Andrew Keates talks about the genesis of Queer Theatre Ltd.

Originally founded in 2012 as Arion Production Ltd, in July 2024 a rebrand and a renewed focus occurred, following dramatic events in Andrew Keates' personal life. The result, Queer Theatre Ltd.

We talked to Andrew about the events that lead up to this change and the redemptive nature of his story and his renewed drive to nurture LGBTQIA+ theatremakers and authentic queer stories. They want to work in partnership with individuals and organisations to grow the visibility of queer stories in the mainstream as well as directly to the LGBTQIA+ community. This is a man on a mission, but one that has changed the direction of his life and career.

Warning: there is discussion of addition and sexual assualt)

Camden People's Theatre's The State We're In Festival is three weeks of theatre and performance lifting the lid on Britain’s democracy, politics and public life at the dawn of a new government. It seems the perfect home for Worklight Theatre's It's The Economy, Stupid, which sees Joe Sellman-Leava, alongside Worklight colleague Dylan Howells, embark on a quest to uncover how the economy wins elections, and why the force that dominates our lives is so bloody complicated!

It might sound all rather dry for a theatre show, but as Joe tells us, it promises to be anything but. Of course the best way to find out is to head along to check the show out when it comes to Camden People's Theatre on 25 and 26 October. The show also plays at Theatre Royal Bath on 28 and 29 October. It will then return in 2025 with a fuller London run promised, so watch this space.

One of the more unusual shows (and there were certainly plenty of them!) we saw at this year's Camden Fringe was Play-AI. Taking the traditional improv approach of asking the audience to suggest ideas, it was then all fed into ChatGPT and a script made up on the spot for the cast to act out.

Yes it sounds horrific for so many reasons, but as Emma Richardson tells us, that is almost the point, especially as it's improv, so the fun is watching the cast work with some questionable material.

We chat with Emma about the why's and how's of it all, and whether the future of the writer is at risk from the rapid progress being made with AI (spoiler alert, we don't think so!)

Play-AI was performed for one night only at this year's Camden Fringe, but will undoubtably return in the not too distant further.

Having made a brief appearance on our GrimFest Launch Party Special podcast, we invited Finella Waddilove back to chat some more about her show The Blair Bitch Porject, which will be playing at Old Red Lion Theatre from 15 to 18 October. And she even brought along Katryn Crosby, who shares acting duties with Finella in the show.

We chat about the show, whether there will be an abundance of fake blood, why the play on words in the title, and just why we love horror so much.

The Blair Bitch Project plays as part of GrimFest from 15 to 18 October, tickets available here.

Our final guest in our short run of GrimFest Launch Party interviews is Nilgün Yusuf, who tells us about her show Nine Moons.

Nine Moons is a play about hair, blood and guts, a rites-of-passage story with a supernatural twist unfolds through nine lunar cycles and explores the relationship of women to their bodies, the world and each other. 

Nine Moons will play at Old Red Lion on 26 and 27 October, before transferring to Lion and Unicorn from 29 to 31 October.

Next in our run of GrimFest launch party interviews is Maya Hallpike, one half of the Hooky Productions team, whose show Experiment Human we've been supporting since we first met them at the start of 2021.

Maya was at the lauch party to do a short solo performance taken from Experiment Human, so we were delighted to get to chat with her afterwards about the show and how their Edinburgh Fringe run went earlier this year.

Note that this was recorded during the party and as such there is the background noise of the party around us.

Experiment Human will play for one night only on 14 October. Tickets available here.

We continue our short run of GrimFest interviews with Paul

As Paul tells us, the show was originally performed around ten years ago, but has now been reworked for this year's festival.

This interview was recorded during the launch party, and as such, there is background noise of the party in full swing around us!

GrimFest is, as the name tells you, a festival of all things grim. So you can expect plenty of shows with a little spookiness.

We took ourselves along to the recent launch party for the festival, and grabbed some time with a few people involved.

Finella Waddilove's The Blair Bitch Project takes us deep into the woods where Fay is waiting for her friend to arrive. But something seems terribly wrong.

We chat about the show and what brings Finella to GrimFest, plus our shared love of good horror films!

The Blair Bitch Project plays at Old Red Lion Theatre from 15 to 18 October.

Note that the interviews were recording at the launch party, and as such, the noise of the party can be heard!

GrimFest is, as the name tells you, a festival of all things grim. So you can expect plenty of shows with a little spookiness.

We took ourselves along to the recent launch party for the festival, and grabbed some time with a few people involved.

David Hoskin's A Haunted House is a title that really doesn't need much more explaination! We talk to David about the show, and why mime and horror actually are a perfect combination.

Note that the interviews were recording at the launch party, and as such, the noise of the party can be heard!

GrimFest is, as the name tells you, a festival of all things grim. So you can expect plenty of shows with a little spookiness.

We took ourselves along to the recent launch party for the festival, and grabbed some time with a few people involved.

First up are Nina Atesh and Jack Robertson, curators of the festival, to talk about what to expect from this third edition of GrimFest.

Note that the interviews were recording at the launch party, and as such, the noise of the party can be heard!