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

Episode 001: A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Dan Rebellato, playwright and Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London

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.

Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House remains one the most popularly produced and adapted plays in theatrical history. What is it about a play that was written more than 140 years ago that continues to inspire and challenge contemporary playwrights and audiences? The character of Nora is an iconic figure: her decision to leave her husband and three children remains a controversial act of female agency. To explore the enduring relevance of this classic play, we are joined by Dan Rebellato, playwright and Professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London. The episode coincides with a radical new adaptation of the play by Stef Smith that played at the Young Vic theatre in London.

Find full show notes at www.theplaypodcast.com

Episode 094: Oedipus the King by Sophocles

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Professor Edith Hall

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.

Sophocles' tragic drama of the myth of Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, not only directly inspired Freud's notorious dream theory, but has itself survived as a masterpiece of theatrical invention and power. Written nearly two and a half thousand years ago, Oedipus the King has endured because of the dramatic trauma of Oedipus's personal story, and also as an allegory of authoritarian political rule. The play has proved remarkably adaptable to modern social and political times, which is attested by the fact that not one, but two major productions of the play have been staged in London this year.

I'm delighted to review Sophocles' shattering classic with the esteemed Classics professor, Edith Hall.

Episode 093: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Rory Mullarkey

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.

Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters, the third of the quartet of great plays that he wrote in the last years of his short life, is a symphonic study of the search for purpose and love.

Three Sisters premiered in January 1901 at the Moscow Arts Theatre, where his previous two major plays, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull had debuted.

As we record this episode a spellbinding new production is on stage at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London. The text for that production is translated by playwright Rory Mullarkey, who joins us to explore Chekhov's masterpiece.

Episode 092: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Tinuke Craig

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.

When Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun opened in New York in 1959, its author became the first African-American woman to have a play on Broadway, and this with her debut at age of 29. The play was ground-breaking for its realist portait of a black working-class family, spotlighting their personal dreams and the public prejudice they confront.

We recorded this episode shortly after an acclaimed new production of the play completed its run at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in London, and I am delighted to talk with the production's director, Tinuke Craig, about this landmark play.

Episode 091: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Arifa Akbar

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.

Tennessee Williams's third great play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a blistering drama of family conflict and repressed sexuality. The play opened on Broadway in 1955 to rapturous reviews, and the film that followed with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman was a box-office hit, despite its egregious watering down of the play's sexual trauma and family strife.

As we record this episode a stunning new production of the play is on at the Almeida Theatre in London, and I am delighted to talk about this classic with Arifa Akbar, the Guardian newspaper's chief theatre critic.

Episode 090: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Max Webster

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.

Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest is arguably the most famous romantic comedy in theatrical history. The play is renowned for its effervescent portrait of aristocratic romance, and its impossibly clever wit, including some of the most quotable lines in dramatic literature. But it is also an anarchic parody of social custom and pretension – a serious statement of aesthetic principles and coded sexual politics.

As we record this episode, a joyous new production of the play is running at the National Theatre in London, and I am delighted to talk about Wilde's classic with its acclaimed director, Max Webster.

Episode 089: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Matthew McFrederick

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.

Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot, is a notoriously confounding work of theatre. The play is renowned for its lack of conventional plot or exposition, and for its existential predicament. Given its desolate philosophical landscape it is also surprisingly funny. Its theatrical imagery and intellectual provocation remain as potent as when it was first performed in Paris in 1953.

As we record this episode an illustrious production is on stage at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London starring Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati. I am delighted to be joined by Dr Matt McFrederick from the University of Reading to help survey this famously challenging landmark of modern drama.

Episode 088: Roots by Arnold Wesker

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Diyan Zora

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.

Arnold Wesker's quiet classic, Roots, is a story of doomed love, rural poverty and social protest, and most of all, of cultural aspiration and growing up and away from family, from one's roots.

We recorded this episode as a sensitive revival of the play was finishing its run at the Almeida theatre in London, and I was delighted to be able to talk to its director, Diyan Zora, about Wesker's love letter to his wife and her roots.

Episode 087: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Dan Rebellato and Atri Banerjee

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.

John Osborne's Look Back in Anger is one of the landmark plays of twentieth century British theatre. It's raging protagonist, Jimmy Porter, represented a generation of disaffected youth, and its proletarian setting heralded a new style of 'kitchen sink drama'. But how well has Jimmy's abusive anger aged?

I'm delighted to welcome two experts to help us address this question, and many more: Dan Rebellato, the author of 1956 and All That: The Making of Modern British Drama, and, Atri Banerjee, the director of the first revival of the play in London for 25 years, currently running at the Almeida Theatre.

Episode 086: Death of England by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Roy Williams

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.

Clint Dyer and Roy William's trilogy of plays, Death of England, is a searing state-of-the-nation drama voiced by both black and white working-class characters. Having been performed individually at intervals at the National Theatre through Covid lockdowns, the three plays were greeted with acclaim when they were finally brought together at the Soho Place theatre in the summer of 2024.

I am delighted and honoured to welcome playwright Roy Williams to the podcast to discuss this important work.

Episode 103: Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Max Webster

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.

Titus Andronicus is Shakespeare's first tragedy, although in fact, scholars believe that Shakespeare did not write the whole play himself. Whatever its origins, the play is notorious for its graphic horror, which includes multiple killings, amputations, decapitations, rape and cannibalism. Horrors that have overwhelmed audiences and alienated critics for centuries. Although the play was hugely popular in Shakespeare's time, later critics dismissed it for its excessive violence and crude, fragmented structure. However, the play's bleak portrait of amoral leadership, sexual violence, racial conflict, and personal and political despair has struck a chord in more recent times, with several acclaimed productions and restored critical opinion.

As we record this episode an exciting new production of the play is on stage at the Hampstead theatre in London, having transferred following its acclaimed run at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. The production is directed by Max Webster, who joins me to explore Shakespeare's full-blooded tragedy.

Episode 085: The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Mark Lawson

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.

Tom Stoppard is renowned for his intellectual wit and playful dramatic form, both of which are certainly on show in The Real Thing, but the play also explores more personal emotional territory: on what constitutes the real thing in love, politics and art.

As we record this episode, a new production of the play is on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London. My guest to help us navigate the romantic entanglements and structural twists in the play is the renowned arts journalist, Mark Lawson.

Episode 084: Abigail's Party by Mike Leigh

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Nadia Fall

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.

Mike Leigh's 1977 'tragi-comedy', Abigail's Party, is renowned for its iconic snapshot of the material and social fabric of its time. The play's portrait of suburban social pretensions is both hugely funny and excruciating to witness. It is not just an exercise in period kitsch, however, because underneath there are universal human truths, about aspiration and identity, as well as about honesty and generosity, or the lack thereof, in intimate relationships.

As we record this episode a vibrant new production of the play is on stage at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, directed by the theatre's Artistic Director, Nadia Fall. I'm delighted to talk with Nadia about this classic of British theatre.

Episode 083: The Caretaker by Harold Pinter

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Justin Audibert

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.

When it premiered in London's West End in 1960, The Caretaker catapulted its author to fame and fortune. The play is set entirely in a single room in a dilapidated house, and presents the territorial battle between three men living on the margins of society. The pschological manoeuvrings of the men are dramatised in what we now recognise as Pinter's cryptic mix of comedy and menace, along with his characteristic relish in the precision and panache of language.

As we record this episode a new production of the play is playing in the Minerva theatre in Chichester, and I am delighted to welcome its director, Justin Audibert, to the podcast to help us explore Pinter's enigmatic work.

Episode 082: People, Places & Things by Duncan Macmillan

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Duncan Macmillan and Jeremy Herrin

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.

Duncan Macmillan's People, Places & Things is a blisteringly frank and funny portrait of addiction and invented identity. When the play premiered at the National Theatre in 2015, Denise Gough won awards for her electrifying performance, and as we record this episode she revives her role in London's West End.

It is a fascinating and challenging play, and an exhilarating piece of theatre. I am delighted to talk in this episode with its author, Duncan Macmillan, and the production's director, Jeremy Herrin.

Episode 081: The Government Inspector by Nikolay Gogol

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Patrick Myles

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.

Vladimir Nabokov described The Government Inspector as the "greatest play in the Russian language". Gogol's comedy of mistaken identity is an unexpected mix of fantastical farce and serious social satire. that has survived as a paradigm of political corruption and social hypocrisy in any age or place.

As we record this episode a new adaptation of the play written and directed by Patrick Myles arrives on the London stage, and I'm delighted to talk with Patrick about this classic play and its enigmatic author.

Episode 080: Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Jeremy Herrin

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.

Eugene O'Neill wrote his autobiographical magnum opus, Long Day's Journey into Night, in 1941, but because of the personal revelations it contained he gave explicit instructions that it was not to be published until 25 years after his death and that it should never be staged. In the event his widow allowed both to occur in 1956, only three years after his death, when the play won O'Neill his fourth Pulitzer prize.

As we record this episode, a powerful new production of the play is playing in London, with Brian Cox and Patricia Clarkson heading the cast. I am delighted and privileged to talk with the production's director, Jeremy Herrin, about O'Neill's monumental play.

Episode 079: The Hills of California by Jez Butterworth

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Sean McEvoy

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 new Jez Butterworth play is a theatrical event. The Hills of California is currently running at the Harold Pinter theare in London's West End, directed by Sam Mendes. Do not be misled by the title, however, we are not in sunny California, but in the back streets of Blackpool, where four daughters come together to say goodbye to their dying mother. The play is a portrait of lost dreams, of deeply ingrained patterns of love and hurt within a family, and of suppressed and mutable memories.

I'm joined to explore this major new work by Sean McEvoy, author of Class, Culture and Tragedy in the Plays of Jez Butterworth.

Episode 078: The Lover and The Collection by Harold Pinter

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Lindsay Posner

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.

We have a double-bill in this episode of two short plays written by Harold Pinter in the early 1960s: The Lover and The Collection, both of which explore sexual compulsion and the manipulation of truth within marriage or partnerships. As we record this episode a new production of both plays is playing at the Theatre Royal in Bath, directed by Lindsay Posner.

I'm delighted to welcome Lindsay back to the podcast to talk about these two Pinter gems.

Episode 077: An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr

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.

Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People is a fable of truth and lies, politics and power, and the challenge and costs of pursuing an unpopular crusade to speak truth to power. It's a story of 'fake news', manipulation of the media, the dangers of populism, and the environmental cost of capitalism. No wonder it strikes a chord in our time, for as we record this episode there are two major new productions of An Enemy of the People on the world stage.

I'm delighted to welcome back to the podcast, Ibsen expert, Professor Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, who I was privileged to talk with in episode 74 on Ibsen's play Ghosts.

Episode 076: Othello by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Farah Karim-Cooper

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.

Shakespeare's devastating exploration of race, reputation and jealousy, The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice was a popular success when it was first performed during Shakespeare's lifetime, but in the centuries since it has provoked a wide range of responses as successive generations have grappled with the racial identity of the eponymous character. As we record this episode a new production of Othello at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London views the play's treatment of race through a contemporary lens, setting the play within the London Metropolitan police force, a topical environment for racial inspection.

I am privileged to welcome as my guest someone especially qualified to help us navigate the tricky waters of Shakespeare's play, Farah Karim-Cooper, Director of Education at Shakespeare's Globe, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Kings College London, and the author of The Great White Bard – Shakespeare, Race and the Future.

Episode 102: Every Brilliant Thing by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Duncan Macmillan
             Jonny Donahoe

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.

Every Brilliant Thing
When their mother attempts to take her own life, a seven-year old child decides to start a list; a list of "everything brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for." A list for mum.

This is the premise for Every Brilliant Thing, the hit one-person play created by playwright Duncan Macmillan and performer Jonny Donahoe.
The play started life at Ludlow Fringe Festival in 2013, and in the decade or so since, it has been seen in over 70 countries around the world. As we record this episode Every Brilliant Thing has reached London's West End, with a rotating cast of five different performers appearing over its three-month run at the Soho Place theatre.
The critic, Lyn Gardner, described Every Brilliant Thing as "one of the funniest plays you'll ever see about depression." She is spot on – it is funny and poignant and finally life affirming. 
I am very privileged to be joined in this episode by the show's two creators, Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe. 

Episode 075: The Homecoming by Harold Pinter

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Matthew Dunster

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.

Harold Pinter's disturbing exploration of toxic masculinity and sexual maneuvering, The Homecoming premiered in 1965. The play's portrait of misogyny, and even more disturbing, the apparent female complicity, was shocking at the time it was written. Nearly 60 years on the sexual politics is if anything even more difficult to watch. So what was Pinter's purpose in presenting such a provocative piece, and how do we process it in the post Me-Too age?

I am joined by Matthew Dunster, the director of a scintillating new production of the play at the Young Vic in London, who can help us answer those questions about Pinter's challenging classic.

Episode 074: Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Kirsten Shepherd-Barr

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.

Henrik Ibsen's dark family drama Ghosts provoked outrage when it was published in 1881, its treatment of sexual disease, incest and euthanasia too much for the critics. More than 140 years later its portrait of repressed truths and social hypocrisy remains as powerful as ever.

As we record this episode a new adaptation of Ghosts by Joe Hill-Gibbons is playing in the Sam Wanamaker theatre at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London.

Kirsten Shepherd-Barr, Professor English and Theatre Studies at St Catherine's College, Oxford, joins us to review Ibsen's unflinching drama.

Episode 073: The House of Bernarda Alba by Federico Garcia Lorca

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Maria Delgado

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.

Federico Garcia Lorca's unsparing drama The House of Bernarda Alba is not only a tragic family drama, but its portrait of oppression and social conformity also reflects the dangerous political landscape in which it was written. Lorca finished the play in June 1936, two months before he was murdered during the first days of the Spanish Civil War.

As we record this episode a new adaptation of the play is on stage at the National Theatre in London. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to explore this inescapably powerful play, and its author, with an expert on both, Professor Maria Delgado.

Episode 072: She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Tom Littler

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.

Oliver Goldsmith's 'sentimental' or 'laughing' comedy She Stoops to Conquer is both a romantic comedy and a deft social satire of town and country in late 18th century England. It's merry-go-round of romantic intrigues comes complete with mistaken identities, stolen jewels and a midnight coach ride that ends mired in a horse pond. There is never much doubt however that in the end it is the women who will conquer.

As we record this episode a sparkling new production is on stage at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond-upon-Thames, and I'm delighted to be joined today by its director, Tom Littler, who is perfectly placed to tell us why this play has proved so enduringly popular.

Episode 071: Clyde's by Lynn Nottage

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Lynette Linton

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.

Lynn Nottage's play Clyde's is set in a truck-stop diner on the outskirts of Reading, Pennsylvania. This is no ordinary diner though, because the short-order cooks that make the sandwiches that the diner is famous for are all ex-cons. The eponymous proprietor, Clyde, has not offered these characters a second chance out of the softness of her heart, but they discover some unexpected hope in their communal sufferings and support.

Lynn Nottage has won the Pulitzer Prize for drama twice, and as we record this episode the European premiere of Clyde's is on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in London. I am delighted to be joined by the show's director Lynette Linton, who also directed Nottage's last play Sweat at the same theatre in 2018.

Episode 070: King Lear by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Paul Prescott

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 poet Percy Shelley called King Lear "the most perfect specimen of the dramatic art existing in the world". It is a prodigious play in every sense. There are ten major roles, it has multiple significant plot lines, an elemental stormy setting, intense domestic conflict, and acts of war and violence which roll on with a propulsive tragic energy and conjure a challenging philosophical vision.

As we record this episode a new production directed by and starring Sir Kenneth Branagh arrives in London's West End.

I am very pleased to be joined in this episode by Paul Prescott, who is an academic, writer and theatre practitioner specialising in Shakespearean drama.

Episode 069: A View from the Bridge by Arthur Miller

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Holly Race Roughan

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.

Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge tells the tragic story of Eddie Carbone, a longshoreman who works on the docks under Brooklyn Bridge. Eddie lives with his wife Beatrice and 17-year old niece, Catherine, whom they have cared for since she was a child. But Catherine is no longer a child, and her natural desire to pursue her own life will tragically rupture the lives of this family and the close-knit immigrant community of Red Hook.

As we record this episode a new production of A View from the Bridge is touring the UK, and I'm delighted to talk with its director, Holly Race Roughan, about this powerful play.

Episode 068: Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Ivan Wise

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.

Pygmalion is arguably George Bernard Shaw's most famous play, partly because it spawned the even-more famous musical My Fair Lady. The enduring popularity of the play can be attributed to the romantic arc of its central story, and to the fact that it offers two iconic parts in the characters of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins.

As a new production of Pygmalion opens at The Old Vic in London, Ivan Wise returns to the podcast to help us assess whether Shaw's charming social parable remains as entertaining or as relevant more than a century after it was written.

Episode 067: Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Tyrell Williams and Daniel Bailey

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.

Tyrell William's award-winning, debut play Red Pitch is set on an inner-city fottball ptich in South London. It is a coming-of-age story, with teenage boys fighting to believe in their dreams, and to find a way up, and perhaps out, of their changing community. The play premiered at the Bush Theatre in London in February 2002, winning several awards, and is currently enjoying a sell-out revival at the Bush.

Tyrell Williams, and the show's director, Daniel Bailey, join me to explore this joyful and poignant new play.

Episode 066: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh 

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Professor Eamonn Jordan

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.

Martin McDonagh's 2004 play The Pillowman is an unsettling mix of gruesome fairy tales, child abuse, and murder, overlaid with McDonagh's signature black humour. McDonagh's blend of extreme violence and ironic comedy divides opinion, although the popularity of the current revival of the play in London's West End is testimony to its enduring fascination.

I am joined in this episode by Professor Eamonn Jordan, to help us come to terms with the impact and intent of McDonagh's work.

Episode 101: The 101 Greatest Plays

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Michael Billington
             Mark Lawson

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.

In 2015 the esteemed theatre critic, Michael Billington, published The 101 Greatest Plays – From Antiquity to the Present. Michael wrote that his selection was intended as a "provocation", a "prelude to debate". Ten years on I invited Michael and the arts journalist, Mark Lawson, to join me to review and debate his criteria and selection.

During our discussion we not only wrangled over specific inclusions and exclusions in Michael's list, including most controversially his omission of both King Lear and Waiting for Godot, we also addressed more general questions about the criteria for selection, what elements make a great play, and what makes a play more likely to endure beyond its own time.
Join us in the debate!

Episode 065: Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guests: Tom Basden and Daniel Raggett

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.

Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame is both an hilarious farce and a biting satire. Written in 1970 as an "act of intervention" in response to the unexplained death of a prisoner in police custody in Milan, it became a huge global hit.

An acclaimed new adaptation that updates the setting and scandal to modern-day Britain is currently playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, and I'm delighted to be joined by its writer, Tom Basden, and the director, Daniel Raggett, to talk about their adaptation and the enduring relevance of Fo's original.

Episode 064: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Emma Smith

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 Midsummer Night's Dream has all the ingredients of classic romantic comedy: a magical setting, a merry-go-round of earnest young lovers, a fairy King and Queen, and a troupe of hapless comic actors, all given a supernatural spin in the course of a single moonlit night. But is the dream-like world of the wood outside Athens as benign a place as we imagine?

As we record this episode a new production of the play is part of the Summer season at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, with Michelle Terry giving an outstanding performance as the sardonic sprite Puck.

My guest to help explore Shakespeare's wondrous 'visions' is Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford.

Episode 063: Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Josie Rourke

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.

Brian Friel's magical memory play Dancing at Lughnasa is set at the time of the harvest festival in rural Ireland in 1936. It's account of the events of that summer in the house of the five unmarried Mundy sisters is filtered many years later through the memory of Michael, the son of the youngest sister. His memory is undoubtedly unreliable, but it is also funny, poetic and profoundly poignant.

Josie Rourke, who directs the gorgeous new production of the play currently playing at the National Theatre in London, joins us to explore Friel's spellbinding masterpiece.

Episode 062: Private Lives by Noël Coward

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Oliver Soden

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.

Noël Coward's play Private Lives is both a dazzling dramatic comedy and an excoriating portrait of love and marriage among the disaffected elite of the Jazz Age. Coward himself starred in the premiere production in both London and New York, the critics acclaiming the show's construction and wit, but predicting that it would not last. As a new production opens at the Donmar theatre in London, I ask Coward's newest biographer, Oliver Soden, why the play has aged so well.

The Play Podcast - 061 - Sea Creatures by Cordelia Lynn

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Cordelia Lynn

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

Cordelia Lynn's play Sea Creatures is a poetic exploration of loss and grief, its setting betwixt the sea and shore rich in metaphoric resonances. As we record this episode, Sea Creatures is playing at the Hampstead Theatre in London in a spellbinding production directed by James Macdonald.

I am delighted to be joined by playwright Cordelia Lynn to talk about her fascinating new play.

The Play Podcast - 060 - A Streetcar Named Desire, by Tennessee Williams

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Thomas Keith

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

A Streetcar Named Desire is one of the towering masterpieces of American theatre, distinguished for its frank depiction of sexual compulsion, its lyrical language, and its poignant portrait of mental fragility, as well as the bitter clash between two of the greatest dramatic characters – the damaged and defiant Blanche Dubois and the unrestrained masculine power that is Stanley Kowalski.

As a new production opens in London's West End, I'm delighted to be joined by Tennessee Williams expert, Professor Thomas Keith, to help survey this giant of a play.

The Play Podcast - 059 - Paradise Now! ,  by Margaret Perry

Host: Douglas Schatz
Guest: Margaret Perry

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

Margaret Perry's new play Paradise Now! brings together a group of women who join a pyramid selling scheme promoting a range of essential oils that soothe a myriad of life's stresses. The women hope that they will find cures to the challenges in their own lives, but the road to Paradise is not so sure and smooth.
Following its acclaimed run at the Bush Theatre in London, Margaret joins me to talk about her perceptive, funny and moving play.