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.

We recorded this interview just before Christmas, and at that time, we had no idea the Vault Festival would be cancelled for 2022. So when we sat down to chat about Pickle with Deli Segal (written and actor) and Tanya Truman (producer) we thought it would be to promote the show when it played at the festival.

However, what we ended up with was a great discussion about the lack of representation of Jewish female on stage and TV, and why anti-semistism is still something we all need to learn more about. And whilst we edited out some mention of the Vault Festival, we also touch upon why such festivals are so important to emerging theatre makers like Deli and Tanya.

We've been informed the show should be announcing new dates soon, so it seemed as good a time as any to release this wonderful conversation with two charming and interesting theatre makers.

Paul Bradshaw is a writer and performer, whose latest show, Tell Me Straight was first played at King's Head Theatre, and is now about to open for a run at Chiswick Playhouse. The play follows Him, a gay man who seems to have a history of going after the wrong type of men - straight ones! All to the despair of his friend Dani is on hand to try to guide him in the right directly.

We caught up with Paul just before Christmas (hence some confusion over our mentions of next year!) to talk about the play, how it was received during its initial run, and whether having a voice actor is just a cheap way of avoiding paying them for future performances!

Suzy Kohane and Sidsel Rostrup created their theatre company, Secretariat, in 2019, just a few months before the world came to a halt in 2020! Their debut show, Hexenhammer, was due to play at the Vault Festival this March, that was until the festival became another casualty of covid.

Undetered though, the pair found time to come and chat with us about what inspired them to create a theatre company, how they have found the positives from the lockdown, and what we can expect from Hexenhammer.

Hexenhammer is a comedy about German medieval monks and modern day Incel groups. The monks wrote a pamphlet on witch hunting and which was used throughout the country to persecute woman accused of witchcraft, and this is compared to the Incel movement and how both treated woman as inferior. 

Whilst the show currently doesn't have any confirmed dates, we suspect it won't be long before we get the chance to see what sounds like a very interesting show.

This is the first of our interview series carried out by Lily Middleton, one of our reviewers who has now stepped up to be an interviewer as well. 

Our latest guest is Sam Smithson, whose show, Taking A Love Pill At The End of The World, is about to open at The Hope Theatre.

As Sam tells us very early on, the show is very much all about what the title suggests, it's about two people who are given the option to take a love pill whilst the world is coming to an end! But thankfully, there's a lot more to it than that, or this would have been a very short podcast indeed.

We discuss the play and whether it is a metaphor for our need for instant gratification nowadays, plus Sam tells us about the live cooking that happens during the show, and whether it would be wise to turn up hunrgy!

Taking A Love Pill At the End of The World plays at The Hope Theatre from 14 May - 1 June. Further information and bookings can be found here.

It’s always fascinating to find out where the original ideas for a play come from, and that’s just what we hear about from sisters Maya and Rosa, who make up Hooky Productions. The pair tell us about turning a childhood idea into the central concept for their show, Experiment Human. We also hear the truth about Benedict Cumberbatch, who has a leading part to play in their show.

The interview was recorded on the day that it was announced that the Vault Festival had been cancelled. The show was scheduled to play there in March, so at the time of recording, plans were very much up in the air. But the pair were not too downhearted and kept us entertained with their laughter and sheer weirdness of what the show offers. We do hope we get to see it in a theatre near us soon.

Charlotte Anne-Tilley came to our attention a year ago when her show Twenties was online as part of TheSpaceUK's short online festival showcasing many of the artists who would normally have been planning to head off to Edinburgh that summer. The show caught our attention for both its inventiveness and for being what felt a very true portrayal of a young girl moving to London where she believed she would soon be heading off to all the celeb parties and bumping into famous names every street she walked down.

Since then Charlotte and the team have been busy rewritting Twenties into a live full length show, which will be playing at The Space in Canary Wharf from 13 to 15 January 2022, before they hope to then take it to this year's Edinburgh Fringe. So it seemed the perfect time to sit down with Charlotte to find out how the show has changed, not only with its name now being Almost Adult, and how her life has changed since we presented her with an award as part of TheSpaceUK's festival season.

Linus Karp became the first two-time guest on our Runn Radio show (the first interview can be heard here). 

Linus is getting ready to take his "How To Live A Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Movie Musical 'Cats'" on the road in 2022, starting at Bristol and then two months of dates up and down the country. So it felt the purrfect time to catch up with him and find out what it is like putting on a small theatre tour, as well as why 80 year old's are more than welcome to come and see the show.

You can find the full list of dates here

Jane was another writer we came across as part of The Fright Before Christmas, a night of short horror plays at The Space Arts Centre. It was a very abstract play that left as many questions about what it all meant as we had answers! So we thought it would be great to sit down with Jane and get her to explain it a little more to us. We were surprised by how much we'd missed, so it turned into a fascianting chat about violence against women, and how some woman can turn from prey to predator. 

We came across Freddie Valdosta when her show, Flipping The Switch,  performed as part of The Fright Before Christmas; a collection of short  horror plays curated by Harpy Productions and Danse Macabre and  performed for one night only at The Space.

Not only did Flipping The Switch blow us away, it was similary loved by  the rest of the audience who voted it the best of the night. So we were  really excited when Freddie agreed to join us for a chat about the show,  how it was inspired by her own battles with OCD, and just what else she  has planned. She also found time to admit to writing teen fan fiction,  although we haven't (yet) been able to find it online, much to her  relief we suspect.

You can see a recording of Flip The Switch here (note that this was recorded on a smartphone and not for professional use. But we hope it still gives a good idea of how tension filled this play was on the night).

Our latest guest to chat to Everything Theatre is Christopher Smart from Mangled Yarn Theatre. This time last year they released Everytime A Bell Rings, their "prequel" to It's A Wonderful Life. It was a show we loved, so when we heard this year they were putting on It's A Wonderful Life, both in person and on-demand (to be recorded on Christmas Eve) it seemed a great chance to speak to them about both shows, their association with The Place Theatre in Bedford, and what else they might have planned for next year.

This week we sat down with one of our own reviewers, Lily Middleton. Lily has written for ET for a number of years, although she took a break before returning at the start of 2021. She is a big advocate of musical theatre, and so we tells us why it's an often misunderstood genre and why it doesn't always get the respect it deserves. She also talks about some of her favourite shows and why reviewing is just so much fun for a theatre lover.

https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/sht-faced-showtime-a-pissedmas-carol/Sh!tfaced-Showtime, and sister company, Sh!tfaced-Shakespeare have entertained audiences now for over ten years with their high energy shows. It looks a simple idea on paper; one cast member each performance drinks for four hours prior to the start, and so whilst the rest try to carry on with the script, have to work around the antics of a drunk colleague. Mayhem will usually follow!

About to bring A Pissedmas Carol back to Leicester Square Theatre in December, it felt a great time to sit down with producer and actor, James Murfitt, about how the company came about, answers allegations from some critics who claim they aren't really drunk, and tells us about the craziest thing a drunk colleague has ever done during a performance.

A Pissedmas Carol plays at Leicester Square Theatre from 6 December until 15 January. You can book your tickets at https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/sht-faced-showtime-a-pissedmas-carol/ 

Belinda McGuirk works for Chickenshed, a theatre in North London that is more than just a theatre, it is also a place that provides education and training - many actors have gone on to big things after their involvement with Chickenshed.

They also, each Christmas, put on what can only be described as a big production - 800 people, divided over a rolling 4 day rota. This year, Belinda will be directing the show, which will be EverAfter. 

So it was a pleasure to chat with Belinda, about directing the show and how you even start directing it when there are 800 people involved, plus why the Chickenshed is a place that once you join, you really don't want to leave.

You can find out more about the Chickenshed here

In our latest podcast interview we chat to Gavin Dent and Neil Sheppeck from Rising Tides about Good Cop, Bad Cop 26: A Climate Festival, which is playing at The Space between 1 and 12 November.

The festival is in response to the COP26 summit taking place in Glasgow as the festival opens. During its 12 days it will features plays, workshops and live music, all with the climate crisis at their heart.

Gavin and Neil tell us about the festival, why theatre has a role in making people talk about the climate issue and their hopes for the summit itself.

Sierra Sevilla is a woman on a mission. And that mission is to convince us that spam (the food not the junk email) is worthy of another chance. For too long us Brits, as well as many other countries around the world, have scoffed at spam as just a cheap food from a forgotten era. But to Sierra it's much more than that, it's a memory of her home country, the tiny island of Guam, and it's a versatile one as well, as she plans to show us in her show.

That show is For The Love of Spam, where she talks about spam, what it means to her, and its connection with modern-day colonialism. And here Sierra tells us more about that, as well as does a good job convincing us that we really should give this food another chance.

This week we chat to Andrew Muir and Georgia Bates. Andrew is co-creative director of Ardent Theatre, plus the writer of their latest show, Rethink. Georgia is a young actor involved with the play as well as part of Ardent8, the theatre company's project that takes eight young actors from outside of London and helps them put on a show.

Rethink, the show that has come out of this, is a direct response to the government's ad campaign early on in lockdown that suggested those in the arts could retrain elsewhere. Hear what Andrew and Georgia thought of that suggestion.

You can find out more about Ardent Theatre at https://www.ardenttheatre.co.uk/

Matt Woodhead is the co-artistic director of Lung Theatre. He also created Who Cares? a verbatim play about young carers in the UK. Listen to Matt talk about the play, how it was created, and the campaign that it launched.

More information on the Who Cares campaign can be found here

The play is touring the UK throughout October and November. The radio version of the play can also be found on BBC Sounds here.

This is the second of two interviews originally recorded as part of Everything Theatre's contribution to Runn Radio's Mental Health and Wellbing Day. 

Phoebe Angeni talks to us about mental health, the important role therapy can play in helping you cope, and just how she has turned her own struggles, including anxities and body image phobias, into a positive by putting on her stage show Ithaca. 

You can find more information about Phoebe at https://www.phoebeangeni.com/ 

This is the first of two interviews originally recorded as part of a Mental Health and Wellbing Day run by Runn Radio, where Everything Theatre hosts a weekly show.

Jen Roehrig tells us about her theatre work, and more importantly, how she overcame both physical and mental health difficulties to return to education in her 40s. Along the way we talk about how theatre can help normalise mental health and why its important to look after both body and mind.

We head outside of London for our latest interview, which finds us chatting to co-Artistic Director of Imitating The Dog, who are about to stage their live graphic novel, Dracula: The Untold Story at Leeds Playhouse. Andrew tells us about their version of this familiar tale, taking it into the 1960s and focusing their attention on Mina Harker. We also hear how they have turned this live show into a graphic novel, merging live performance with technology to give us a glimpse of a whole new world.

You can find out more about Imitating the Dog here

Stepping away from our usual Fringe surroundings, we caught up with Jaki WIlford, founder and owner of Flamenco Express. As the name would suggest, they are a dance theatre company, with the simple aim of putting on accessible Flamenco dance shows. Jaki tells us about the company's history, what great flamenco dancing should be like, and their plans for the future. 

You can find out more about the company at https://flamencoexpress.co.uk/

Max Mackay talks to us about her professional directing debut with The Arsonists. She also tells us about StoneCrabs Theatre Company, whose programme for emerging artists has made this possible, and culmilates with the Play-doh Festival, showcasing nine new directors. Along the way we chat about the excitement of knowing your play is about to be performed at Southwark Playhouse, and why she really wants to one day direct the play in its original German!

In our first episode, we chat to Georgie Bailey, Artistic Director of Chewboy Productions and Jack Sunderland, who is starring in their new show, DJ Bazzers Year Six Disco. They tell us more about the show, how they are finding their first time working at Golden Goose Theatre, plus so much more.

DJ Bazzers Year Six disco is performing at Golden Goose Theatre 7 - 17 September. You can get tickets at www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/dj-baz

Find out more about us ET here

This week we chat to Nicholas, Nieve and Nadia, who make up Midnight Circle. Having already made immersive shows based on Frankenstein and The Picture of Dorian Gray, they are now turning their hand to M.R. James' Ghost Stories of An Antiquary, a series of ghost stories originally published in 1904, but here moved to the 1940s during the Blitz.

We chat about the show, what their immersive means to them this time out, just how scary it might all get, and why they want you to come along in period costume! Note: Due to a technical error (we forgot to plug a mic in) the interviewers voice is a little muffled, but we hope this doesn't distract from what is still a highly entertaining listen!

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary plays at Longfield Hall, Brixton, from 17 - 27 April, further information can be found here.

If your show is called Pansexual Pregnant Piracy, it probably goes without saying that things are going to get a little silly. And that's just what we got when we sat down with Eleanor Colville, Ro Suppa, Robbie Taylor Hunt, the trio who make up Airlock Theatre.

Pansexual Pregnant Piracy is the story of eighteenth-century pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read, although it's probably not giving too much away to say that they have taken some artistic licence with the story and it may not all be entirely based on truth. But as they tell us, they want to tell queer stories that are also a whole lot of fun.

The show plays at Soho Theatre until 13 April.

This week's guest is Kieran Dee, one half of Moon Loaf. We're big fans of their work, so always pleased when we get the chance to chat with Kieran, although that's usually when we bump into him all too regularly at Lion and Unicorn Theatre. But this week was planned and recorded!

Moon Loaf are about to bring their latest show, Insult To Injury, to Lion and Unicorn. The show is a dark satirical look at social media and its moderators. So as well as chatting about the show itself, it seemed appropriate to ask Kieran his thoughts on social media, along with a question we ask quite a lot - what is it about Lion and Unicorn that makes so many artists want to hang out there?

Insult To Injury plays 2 - 13 April, more information available here.

We welcome back writer Nina Atesh to the podcast. Nina has appreared twice before, once to talk about her play The Drought, and a second time to discuss GrimFest. This time she is joined by director Chloe Cattin, the pair here to tell us about their latest work Horne's Descent, a dark new drama exploring the destruction of man, set against the backdrop of a broken England, trying desperately to pull itself out of the shadow of war.

We hear more about the play, what it's like putting on a show at Old Red Lion with its unusual layout, and whether we're going to get some glorious facial hair (spoiler alert: No).

Horne's Descent comes to Old Red Lion Theatre between 2 - 13 April, further information available here.

We've been massive fans of Conrad Murray's work for a number of years. His work with Batterseas Arts Centre's Beat Boxing Academy alone would be enough in itself, but Conrad has also devised shows that uses all his beatboxing and rap skills in creating new exciting ways to tell a story. So when we bumped into him at the recent OffWestEnd Awards, where he won for best TYA Production, it was a great opportunity to ask him if he'd like to join us on our podcast. And thankfully he said yes.

Right now he is working on a hip hop retelling of Romeo and Juliet, playing at Polka Theatre, aimed at a younger audience. He's also bringing Pied Piper back for a short run at Southbank Centre. On top of that, he has a few other projects in development, so there was an awful lot to pack in to our chat.

Note: We recorded this after he had just come off stage at Polka, and so you will hear a little background noise of the theatre going about its business! The sound also goes slightly odd for the final minute, apologies for that.

You can find out more about Romeo and Juliet here, and Pied Piper here.

When Mimi Collins moved to the UK from the States, she brought with her a little piece of Bespoke Plays, a theatre group dedicated to giving new writing the chance to be heard via their staged readings. Bespoke already put on readings in New York and L.A. but now Mimi has added a third string to their bow with London.

Their first show, Water Party, performed to a sold our Union Theatre and, if a taste of what may be to come, means we are in for plenty of amazing treats in the future.

We sat down with Mimi to chat about Bespoke, why staged readings are a great stepping stone for new writers, and what else they may have planned for 2024.

Burnt Orange Theatre is an award winning youth theatre company championing the voices of young creatives across London. They work collaboratively, consciously and cleverly to create new and boundary-pushing theatre for young people, by young people.

Right now, that includes their inaugural REP Company Season, which means taking a group of 16 - 21 year old's and putting them through their paces by working on not one, but two shows; The Tempest and Constellations. Both shows are then being taken to Drayton Arms Theatre from 23 April.

We caught up with one of Burnt Orange's founders, Rosie Thomas, to discuss what they do, what we can expect from the upcoming shows, and why in an ideal world, companies such as Burnt orange wouldn't even be required.

The Tempest plays 23 - 27 April, and Constellations from 30 April - 4 May

We grabbed five minutes with Alice Motta during the recent Camden Fringe Launch Party, firstly as we needed someone to take a photo of our little team who were there, but also so we could chat about her show.

Find out about her show and why she has stopped using an actual bath in her set!

You can read more about the show in a fuller interview we did with Alice here.

When we were offered the opportunity to chat to Leah Vassell about performing in Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World, it seemed obvious that we really needed a woman to do the interview! So we asked Lucy Boardman, who had reviewed the show in Edinburgh in 2022. It probably helped that she had given it 5 stars at the time, and so was more than willing to take over the mic for this one.

She chats to Leah about what makes this show so incredible, why it's vital to have female role models and who inspires her.

Fantasically Great Women Who Changed The World is currently on tour. Further information, including venues and dates, can be found here.

For our latest podcast, we sat down with Joseph Derrington, who is getting ready to hit the road with Blackeyed Theatre, in their latest production, Sherlock Holmes: The Valley of Fear.

Joseph will be reprising his role of Dr Watson, a role he first played in their production of The Sign of Four. This time out the show takes them from Bakers Street all the way to the bleak Pennsylvanian Vermissa Valley, all via stages in London, Dundee, Derby and Bath.

We discuss the show, what it's like playing such an iconic role, and why he is now compelled to keep the beard until his passport expires.

You can find more infotmation and tour dates for The Valley of Fear here.

Our first podcast guest of 2024 is Nell Hardy from Response Ability Theatre (RAT). RAT's new play, I, Lord, tackles the difficult subject of spiritual abuse. It's a term that perhaps many of us don't quite understand its meaning, but Nell helpfully explains what it means.

As well as that, we discuss what to expect from the play, what it is they hope to achieve with it, and why they are putting on an accompanying children's show playing at the same time, so you can bring your kids along for the evening and leave them in safe hands.

I, Lord plays at The Space from 13 - 17 February. Further information and bookings can be found here.

We were graced with two West End stars for our latest podcast, in the forms of Tanisha Spring and Dom Simpson, who are currently starring in Moulin Rouge.

Tanisha and Dom sat down with Lily Middleton to talk about their careers, offer some advice to those who want to fill their shoes one day, and just how you manage your life when you're working six evenings a week!

It wouldn't be Christmas without some festive horror to enjoy on stage. And this year that is being provided by Jacob Lovick & Jack Robertson, writers of Midwyntar.

To find out more, we caught up with Jack to chat about the show, how we should pronounce the title, and just why seeing the show on its final night could be a murderous occasion!

Midwyntar plays at Old Red Lion 12 - 22 December, more information and bookings can be found here.

This week we are chatting to writer and director Roxy Cook. Roxy's debut play, A Woman Walks Into A Bank, won the 2023 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award, and is now about to be performed for the first time.

The play's initial idea came from an incident that happened to Roxy's grandmother, when she really did walk into a bank, but from there, the story is a work of fiction, exploring the consequences of what happened. Set in Russia in 2018, it is a look at Russia and the everyday people that we may easily overlook when we currently think of the country.

A Woman Walks Into A Bank opens at Theatre503 from 21 November. Further information and bookings can be found here.

This week we were joined by Megan Brewer and Mikko Juan, Artistic Directors of Halfpace Theatre Company. The pair are about to bring their new devised show Transit to The Space.

Drawn from the lived experience of marginalised artists, Transit explores cycles of violence and the toxic systems that push our communities to the margins. Dynamic, migrant-led company Halfpace Theatre comes out swinging with this devised physical theatre piece, asking how we keep ourselves alive in a world that does not want us and how far we have to go to reshape it into one that does. 

We discuss the show, ask what devised theatre actually is, how you pitch a show with no script and why two Americans have come all the way to the UK to get involved with London's Fringe Theatre scene.

Transit plays at The Space from 28 Nov - 2 Dec, and will also be available to livestream on 2 December then available on-demand for two weeks. More information and bookings can be found here.

Joe Facer & Adam Sandy are founders and artistic directors of To The Ocean, a company aiming to build a collection of stories, within theatre, film and tv, exploring narratives rooted in reality but often existing in a world with a touch of the fantastical. 

Right now, they are putting the finishing touches to Alex and Maggie Go Ghost Hunting, which will be playing at The Space from 31 October to 4 November, plus livestreamed on Friday 3 November and then available on-demand for two further weeks.

Whilst the title may suggest a straight forward ghost story, it promises much more, exploring sibling friendships and life for young adults in a Northern town that maybe hasn't seen the leveling up that has been promised.

We discuss this and much more in this week's podcast, available here and from all the usual podcast providers.

About the show:

In a sleepy South Yorkshire town, nothing of interest really happens. Except for Alex, and on the odd occasion, his sister Maggie. For them, this town is a perfect place to go ghost hunting (and that’s not because half of the residents look dead). But when Alex and Maggie begin their hunt, it’s their own personal lives and recent loss that comes back to haunt them. 

Set in an old school hall, Alex & Maggie Go Ghost Hunting is the new play from To The Ocean that offers an authentic lens into life in a Northern town and a depiction of real ghostbusters (not really, Maggie doesn’t have a clue what she’s doing).

So join Alex and Maggie this Halloween for a night of spooky and paranormal encounters. 

Tickets available here.

October is always the time when the ghosts and ghouls appear on the stage, and we are all for it here at ET. So it was a horrific pleasure to get to spend time with Nina Atesh and Jack Roberston, who are curating the second edition of GrimFest.

GrimFest is a celebration of all things slightly creepy. It first appeared in 2022 to fill the void left when London Horror Festival didn't appear. And with no LHF again in 2023, they have decided to bring it back for a second outing. But this time with Nina onboard to help take some of the strain.

We discuss the festival, the range of shows you can catch and why there really is something for everyone, even those who say they don't like horror, plus we muse on why we don't get this 365 days of the year and whether podcasting has helped grow people's desire for more of it on stage.

GrimFest runs from 17 October to 4 November at The Old Red Lion Theatre, and you can find out all the shows appearing here.