral Path, has already received great reviews from its initial run at The Maltings Theatre, and it is now preparing for its London debut at the White Bear Theatre.

Andrew is of a more mature age to many of our guests on the podcast, having started writing later in life when he stopped practicing law. So it was interesting to chat about fringe theatre from that viewpoint. And of course, being an ex-lawyer, he takes his time to lay out his thoughts very clearly. We also discuss the pure joy of seeing your play performed for the first time, having left it fully in the hands of his director.

The Spiral Path opens at White Bear Theatre on 22 March for 5 nights and a matinee. You can book tickets here.

This week we chat to David Brady from Proforca Theatre, about their latest play Volcano. The play follows Max on a 12-hour odyssey across London that will change his life forever. 

Made in collaboration with Georgie Bailey from Chewdog Productions, who have also been guests on this podcast (ep 1), we talk to David about the play, working with Chewboy, and whether he has succeeded in his aim to direct a play without any set or props. 

And we also find time to discuss the difficulties of taking fringe theatre outside of London, and just what we might need to do in the future to make it possible.

Volcano plays at Lion and Unicorn Theatre between 8 and 12 March. Tickets are £14 available here.

We enjoyed chatting to Aaron-Lee Eyles last year so much that we didn't hestiate to invite him back for a second time when we heard about his new show, DeFriest. And this time he brought along his lead actor, Jay O'Connell, to join in the chat.

DeFriest tells the story of real life Mark DeFriest, an American who has spent much of his adult life in prison, even though it has been widely argued that his crimes have been as a result of his mental health, and his first crime was one that really feels like it should never have resulted in being locked up anyway! Along the way he has been credited with having made 13 escape attempts, 7 successfully. 

We chat about how Aaron-Lee first came across Mark DeFriest, and even made contact with him to ask permission to tell his story on the stage. Plus whether there is a risk of glorifying the story simply for entertainment values, or whether telling such stories is important to raise awareness.

DeFriest play at Lion and Unicorn Theatre from 15 - 19 March. 

Noga Flaishon makes a welcome return to chatting with us about Harpy Productions' latest show, Lethe. As weith much of their work, it's set in a future dystopian world, where you can now have bad memories erased permenantly. But at what cost?

Lethe was scheduled to play at Vault Festival, and this interview was recorded ahead of the festival's cancellation. At the moment there are no confirmed dates for the show, but we suspect that won't be the case for long.

in the meantime, hear us talk about how influencial Black Mirrors is to Noga's work, the experiences and joy of putting on a night of horror shorts with The Fright Before Christmas and we make another attempt to convince her to watch Dark on Netflix.

Paper Mug Theatre may be fairly new, but they have been busy! Last summer we saw their show I Lost My Virginity To Chopin’s Nocturne In B-Flat Minor, and now they are back with not one, but two shows. The first of which is Steve and Tobias Verses Death, which will be playing at The Pleasance in March.

The show finds a zombie apocalypse happening outside brothers Steve and Tobias' front door, but worse still, their mum appears to be patient zero! 

We chat to the show's writer and founding member of Paper Mug about the show, whether there will be plenty of fake blood splashing around, and we also ask that all important question, was I Lost My Virginity To Chopin’s Nocturne In B-Flat Minor based on real life?

(note: This show was originally scheduled for the VAULT Festival, and recorded prior to the festival cancellation, so there is mention of it playing at that venue)

Tommy, AKA The Queer Historian, is a disabled theatre maker. His latest show, How DIsabled Are You? explores what it is like when your disability is called into question and how the benefits system really isn't as easy to claim on as the Daily Mail might have you believe.

This is yet another show that was planned for the cancelled Vault Festival, recorded before the sad news of the cancellation, so there are a few mentions of the Vaults. The show though will be seeing future life, but in the meantimes, it's an interesting discussion on the prejudices faced by benefit claimants and why the media can be complicate in demonising claimants.