The Play Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Episode 105: The Weir by Conor McPherson

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Conor McPherson

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

The curtain rises on a small rural pub in northwest Ireland. A few of the regulars have dropped in for company and bit of the craic. This is the simple premise of Conor McPherson's breakthrough, internationally successful play, The Weir. The play is a quiet, yet mesmerising piece of drama that consists of nothing more than a handful of people coming together and telling a few stories. Stories which reveal not only personal anxieties, regret and grief on the part of its characters, but which, in the telling, draw us into a collective experience of the mystery of being alive.

The Weir premiered in a tiny space at the Royal Court Upstairs in July 1997. It has since been performed all over the world, and as we recorded this episode a new production was playing in London's West End, directed by the author himself and starring Brendan Gleeson as Jack. I'm delighted to be able to talk with Conor himself about his magical play.

Episode 104: Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Will Tosh

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

William Shakespeare's romantic comedy, Twelfth Night, or What You Will is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, renowned for its clever cross-dressing plot and festive hi-jinks, but also for its elusive tone, fluctuating between the comic and a darker cruelty. The play is also infused with desire, both declared and suppressed, even subversive, as the characters search for love, status and identity.

As we record this episode a new production of the play is playing at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London, and I'm delighted to welcome to the podcast the Globe's Director of Education, Dr Will Tosh.

Episode 095: Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Omar Elerian

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

A rhinoceros charges through the square of a small French village, and soon all of its inhabitants are being transformed into rhinoceros themselves. Eugène Ionesco's 1959 absurdist satire, Rhinoceros, was conceived as a metaphor for support for the rise of Fascism in Europe between the world wars, and for conformism more generally.

As we record this episode an imaginative new adaptation of the play is playing at the Almeida theatre in London, and I'm delighted to be joined by the show's translator and director, Omar Elerian.

Episode 007: Lungs by Duncan Macmillan

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: George Spender, former editorial director at Oberon Books.

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play, which we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

A young couple navigate the age-old debate of whether or when to embark on having a baby. They are naturally worried about their personal responsibilities, but most topically they are also concerned about the impact that their adding to the global population will have on the world's climate and future.

Duncan Macmillan's award-winning play written in 2011, was revived at the Old Vic in 2019 with Claire Foy and Matt Smith conducting the debate. They will shortly reprise their roles via the Old Vic's innovative in Camera live stream for a limited run from 26th June. Joining us to review the ongoing debate is George Spender, former editorial director at Oberon Books who publish Lungs and the playwright's other plays.

Our conversation was recorded via video link during the Coronavirus lockdown.

Episode 006: Betrayal by Harold Pinter

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Mark Taylor-Batty, senior lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds.

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play, which we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

Pinter's modern classic dissects the dynamics of betrayal in marriage, friendship and work. The ambiguities of the adulterous affair that is the core of the play are made all the more unsettling by the innovative chronology of the narrative: the play famously opens with the end of the affair and works backwards to its inception.

Joining us to mine the depths of Pinter's compressed masterpiece is Mark Taylor-Batty, senior lecturer in Theatre Studies at the University of Leeds and author of The Theatre of Harold Pinter (Bloomsbury 2014).

Our conversation was recorded via video link during the Coronavirus lockdown.

Episode 005: The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: The actor, Tim McMullan

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play, which we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

From the dramatic opening shipwreck on an "isle full of noises, sounds and sweet airs", Shakespeare's late masterpiece is a magical play. Join us as actor Tim McMullan shares his personal insights from his acclaimed performance as the magician Prospero at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at the Globe in 2016, just one of Tim's many outstanding Shakespearean roles.

Our conversation was recorded via video link during the Coronavirus lockdown.

Episode 004: The Revlon Girl by Neil Anthony Docking

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Neil Anthony Docking, the play's author

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play – often one that is on stage somewhere in the UK – and we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

Eight months after the disaster that killed 144 people in the Welsh mining village of Aberfan in October 1966, a group of bereaved mothers gather in a local hotel for a demonstration of beauty tips by a rep from the Revlon cosmetics company. The Revlon Girl premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2017, followed by a run at the Park Theatre in London, where it won the Off West-End Award for Best New Play. We're joined by the play's author, Neil Anthony Docking, to talk about his heartrending and funny play.

Our conversation was recorded via video link during the Coronavirus lockdown.

There are footnotes that accompany this episode - check out www.theplaypodcast.com

Episode 003 Bonus: Endgame by Samuel Beckett - More on Beckett's life and Waiting for Godot

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Dr Matthew McFrederick, Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading.

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play – often one that is on stage somewhere in the UK – and we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

This is a brief addendum to episode 3 on Samuel Beckett's Endgame, extracted from the original conversation with Matthew McFrederick that was published on 30th April 2020. This excerpt talks about Beckett's early life, as well as where his first plays came from, including his breakthrough play Waiting for Godot.

Episode 003: Endgame by Samuel Beckett

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Dr Matthew McFrederick, Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading.

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play – often one that is on stage somewhere in the UK – and we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

The stage is empty but for a single armchair and two dustbins. A sheet is draped over what appears to be a figure sitting in the chair. This is the famous opening tableaux of Samuel Beckett's play Endgame. Endgame premiered in French at the Royal Court theatre in London in 1957, following on from Beckett's breakthrough play Waiting for Godot, which four years earlier had shocked the dramatic world and defined an enduring notoriety for the playwright. The shorthand for Endgame is that two of the play's characters inhabit dustbins, and the central character is blind and unable to move from his chair; in other words, another difficult, existential drama that challenges theatrical convention and our understanding. But it is also a play that can be very funny, as shown in the recent revival at the Old Vic in London starring Daniel Radcliffe and Alan Cumming. To explore the method, meaning and impact of Beckett's startlingly original play, I am joined by Beckett expert, Dr Matthew McFrederick, Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading.

My conversation with Matt was recorded via video link during the early days of the lockdown for the Coronavirus.

There are footnotes that accompany this episode, as well as some additional audio that didn't make the final cut - you can hear more about Samuel Beckett's early life in Ireland, his move to live and work in France, and how he came to write his first plays, including his breakthrough play, Waiting for Godot, which heralded a new form of drama. Check out www.theplaypodcast.com

Episode 002: Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Nick Hern, Founder of Nick Hern Books and publisher of Conor McPherson's new adaptation of the Chekhov classic.

Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play – often one that is on stage somewhere in the UK – and we talk about it in more depth than you will find in the reviews of any one production. We'll discuss the play's origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing.

To coincide with Irish playwright Conor McPherson's new adaptation of the Chekhov classic, and its West End run, we talk with his publisher Nick Hern. When in 1889 Chekhov presented the first version of the play that would eventually become Uncle Vanya it was a devastating failure. The playwright withdrew the play and didn't write another play for five years. Yet the four great plays that followed sealed Chekhov's reputation as one of the fathers of modern drama. What was different about his plays that changed the way we view theatre? Why are they billed as "comedies" when the characters are so unrelentingly unhappy? How are his portraits of the idle Russian aristocracy at the turn of the 20th century still relevant today? Nick and I and try to answer these questions, and share our love of Uncle Vanya and Chekhov.

Find full show notes at www.theplaypodcast.com