A round-up of the work I saw in Berlin at #Theatertreffen including a dance piece by Gisele Vienne with an onstage car and an accessible immersive production of Lord of the Rings (my personal highlight) thestage.co.uk/long-reviews/t…

'drama teachers do incredible work, and what we're trying to do is support them as best we can'
Here's Esther Richardson & Oliver O'Shea talking to Natasha Tripney for DramaAndTheatre
dramaandtheatre.co.uk/features/artic…

TR Waszawa are returning to London for the first time in years for two midweek shows only, which is a bit nuts but the show is great (better than the film) - don’t blink and miss it by assuming it’s running until the weekend or whatever

This week's Café Europa provides a bit more background on TR Warszawa's Pieces of a Woman, coming to BatterseaArtsCentre later this month and contains some thoughts on content warnings and staging trauma. Read more via the link in my bio.

The Bernard Hill role I remember best is Joe in Shirley Valentine, a chips-and-egg shit of a husband, but also convincing as the young man she fell for and the man who realises how much he needs her in the end, a potentially thin secondary character made solid, made whole.

ICYMI this week's newsletter is all about Bert & Nasi, their super-stripped-back yet politically potent performance style, and the increasing difficulty of making this kind of work in the UK. Read via the link in my bio.

Now it's time for you to write your version of the Royal Court.

We're looking for one other playwright to join Gillian, Nina, Mike, Ryan and Vinay, to shape the Royal Court’s future: the writers’ theatre led by writers.

Applications close 10am, Thu 23rd May.…

This week's Café Europa is about Bert & Nasi, their experience of making work in Europe, collaborating with Tim Etchells and why 'it's getting harder and harder to develop this sort of work in the UK,” Read via the link in my bio

This The Stage article by Natasha Tripney is a must-read on theatre censorship around the world.

It mentions Hong Kong's National Security Law, which has directly affected the award-winning play May 35th and why we're staging it in London this month.

thestage.co.uk/long-reads/can…

This is such a fascinated article (you can read it easily with the auto-translate function).
A critical analysis of the artistic programs and identity of the Berlin subsidised theatres: Schaubuhne, Maxim Gorki, Berliner Ensemble, Volksbuhne, DT. Must read for German theatre fans

Just leaving this here because this level of debate feels quite absent from the British theatre mainstream. That’s not to say I agree with everything Louis writes, but that it’s refreshing to be able to have a debate of ideas rather than one of truths
jacobin.com/2024/04/edouar…

This week's Café Europa is on director Maria Aberg and PROJEKT EUROPA 🧡, a company with international ambitions established during the pandemic to support migrant artists in the UK (and that time she fused Dirty Dancing with Shakespeare for The RSC ). Read via the link in my bio.

This is incredibly lovely and I'm going to shamelessly use it as an excuse to flag up the fact that I have a newsletter in which I discuss European theatre, featuring interviews, reviews, festival coverage and other fun stuff. You can read/subscribe via the link in my bio

ICYMI This week's newsletter is on the new show by Sebastian Nübling - the director of Three Kingdoms - a text-light, sweat-drenched, vigorously physical piece co created with DJ Jackie Poloni Slovensko mladinsko gledališče . Read more via the link in my bio.

Interested in writing about theatre? The Stage is looking to expand its pool of reviewers with knowledge of specific regions of the UK. Also on the lookout for Dublin-based reviewers.