The Uncensored Critic Podcast

Harriet is a writer, producer and performer for stage, screen and radio.

The Spectator said of her debut play THE LISTENING ROOM “You emerge with your consciousness altered, your conception of human beings elevated and amplified”. THE LISTENING ROOM transferred from the Old Red Lion to Stratford East and has since been performed at the National Theatre, The Lowry, Theatre Clwyd, Northern Stage and in prisons & psychiatric institutions across the UK. A radio adaptation was created with BBC Radio 4 and nominated for an ARIA in 2020.

Harriet’s most recent radio drama THE OTHER TCHAIKOVSKY was shortlisted for a BBC Audio Drama Award in 2021 & a 90 minute film adaptation is now in development with BBC2.

Harriet’s first solo show OUTPATIENT premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in 2024 and won the Summerhall Lustrum Award for Unforgettable Theatre.

Harriet is currently developing a number of projects for stage and screen. She runs a theatre company, Crowded Room, with whom she was shortlisted for the Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award at the Barbican.

(This bio courtesy of Independent Talent - https://www.independenttalent.com/writers/harriet-madeley/) 

Harriet and I discuss how theatre can be so profound and impactful by asking questions that many are scared or uncomfortable to ask. Such as, how does it feel when you’re hit by a life-threatening illness and how does it feel knowing you’re going to die?

Her recent show “Outpatient”, which I was lucky to see at the Park Theatre a few weeks ago, tackles these big questions. We meet character “Olive” an aspiring journalist who is struck down with PSC (Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis) a terrible illness for which there is no cure and could end her life either in 10 years or in 10 days. Based on Harriet’s own battle with the same illness, the play is a semi-autobiographical commentary on what life is like living with a disease you don’t know about and what it’ll be like for your loved ones when you’re gone. 

Harriet is so open and honest, talking about her love for truthful theatre, her journey with the play through the festival circuit and in London as well as her own personal journey with PSC. 

Thank you so much again Harriet for being so open and being so generous with my questions and of course for your art! I hope you all have the opportunity to catch this play in the future. 

Oliver Gower

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Sarah attended both the Royal Court Young Writer’s and Studio Writer’s Groups programmes and has gone on to become an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. 

She’s also an alumni of the prestigious “4 Screenwriting” programme and the script she developed with them was picked up by production company Sunny March. An independent film and Tv company led by Benedict Cumberbatch. She was also listed on the BBC’s New Talent Hotlist and chosen from thousands of entries for the BBC Drama Writer’s Programme. 

Her plays have been produced all over the world and published by Bloomsbury Press, Oberon Books and Samuel French. 

Her first audio play “Mrs Wickham” starring Jessie Buckley (Chernobyl, Wicked Little Letters) and Johnny Flynn (Motive and the Cue, One Life), directed by Eleanor Rhode became a global success on Audible, winning the 2023 International Audio for Best Original Work. In addition to being selected as one of the iPaper’s 25 Best Audio pieces of all time and is currently being adapted into a feature film. 

Check out her new audible project “Billionaire For Sale” starring also Johnny Flynn, directed again by Eleanor Rhode, available now!

We discuss both her audio projects, her writing process, finding her voice in her writing and what we can expect from her next. 

Oliver Gower

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Gaia is not only a talented actress but writer as well, starring in some of the biggest shows of the last few years, The Witcher (Netflix) and Everything I Know About Love (BBC) to name a couple. 

She graduated from the University of Cambridge and has been involved in several other projects across stage and screen.

Including:

For screen:

• Red, White and Royal Blue
• Short Film: Ferret
• The Witcher Series 1-3 - Netflix
• Everything I Know About Love - BBC

For stage:

• Her Very Many Faces
• 1984, Wimbledon Theatre
• The Trial, Kafka
• Macbeth
• Watership Down
• A Midsummer Nights Dream 

As a writer she has written and starred in her own plays, “Fake It Till You Make It” at the Edinburgh and Camden Fringes. Including her brand new one woman show that will be taking her back to both festivals this year. This one is called “Centre of the Universe”, which previewed at Theatre 503 in London very recently. 

A story about the impact of social media on the young population and how a TikTok influencer can make them believe they are indeed, the Centre of the Universe. Produced by the great Trish Wadley. 

I was lucky to see it in previews and it’s a brilliant show accurately documenting the power of social media as well as a fantastic performance from Gaia herself!

Tickets for the Edinburgh run on sale now!

https://festival.summerhallarts.co.uk/events/centre-of-the-universe/

Gaia discusses her writing process, her inspiration for Centre of the Universe, the impact of social media on young people and her time filming The Witcher with Mr Cavill (not bad for her first ever on set experience!). 

Such a pleasure Gaia, here’s to next time. 

Oliver Gower

Spotlight Link: https://www.spotlight.com/9097-9058-5261

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Sarah is an actor, director, producer who’s worked extensively with Off-West End productions. 

She holds a BA in Social and Political Science from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. 

As an actress she has worked extensively in theatre including roles at:

• The Citizens Theatre
• Chichester Festival
• Southwark Playhouse
• Salisbury Playhouse

As a theatre producer, she has been involved in:

• GOOD BOY, “Timeless” and In Defiance of Gravity at the Edinburgh Fringe, 2024
• 1979, Finborough Theatre
• Stitches, Hope Theatre

Other works include:

• Web Series - “Lear Alone” - which won Best Series at the Off West End OnComm Awards 2022
• Web Series - “Late Night Staring at High Res Pixels” - winner of London Pub Theatre’s Standing Ovation Award for Best Theatre Online
• Leaves, Jermyn Street Theatre
• Scrounger, Finborough, won Best New Play at the Off-West End Awards 2021

Look out for her brand new show starring Sarah herself, “Elon Musk: Lost in Space” playing at both the Camden and Edinburgh fringe this year, tickets on sale now!

A show looking at the impact of Elon Musk’s technology and what the future holds for us and AI. 

https://camdenfringe.com/events/elon-musk-lost-in-space/

We discuss working on Off-West End projects, getting funding from the Arts Council and her brand new show!

Links to more of her work and her process can be found here:

https://www.scenesaver.co.uk/production/lear-alone/

https://www.londonpubtheatres.com/interview-sarah-lawrie

Oliver Gower

Spotlight Link: https://www.spotlight.com/9097-9058-5261

Instagram: @ollietheuncensoredcritic

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Antonia is one of the most talented actresses around with a multitude of credits and awards to her name. 

She is the winner of the Best Actress Award at the 2019 London Independent Film Awards, as well as Best Short Film for “Held for A Moment”. Which also won at the Underwire, London Independent and DumboFilm Festivals respectively. 

Her other work includes:

For TV:

• Letter for the King - Netflix
• The Durrells
• Victoria Series 2
• The Bear and Shantaram - Apple TV

Theatre:

• Macbeth 
• Red End 
• The Cherry Orchard
• Midsummer Nights Dream
• Caucasian Chalk Circle

Cinema:

• Conte Anglais
• Operation Finale
• The French Dispatch

Most recently: Modigliani - Three Days on the Wing of Madness, directed by Johnny Depp. 

1916 Paris: A 72 hour insight into the life of celebrated Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, Antonia plays one of the many lovers he had in his life, Beatrice Hastings. A movie that looks not only at Modi’s art, but how you should never sell yourself for it. 

We discuss her training in the UK, her creative process and how she found Beatrice in Depp’s compelling film. 

Merci beaucoup Antonia, here’s to next time!

Modigliani - Three Days on the Wing of Madness is in UK cinemas now.

Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ 

Track Name. Early Morning 

Oliver Gower

Spotlight Link: https://www.spotlight.com/9097-9058-5261

Instagram: @ollietheuncensoredcritic

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Tom trained at Rose Bruford and has had an incredible career in the theatre as well as on screen. 

For screen he has appeared in:

• Starstruck 2
• For the BBC: Upstart Crow, The Woman in Red and Doctor Who
• Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens
• Cinderella, directed by Ken Branagh
• Mr Turner, directed by Mike Leigh, starring Timothy Spall

For theatre:

• Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Mischief Theatre Company
• Oliver!, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, starring Rowan Atkinson
• Les Misérables, Queens Theatre playing Thenardier 
• Matilda, RSC
• Pinter at the Pinter
• Cyrano de Bergerac with James McAvoy, directed by Jamie Lloyd
• Amadeus, National Theatre
• The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Donmar Warehouse
• Waiting for Godot, playing “Lucky” at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, directed by James Macdonald
• One Man, Two Guvnors, UK Tour, West End and Broadway, playing “Alfie”

Tom discusses his role in Waiting for Godot and how the play in all its elusiveness still today attracts audiences from far and wide. Considering the fact that nothing happens we talk about how the play can be interpreted in so many different ways. How each audience took something different from it than the other and how it’s ambiguity makes it one of the most celebrated plays of all time. 

As well as his brilliantly chaotic performance as the waiter, “Alfie”, in the original cast of the hit show One Man, Two Guvnors led by James Corden. Tom talks about how they staged “Alfie’s” helter-skelter actions from being hit by cricket bat to falling down a flight of stairs. 

All this and much more in this one, thank you Tom!

Oliver Gower

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Maria is a writer whose journey into the business started in HR. 

She attended Pensacola College from 1990 to 2000 obtaining a High School Diploma, since then she gained qualifications from The Open University focussing on Human Resource Management and Services. As well as a Level 5 CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personal Development) certificate. 

She’s held many positions from Head of HR, HR Manager and Head of HR and Resources totalling six and a half years of experience to date. 

Into the arts, as a writer she has 4 new pieces of writing out, including rehearsed readings of her plays:

• Dentures and Desire at the Southwark Playhouse
• Skinfluencer at the Rhino Theatre
• How to Destroy a Woman, venue TBC

Tickets are now on sale for her brand new play “Maybe You Should Know” which will be on at the Barons Court Theatre on Friday 22nd and Sunday 24th August as part of the Camden Fringe, directed by my brother Adam.

Get your tickets here: https://offwestend.com/listing/maybe-you-should-know/ or via Instagram @maybeyoushouldknowtheplay

Maria discusses her training at the Bridge Theatre Training Company, finding theatricality in everything (including HR!) and themes that make up her new play. From breaking generational trauma, to finding a new home in a foreign land to loving your children with your whole heart. 

Great discussion for any aspiring writers out there!

Oliver Gower

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Instagram: @ollietheuncensoredcritic

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Imogen is a movement director and artist working with the body with choreography, connectivity and somatic movement. 

She works across a number of mediums from theatre, Film and TV, classical and electronic music, performance and visual art, photography and opera. 

Musically, she’s worked with some of the brightest minds in the industry such as the London Sinfonietta, Southbank Sinfonia, London Contemporary Orchestra, Matthew Herbert, Keeley Forsyth, Anna Phoebe and Isobel Waller-Bridge. As well as the English National Opera (ENO) and many others. 

As a movement director she’s been involved in:

• Look Back in Anger, Almeida most recently
• Under Milk Wood, National starring Michael Sheen
• Les Blancs, National, starring Elliot Cowan and Danny Sapani
• King Lear, Almeida, starring Danny Sapani and Faith Omole
• The Crucible, Old Vic, directed by Yaël Farber

For TV:

• Harlots, ITV
• Patrick Melrose, Sky Atlantic starring Benedict Cumberbatch
• Call the Midwife, Hollow Crown, BBC
• Chernobyl, HBO & Sky Atlantic - and much more!

Imogen discusses her process as movement director, how each performer has a unique way of moving and her time working on the smash-hit series Chernobyl. A superb drama documenting how reactor 4 at the Chernobyl power plant exploded in 1986 and the ways in which the Soviet Union tried its best to cover it up. Starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgård, Jessie Buckley and Laura Elphinstone. 

In addition, her time working on The Crucible at the Old Vic, particularly through the intense Act 3 of the play where the girls conduct their “victory dance” in the court. 

A great conversation about how she works with actors across different mediums and the best way to communicate without any words at all. 

Oliver Gower

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Instagram: @ollietheuncensoredcritic

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Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ Early Morning.

Naarah (pronounced Nay-ah-rah), is originally from Australia and has been working in the industry down under for several years across multiple platforms. Those include, musical theatre, songwriting, content creation and hosting the National Radio Show “The Musical Show” on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Co-operation).

She was also Young Australian of the Year for 2024. 

After a few years in Australia she moved to London to attend the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. During that time she appeared in the recent Lyric Hammersmith production of “Our Country’s Good” by Timberlake Wertenbaker. A play that looked the mass exile of prisoners to Australia in the 1780s and the impact it had on its cultural landscape. Widely considered one of the greatest plays of our time. 

She was praised for her voice giving “weight to the story and an insight from the Earth, land, water, air and the Indigenous communities. Her voice, soft and lyrical, is a welcome relief when she wafts on stage to share an entirely different language and truth” (review by Nilgün Yusuf). 

As well as this she has appeared in:

• We Will Rock You
• Into the Woods
• Come From Away
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Deadloch - Amazon Prime
• The Sunshine Club among many more!

We discuss her time at the Royal Academy of Music, moving to London, the impact of “Our Country’s Good” and our mutual love of Australia!

Oliver Gower

Spotlight Link: https://www.spotlight.com/9097-9058-5261

Instagram: @ollietheuncensoredcritic

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Track Name. Early Morning 

Theresa began her training at a young age at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School followed by the Guildford School of Acting. 

Her credits include:

• Bridgerton as Lady Hood 
• EastEnders
• Avenue 5
• Motherland 
• Critical Law and Order
• Outnumbered
• And, Silk, to name a few, 

Other than that she also an accomplished writer, producer and activist. Her main point of attention is spreading awareness of Parental Alienation and the coercive control of children and have it criminalised. As well as fix the current state of the family court system. Highlighted in her own short film “The Stranger I Love” which is based on her own experience of Parental Alienation. 

She is currently producing another short film “Fire Lily” alongside the two time Academy Award winning producer Kim Magnusson and working on adapting “The Stranger I Love” into a TV series. Including another short called “Belonging” set to be shot in Southern Ireland.

If you’re able, please donate to her Stranger I Love crowd funder so more people can see the film and spread the word about this terrible form of child abuse and how it needs to stop. Link to it is below:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/tsil-finishingfund

Theresa is such a brave and powerful soul and one I am very thankful to call my friend. Thank you for listening in to this episode to hear not only about making films but how he can wipe out alienation altogether.

⚠️Trigger warning: This episode discusses issues relating to child abuse and self-harm⚠️

Oliver Gower

Spotlight Link: https://www.spotlight.com/9097-9058-5261

Instagram: @ollietheuncensoredcritic

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Music from #InAudio: https://inaudio.org/ 

Track Name. Early Morning