Play Ground

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Up front:
1) TW, this episode contains quite frank discussions of a variety of grisly topics, including sexual assault and suicide.
2) This podcast is about the original play, NOT the musical version (though we do of course mention the musical as how could you not!? In particular the recent Almeida production which, spoiler alert, we love)

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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It was inevitable that at some point we'd bump into the bard on our ever winding theatrical-textual journey, and we do so what in our un-researched opinion is 'one of the more obscure ones.' Cymbeline is a play about a young couple who vow their love to each other but then hate each other but then don't really and also this horrible man named Cloten who is an idiot and a criminal and also some brothers who are gay for their sister but don't worry it all works out in the finish. Also there is a war between Britain and Rome whilst all this is going on. We were confused too.

We discuss mixing of genres, problematic themes and how to interpret them on stage, and if Nancy can be won round to this play.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

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Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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You Stupid Darkness! takes us into the world of Brightline, a call centre for those who need to talk to someone about their problems, and the 4 volunteers who answer those calls late at night. Meet Frances, Angie, Jon, and Joey the work experience boy, as they navigate life and each other.
Oh, and also the apocalypse is in full swing.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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The Flick is a 2013 play set in a cinema, in which you the audience sit where the screen is and watch as three employees get into some serious sweeping. This often silent and uneventful play is brim full of sad heartfelt characters, musings on what it means to be a grown up, and terrible opinions about films.
Also discussed:
- The power of celluloid film
- Monkeys

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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The Hothouse (so called because the house is...hot?) is a 1980 play by Harold Pinter which was actually written in 1958, but still has his signature style of heightened language, biting edge and yes, lots of famous pauses. It's been a while since we did one of these, so there's lots of catching up to do on theatre and genre-based theatre, as well as a deep dive into the characters and unspecified horror that this play provides.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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Six Characters is a modern classic. Or maybe just a classic. It's hard to know where the age boundaries for those things are. Either way in this play Pirandello brings an early example of going full meta in theatre, introducing a rehearsal room full of actors (and maybe the real director, stage manager and technician) to a group of fictional characters that have come to life and need help in finishing their dramatic arc.
We talk play structure, Mussolini and Byker Grove.


Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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The Woods is poetry on the stage. Okay, so all plays are poetry on the stage, but this one even more so. Inhabiting an American woodland and also a British kitchen, our protagonist 'The Woman' is continually haunted by 'The Wolf,' an evil figure who may be her son that was, or an abusive partner, or her inner psyche, or the outside world, or probably all of these rolled into one.
It's really good.

As promised in the episode, you can find Nancy's dubbed over cameo in a Phoebe Waller-Bridge interview here: https://youtu.be/D3mmqLVi_QQ?t=243


Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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This is the second in McCraney's 'Brother Sister Plays' trilogy, though is the first one he wrote. Drawing on Yoruba cosmology transposed into present day Louisiana, The Brothers Size is a poetic yet brutally grounded story of two brothers trying to reconnect after one returns from a stint in prison. Emotions abound.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

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This 2000 play is a landmark text in verbatim theatre. Documenting the aftermath of the 1998 murder of Laramie, Wyoming resident Matthew Shepard, The Laramie Project is a collation of almost 2 years of interviews with Laramie residents. All at once it is a portrait of a town, a stark warning, an examination of everyday human hypocrisy, an advocation for gay rights, an exploration of loss, and a meta-investigation into make sure verbatim theatre is 'done right.'

Find more information on the Matthew Shepard Foundation here:

https://www.matthewshepard.org/


Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool

Send us Fan Mail

This 1930s play is about two single women who run a girls' school together, and how their lives are brought crashing down when a student accuses them of lesbianism.  We discuss the play's treatment of queer issues, its place (or not) on today's stage, and the eerily accurate depiction of lockdown life in Act 3.

Have some feedback? A play you'd like us to cover?

Visit the official podcast twitter @playgroundpoddy
Chat to host Nancy @N_Netherwood
Chat to host Sam @Samwebbercool