Nottingham Playcast – Details, episodes & analysis

We bring you an interview with our Artistic Director Adam Penford who is directing this years Pantomime, Dick Whittington. He shares his process as a director and gives an insight into life as the Artistic Director. 
Find out how he manages to do it all.


The legendary Playhouse panto returns full of sparkle, excitement and fun.  Our hero’s incredible escapades take him onto the High Seas, into battle with the evil King Rat and see him fall head over heels in love with his boss’s daughter Alice. All the while the magical Bow Bells are whispering his destiny – to become Mayor of London!

Packed with dazzling dance, a brilliant live band and swashbuckling adventure, the show reunites us with Nottingham’s favourite panto dame John Elkington, who’ll be serving up some comedy chaos as Sarah the Cook. 

Full of fun, singing and lots of action – we promise to have you buzzing from a fantastic, festive night out.

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We bring you an interview with Adrian Scarborough./An exclusive interview with Adrian Scarborough who, alongside Sophie Thompson stars in The Clothes They Stood Up In, his adaptation of Alan Bennett’s novella. He talks about how it felt to take on such a celebrated writer’s work , and why we should all be coming to see this play.

Adrian has adapted Alan Bennett's novella The Clothes The Stood Up In, which is at the Playhouse Fri 9 Sep – Sat 1 Oct
Get your tickets here

The Clothes They Stood Up In
“Everything’s gone. Furniture, blinds. They even managed to carry off a hot oven and the ‘sticky chicken casserole’. They can’t be human.”

Starring Olivier Award winning actors Sophie Thompson (Detectorists, Sex Education, Present Laughter, Gosford Park, Eastenders, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and Adrian Scarborough (The Madness of George III, Leopoldstadt, Gavin and Stacey).

A night at the opera ends with a shock for mild-mannered couple Maurice and Rosemary Ransome when they open their front door to discover their flat completely empty. From light bulbs to carpets to toilet paper, even their chicken casserole has been stolen.

The Ransomes turn detective to try and work out who is behind this outrageous act, and why and how they did it. Along the way, they are forced to examine their lives when stripped bare of the worldly possessions that define us all. Should they rebuild their old life, or begin afresh?

A bittersweet exploration of marriage, dreams and lives unlived, Adrian Scarborough’s adaptation brings Bennett’s hilarious story to the stage for the first time, capturing his trademark observational wit in this gentle and darkly surprising tale.

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Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Natalie Ibu

Natalie Ibu is Artistic Director of Northern Stage and before that was Artistic Director and Chief Executive of tiata fahodzi, the only Black-led theatre company committed solely to producing new work in the UK, for the past 5 years. At tiata fahodzi, Natalie’s stand out piece of work was her direction of ‘good dog’ by Arinzé Kene, which was produced in association with Watford Palace Theatre and Tara Finney Productions and toured nationally twice to excellent audience and critical reception before being adapted for screen and shown on BBC iPlayer.

Prior to joining tiata fahodzi, her career includes time spent as Creative Producer at In Good Company, Derby Theatre; Programme Manager, Roundhouse; Resident Assistant Director, Royal Court and Assistant Director Glasgow Citizens Theatre. 

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Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Holly Race Roughan.

Holly Race Roughan trained on the Theatre Directing MFA at Birkbeck College. She is the Director of the Young Ensemble at the Lyric Hammersmith. Other directing credits include: Vernon God Little (Rose Bruford), How to Eat an Elephant (Theatre Royal Plymouth R&D), Broken Dreams (Royal Court), The Laramie Project (Arts Ed), Rough Beasts (Bush Theatre, R&D), Music Hall Monster (Wilton’s Music Hall, Co-Director), Blackout (Synergy), Prurience (Guggenheim, New York/Royal Festival Hall, London Co-director), CUNT (Yard Theatre, R&D), People Places & Things (UK Tour, directed with Jeremy Herrin), START (Lyric Hammersmith, Young Company), Best Served Cold (Vaults Festival), Clickbait (Theatre 503), The Low Road (Central School of Speech and Drama), Animal (Gate Theatre, Royal Welsh College of Speech and Drama), Eye of a Needle (Southwark Playhouse), A First World Problem (Theatre503), Pages from my Songbook (Royal Exchange Studio, Manchester), Believers Anonymous (The Rosemary Branch), Waiting For Alice (Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), After the War (Cambridge ADC Theatre).

Holly is an Associate Director for arts in prison charity KESTREL, for them she has directed Jack a Lad in the Beanstalk (HMP Springhill Prison), Broken Dreams (Royal Court), Blood & Water (Royal Court), SkyFall (HMP Springhill Prison), and the films The 360° Man (HM Springhill Prison) and No Going Back (HMP Aylesbury Prison).

As Associate/Assistant Director: People, Places & Things (National Theatre / West End), Stuff Happens (National Theatre - rehearsed reading), The Cane (National Theatre Studio - R&D), The Shoemaker's Holiday (RSC), Hotel (National Theatre), The Pass (Royal Court), The Birthday Party, A Doll's House, Rats Tales, The Country Wife (Royal Exchange), Three Birds (Bush Theatre/Royal Exchange), Adult Supervision (Park Theatre).

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Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Matthew Xia.

Matthew Xia (Director) is the Artistic Director at ATC (Actors Touring Company), a company dedicated to producing and touring new international and cross-cultural plays. Matthew was previously Associate Artistic Director at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Director in Residence at The Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse, and Associate Director at Theatre Royal Stratford East.

Directing credits for the ATC include: Amsterdam (Plymouth Theatre Royal / The Orange Tree).

Credits for Nottingham Playhouse include: Shebeen (Nottingham Playhouse and Theatre Royal Stratford East) and One Night In Miami.

Other directing credits include: Blood Knot (The Orange Tree); Blue/Orange, The Sound of Yellow and Sizwe Banzi is Dead (Young Vic & Eclipse); Dublin Carol (Sherman Theatre);Eden (Hampstead Downstairs); Suckerpunch: Boom Suite (The Barbican & NitroBEAT); Migration Music and Scrappers (Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse); Frankenstein, Wish List (also Royal Court), Into the Woods and Brink (Royal Exchange Manchester); Cinderella, The Blacks and I was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky (Co-Director, Theatre Royal Stratford East & The Barbican); Mad Blud and Aladdin (Associate Director) and Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Soundbites: Ruth the Divorcee and Barry the Love-Sick Bee (Lyric Theatre Studio & Bestival); Soundbites: Abandonment (Rich Mix); and Wild Child (Royal Court Rough Cut).

Composing/Sound Design credits include: Paralympics Opening Ceremony (DJ); The People are Singing (Royal Exchange); Free Run (Underbelly); That’s The Way To Do It(TimeWontWait); Pass The Baton and Bolero Remixed (New London Orchestra); Da Boyz, Family Man, The Snow Queen, Hansel and Gretel, Medea and Squid (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Matthew is a founding member of Act for Change and a trustee for Cardboard Citizens and Artistic Directors of the Future.

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Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Tom Jackson Greaves.

Tom trained at Laban and London Contemporary Dance School.

Recent choreographic work includes: So Here We Are (Manchester Royal Exchange and Hightide Festival), Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Theatre Southampton), When We Were Women (The Orange Tree), The Crocodile (Manchester International Festival), Teddy (Southwark Playhouse), Defect The Musical (Arts Educational School), Shadowthief (Barnsley Civic), Kerry Ellis at the Palladium (London Palladium), LIFT (Soho Theatre), Harvest Fire (YMT The Lemon Tree Aberdeen), The Seventh Muse (YMT Barbican Plymouth), short creations at ArtsEd, The MTA, CPA Studios and Dance Academy Russia and music videos for C.Duncan, Boy George and Clare Maguire.

Tom’s also makes his own dance-theatre creations include: Seven Deadly Sins (UK Tour) and Vanity Fowl (Sadlers Wells). He is currently working on an original creation with Kneehigh Theatre as Director/Choreographer that will premier in Spring 2016.

Tom was a winner of the New Adventures Choreographer Award in 2012.

Tom has also worked extensively as a performer touring regularly with ‘Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures’. Other highlights include; Tristan And Yseult (Kneehigh Theatre) and Kes (Sheffield Crucible).

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Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Rebecca Gatward.

Rebecca Gatward studied for a degree in Drama and English and an MA in Theatre Direction at the University of East Anglia. She is a graduate of the BBC Directors’ Academy. She has been working as a freelance television drama director since 2008 and as a theatre director since 1995.

Her credits include ALEX RIDER, TRACES, DUBLIN MURDERS, DOCTORS, EASTENDERS and CASUALTY. She is a graduate of the BBC’s Director’s Academy.

Theatre credits as Director include:

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS for Shakespeare’s Globe 2009 & 2010.  THE MERCHANT OF VENICE for Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2007.  THE INDIAN BOY (2006) by Rona Munro for the RSC Complete Works Festival; THE CANTERBURY TALES (2006) RSC TOUCHED by Stephen Lowe (2008 Salisbury Playhouse); YIKES! (2005 Unicorn Theatre); CANCER TALES (2005 New Wolsey Theatre Studio); OLD KING COLE (2004 Unicorn at the Cochrane Theatre); THYESTES (2003 RSC The Other Place) THE ACCRINGTON PALS (2002 West Yorkshire Playhouse); THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK (2002 Bristol Old Vic); THE MAGIC TOYSHOP (2001 Shared Experience: Soho Theatre and national tour); THE THREE BIRDS (collaboration between Gate Theatre and NT Studio ; VENECIA (2000 Gate Theatre). She also restaged THIS IS OUR YOUTH with Matt Damon and Casey Affleck (2002 Garrick Theatre).

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Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Paul Hunter.

Paul Hunter is co-founder and Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot. Paul has worked on all Told by an Idiot shows to date as director/devisor/performer.  

Directing credits include: The Ghost Train (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Too Clever By Half (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Every Last Trick (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); You Can’t Take It With You (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Mouse and his Child (RSC); Low Pay, Don’t Pay (Salisbury Playhouse); Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic); The Opium Eater and Light is Night (Brouhaha); The Underpants (Hope Street, Liverpool); One Set to Love (National Theatre, Hungary); Not With That Hand and Jiggery Pokery (Tour/BAC), Ordago (for Punto Finco in Bilbao).  

As Associate Director at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Paul Hunter directed: The Venetian Twins, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Best Production, Manchester Evening News award), Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Cleo, Camping Emmanuelle and Dick.  

Acting credits include: Wise Children (Wise Children Old Vic and UK tour); Life of Galileo (Young Vic); The Little Match Girl (Shakespeare’s Globe); Gaslight (Royal and Derngate); Tartuffe (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, The Globe Mysteries, Troilus And Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare's Globe); Rapunzel and The Red Shoes (Kneehigh); Under The Black Flag (Shakespeare's Globe); The Water Engine (Young Vic/Theatre 503); The Play What I Wrote (West End); Oliver Twist and Pinocchio (Lyric Hammersmith); Into Our Dreams (Almeida); the title role in Richard III (English Shakespeare Company), Animal Farm and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (Northern Stage); Les Enfants Du Paradis (RSC); and the title role in The Servant With Two Masters (Sheffield Crucible). 

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Back with more brand new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to artists of national and international renown in our Amplify podcast series. These conversations cover career and process as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing.

This week Craig is chatting to Sam Hodges, a theatre director, artistic director and producer with over 15 years’ experience across the not-for-profit and commercial sectors.

A few years after graduating from Cambridge University, he founded the HighTide Festival Theatre which grew into one of the country’s leading new writing companies. He was Artistic Director for five years, during which time he produced early work by the leading writers and directors of his generation – including writers Nick Payne, Sam Holcroft, Ella Hickson and Beth Steel, and directors Mike Longhurst, Polly Findlay and Natalie Abrahami.

Highlights include Stovepipe - which was co-produced with the National Theatre and named one of The Sunday Times ‘Ten Best Theatre Productions of the Decade’ - and Ditch, which opened the Old Vic Tunnels. In 2009, Sam was named in Esquire Magazine’s 60 Brilliant Brits for shaping British theatre. Between 2012 and 2014, he was invited by Stephen Fry and Sally Greene to become the Creative Producer for the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End.

More recently, Sam was Artistic Director of Nuffield Southampton Theatres (NST) where he built on his reputation for commissioning new plays and musicals. Highlights include international award-winning tours of Fantastic Mr Fox the Musical and Billionaire Boy the Musical, London transfers for A Number to the Young Vic and SS Mendi to the Royal Opera House, and world premieres of The Shadow Factory by Howard Brenton and an adaptation of the Coen Brothers film The Hudsucker Proxy. After his first season in charge, NST was named Regional Theatre of the Year and Sam has been named in the Stage 100 power list for the last 4 years.

As a director, his productions for NST include The Audience (nominated Best Design & Best Actress, UK Theatre Awards), The Shadow Factory (nominated Best Design, UK Theatre Awards), Dedication, and The Glass Menagerie (nominated Best Director, UK Theatre Awards). He has also written two short films, Player (nominated Best Short: Raindance Film Festival, Miami Short Film Festival) and Double Take (commissioned by BAFTA and Big Dance for Channel 4: Dance on Camera Festival 2013 ) which he also directed.

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Our Amplify Producer, Craig, has been holed up in his makeshift bedroom studio talking to a host of exciting artists of national and international renown. These conversations cover career and process as well as offering a few exciting ideas to explore from home during this time of Social Distancing.

Today’s guest is theatre director, Lucy Bailey.

Lucy Bailey is a theatre director who co-founded and was the co-artistic director of The Print Room. Recently, she has directed a staggering production of Agatha Christie’s Witness For The Prosecution at London County Hall, immersing the audience into the text, as well as a UK Tour of Gaslight starring Martin Shaw.

Other work includes: Ghosts (Northampton Royal and Derngate), Love from a Stranger (Northampton Royal and Derngate, and UK Tour), Cave (Printworks, Rotherhithe), The Graduate (Leeds Playhouse, Leicester Curve and UK Tour), Comus (Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse) and Kenny Morgan (world premiere and revival, Arcola Theatre).

Opera and Musical Theatre: Lucy co-founded and was the Artistic Director of The Gogmagogs – a music theatre ensemble of string players. She has conceived and directed many shows including: The Gogmagogs Gumbo Jumbo (Greenwich Theatre and International Tour), Troy Town (BAC and Riverside Studio), The Fool (Norwich Festival and Queen Elizabeth Hall), Introducing the Gogmagogs (ICA Theatre and Royal Court), Let’s Begin Again (World premiere – Norwich Festival), Jenufa (ENO/London Coliseum).

If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast, please consider donating to our Curtain Up Appeal, to ensure we can keep creating new work for audiences to enjoy: https://www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk/support/curtain-up-appeal/​​

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