The Everything Theatre Interviews

How To Kill Your Landlord is certainly a provocative title, and so befitting of a show that is going to be making its way to Edinburgh this August, with a quick stop off at Drayton Arms Theatre (20 and 21 July) for a quick tune up beforehand.

Harry Conway's show places three very different characters in a house share, and as the title suggests, they begin to plan their dastardly deed.

As we discuss with Harry, the title itself has a classic Ealing Comedy feel to it, and comedy was very much at the forefront of his mind when writing this, whilst at the same time acknowleding the difficulties of renting today.

You can catch How To Kill Your Landlord at Drayton Arms Theatre on 20 and 21 July (tickets here) before a full run at Edinburgh between 30 July and 25 August (tickets here)

James Haddrell discusses his role as Artistic Director of Greenwich Theatre

With the announcement of two exciting additions to their 2025 programme, plus their usual high quality Christmas Panto, it felt like a great time to chat with James Haddrell, Artistic Director of Greenwich Theatre.

Frm starting as Press Officer in 2001, James has worked his way up the ladder in his 20+ years with Greenwich Theatre, so if anyone understands the venue, it's him!

We discuss their upcoming programme, why people may not have noticed the Studio space so far, but why it's an important part of the planning, and whether Greenwich Theatre is a London venue or not!

You can find details of all Greenwhich Theatre's upcoming programme here.

Emmy Happisburgh grew up when the rave scene was very much at its peak in the early 90s. And it's that time and place that she has returned to with her show Second Summer of Love, described as one-woman’s first-hand trip celebrating the early 90’s UK rave scene.

We chat with Emmy about the show and how her experiences of that time inspired it, how the show has developed from a one-woman show at 2022 EdFringe to a three-hander that is about to tour the UK and what difference director Scott Le Crass has made since taking over the reigns.

Second Summer of Love tours from 3 July until 4 October. Full dates and bookings can be found here.

Elegy Theatre talk about The ExperimentIt's nearly four years since we first came across Elegy Theatre, with Truth/Reconciliation. Since then they have been busy putting on some amazing work, and are now all set to present The Experiment at Golden Goose Theatre (17 - 21 June).

The Experiment takes us into the lives of Sadie and Will, a couple who are thrilled that their brief experiment with an open relationship has been a success. They worked out rules, discussed possibilities – they even wrote a manifesto. But soon, a stranger comes to Sadie with a disturbing alternate history, forcing her to choose between her identity as a woman and her desire to trust her partner.

We caught up with the team behind this new show; Elegy's Artistic Director Matt Gouldesbrough, Director Madison Gerringer and writer Serena Berman. It's a very international affair, with Serena joining all the way from America to chat about her play, why it's not really a story about open relationships, and how this play has found its way to London for its full world premiere.

Further information and tickets available here.

Tip Top Theatre Collective chat about God, The Devil and Me

We're always trying to expand our coverage outside of the usual London bubble, and one way of doing that is by chatting to those theatre makers who operate outside of the M25. So when we heard from Tip Top Theatre Collective we really wanted to find out more.

Whilst they might be bringing their latest show, God, The Devil and Me to London's Drayton Arms Theatre, the team are spread around the country, but all originate from the South West. As well as putting on shows in the South West, they have toured work across the country. They will also soon be taking not just God, The Devil and Me to Edinburgh, but a second show as well!

Which all means there was plenty to chat about when we caught up with the shows writer/ director/performer Fionn Donnelly, producer/ performer Noah Edmondson and performer Neo Jelfs.

God, The Devil and Me plays at Drayton Arms Theatre 24 - 28 June before heading to Edinburgh for all of August. Further information and tickets available here.

Bridge House Theatre's Artistic Director Luke Adamson joins us to chat about both the venue and it's upcoming show, Penge West.

Having now been in charge at the venue for four years, we chat about what lead him here, the importance of fringe venues in the community, and why it is safe to head south of the river.

Their upcoming show, Penge West, is an attempt to bring the classic soap opera to the stage, with eight episodes played out over three weeks. As Luke tells us, it could all go horribly wrong, but that is going to be part of the fun of it all, but should still provide plenty of fun and certainly something rsther different.

Penge West plays from 17 June to 5 July, with each "episode" playing for two evenings. Further information and tickets available here.

The Hope Theatre's Co-Artistic Directors Laurel Marks and Toby Hampton

Just over a year ago, there was a fear we'd be losing one of our amazing pub theatres when The Hope Theatre announced its closure. But thankfully it never happened, with Laurel Marks and Toby Hampton arriving to save the day.

A year on from officially taking over as co-Artistic Directors, we caught up with them to find out how it's going, and more importantly, what they have planned for the future - something that includes their first in-house production of Hampton's own play, Grace Mistake.

You can find more about The Hope Theatre and Grace Mistake here.

Our latest guest includes the return of Sam Smithson, who last year was telling us all about his show Taking A Love Pill At the End of the World.

This time around he is joined by Cameron Wilson, who together make up Not Quite Ready Productions. They are in full preparation to bring a fresh production of Martin Crimp's Attempts On Her Life to Hen and Chicken Theatre later in June. The play, first performed in 1997 at Royal Court Theatre, consists of seventeen seemingly unrelated scenes in which groups of people provide contradictory descriptions of an absent protagonist, a woman who is discussed as a terrorist, the daughter of grieving parents, an artist, and even a new car. 

The playtext doesn't assign lines to any specific character, meaning that there's a lot to unravel even before you reach rehersals. It also means a lot to unpick as we chat to Sam and Cameron to work out just why they wanted to take on what looks a highly ambitious piece of work, why they decided this time to work on an existing play and not new writing, and why it's a tough old world trying to be a writer!

Attempts on Her Life plays at Hen and Chickens Theatre from 10 to 14 June. Further information and bookings can be found here.

Back at the very start of 2023 Eleanor Hill spoke to us about Sad-vents, a show we called "visually impressive" in our 4 star review. In the two years since, she's been rather busy. After her run at VAULT Festival, she then took the show to Edinburgh. And then started to work on her new show, Overshare. Oh and found time for some neurosurgery after expeirencing a medical emergency!

Overshare explores the realities of mental health & trauma in the age of social media, but with the same humour that made Sad-vents such a powerful show. It also incorporates much of the same technical genuis of its predecessor, with the whole show performed to her phone instead of the audience, and livestreamed on screens behind her.

We chat with Eleanor about how much of Sad-vents has found its way into Overshare, whether there's the worry that the technology will overshadow everything else, and why the aim isn't to try to tell us what's wrong with social media, but rather to generate conversations in the bar after the show.

Overshare comes to Greenwich Theatre from Tuesday 6 - Saturday 25 May.

Whilst most of our podcasts are supporting specific upcoming shows, it's always fun to do something a little different. And that's what this latest edition is. Because we're chatting to Matthew Parker - director, actor, PR, and well, just about anything else that is needed to get a show on to the stage. Above all that, just an all round lovely fellow.

We chat to Matthew about his career, from starting out at a dance school through to running The Hope Theatre and now a freelancer who has won awards for his work. We also hear about how he found himself flying out to Australia to direct a show, and what he's up to next.

You can find out more about Matthew on his website here.