Post-show Q&As

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Dialektikon Q&A video and photos: How much do you know about Stokely Carmichael? (And four other big thinkers)

Dialektikon Q&A video and photos: How much do you know about Stokely Carmichael? (And four other big thinkers)

Author Jacky Ivimy was inspired to start writing Dialektikon after coming across film and transcripts from the Liberation of Dialectics Congress.
At this two-week event, held at London’s Roundhouse in 1967, some of the late 20th century’s leading thinkers convened – including Trinidadian-born civil rights activist and Black Panther Stokely Carmichael, English scientist Gregory Bateson, […]

By Terri Paddock|13 December 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Looking for Gatsby Q&A video and photos: How does F Scott Fitzgerald’s story look from Daisy’s perspective?

Looking for Gatsby Q&A video and photos: How does F Scott Fitzgerald’s story look from Daisy’s perspective?

Swift but swinging! We had less than twenty minutes for last night’s post-show Q&A for new musical Looking for Gatsby but – taking a leaf out of this incredible company’s book – we made the most of it. It’s amazing how much you can ground you can cover when you’re up against the clock!
What happens […]

By Terri Paddock|13 November 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Soldier On Q&A video and photos: Does a soldier ever really stop being a soldier?

Soldier On Q&A video and photos: Does a soldier ever really stop being a soldier?

Does a soldier ever stop being a soldier? “No!” shouted several from the audience at last night’s post-show discussion for Soldier On at The Other Palace.
The play, dubbed “The Full Military Monty”, was developed and workshopped with real soldiers and their families and shows how all are affected by PTSD. It’s performed by a […]

By Terri Paddock|30 October 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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A Guide for the Homesick Q&A video and photos: How did Doctors Without Borders & homophobia inspire this new play?

A Guide for the Homesick Q&A video and photos: How did Doctors Without Borders & homophobia inspire this new play?

The night after they faced the press, the team behind the European premiere production of A Guide for the Homesick faced a packed audience, most of whom stayed on to take part enthusiastically in our post-show discussion.
Ken Urban’s play was commissioned in 2011 and had its world premiere last year in Boston. This new production […]

By Terri Paddock|22 October 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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The Wider Earth Q&A video and photos: Puppetry evolution & Charles Darwin at the Natural History Museum

The Wider Earth Q&A video and photos: Puppetry evolution & Charles Darwin at the Natural History Museum

The Wider Earth is billed as one of the theatre events of the year – and, on this occasion, that’s no exaggeration. What a privilege for me to play a small part in helping to launch this spectacular and historic production, which tells the story of a young Charles Darwin and is staged in […]

By Terri Paddock|10 October 2018|Events, Features, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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The Sweet Science of Bruising Q&A video and photos: Why’s now the right time for a play about Victorian female boxers?

The Sweet Science of Bruising Q&A video and photos: Why’s now the right time for a play about Victorian female boxers?

This weekend, I got to enter the boxing ring at London’s Southwark Playhouse to chair a post-show Q&A at Troupe Theatre’s world premiere production of Joy Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science of Bruising.
London, 1869. Four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground world of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men […]

By Terri Paddock|7 October 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Kids Play Q&A video and photos: Talking taboos and teddy bears with Glenn Chandler

Kids Play Q&A video and photos: Talking taboos and teddy bears with Glenn Chandler

When a show has as many twists and turns as Glenn Chandler’s KIDS PLAY, there are special challenges in live-streaming and live-tweeting a post-show discussion. Last night, Chander, his London stars David Mullen and Joseph Clarke, myself and the audience at Above the Stag did our best to avoid spoilers. Though it was difficult at points!
What […]

By Terri Paddock|4 October 2018|Events, Features, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Ay, Carmela! Q&A video and photos: Do only the dead remember the Spanish Civil War?

Ay, Carmela! Q&A video and photos: Do only the dead remember the Spanish Civil War?

How much do you know about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)? Who fought on the side of the Republicans and who for the Nationalists? What happened to those who got caught in the middle, such as Paulino and Carmelo in Jose Sanchis Sinisterra’s Ay, Carmela!?
In the 1986 stage play, famously made into a 1990 Spanish […]

By Terri Paddock|29 September 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Where We Began Q&A video and photos: Should where we’re born define where we end up?

Where We Began Q&A video and photos: Should where we’re born define where we end up?

Should country of birth define your identity or determine where you end up?
Set in the near-future, Stand and Be Counted Theatre’s highly political new play Where We Began imagines a world where a new universal law mandates that everyone must return to where they were born and stay there. Borders are built everywhere and strictly enforced: […]

By Terri Paddock|24 September 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Politics, Regional Theatre, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Touring, Videos|0 Comments|

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Square Rounds Q&A video and photos: Sharing drinks and views on destruction

Square Rounds Q&A video and photos: Sharing drinks and views on destruction

The pub beneath the Finborough Theatre, where Proud Haddock’s revival of Tony Harrison’s Square Rounds, is currently closed for refurbishment. So what does Proud Haddock artistic director Jimmy Walters do on the night of our post-show Q&A? Bring in drinks from the off-licence for everyone, both onstage and in the audience. I’ll drink to that!
The […]

By Terri Paddock|19 September 2018|Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Blood Wedding Q&A and podcast: What happens when you relocate Lorca to modern London?

Blood Wedding Q&A and podcast: What happens when you relocate Lorca to modern London?

What a reminder that live theatre is LIVE, that things can go wrong and that that’s all part of the excitement.
At the Omnibus Theatre last night, Blood Wedding’s 7.30pm start time was delayed as one of the actors was trapped on a broken down overground train. I was already there to chair a post-show Q&A […]

By Terri Paddock|13 September 2018|Features, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Six Q&A video and photos: Which other historic female figures should get the musical treatment?

Six Q&A video and photos: Which other historic female figures should get the musical treatment?

Adrenaline still pumping as I type this! SIX The Musical was the undisputed hit of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and it’s now transferred back to the West End’s Arts Theatre for an extended run at the Arts Theatre, where it had a handful of showcase performances over the Christmas/New Year period.

I first saw the show […]

By Terri Paddock|12 September 2018|Events, Features, Musicals, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Dust Q&A photos and podcast: Really talking – and listening – to Milly Thomas and Sara Joyce about suicide

Dust Q&A photos and podcast: Really talking – and listening – to Milly Thomas and Sara Joyce about suicide

Are we really talking about mental ill health? Or just talking about talking about it? Are we listening – actively listening – to those in need? What stops someone from committing suicide? How much do you know about Samaritans, the world’s first-ever 24-hour helpline after 999?

Milly Thomas wrote Dust after feeling frustrated at not […]

By Terri Paddock|7 September 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Silk Road Q&A video and photos: How DO you buy drugs online? And write a play about it?

Silk Road Q&A video and photos: How DO you buy drugs online? And write a play about it?

How do you buy drugs online? What was Silk Road? Could the libertarians on it actually be steering us towards a more humane drug policy? Or is a play about this dark-web marketplace glamourising drugs? What do you do with a bitcoin production donation? Who’s actually read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island?

Not the usual questions […]

By Terri Paddock|14 August 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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The One Q&A podcast and photos: Why do we need more intimacy directors in theatre?

The One Q&A podcast and photos: Why do we need more intimacy directors in theatre?

What is an intimacy director? How do they change the power dynamic on a production? Why have we had to wait for the #MeToo backlash to get them?

Vicky Jones’ debut play The One, about a toxic and violent modern relationship, won the Verity Bargate Award in 2013 and received its world premiere at Soho […]

By Terri Paddock|30 July 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Knights of the Rose Q&A video and photos: Defining the new ‘rockspeare’ genre and celebrating understudies (sort of)

Knights of the Rose Q&A video and photos: Defining the new ‘rockspeare’ genre and celebrating understudies (sort of)

On Wednesday afternoon, Jennifer Caldwell was working in the box office at the Arts Theatre, where new musical Knights of the Rose is currently playing. That night, with less than three hours’ rehearsal and having never even seen the show all the way through, she was onstage playing one of the female leads. As […]

By Terri Paddock|27 July 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Little Voice makes a big impact at the Barn

Q&A video and photos: Little Voice makes a big impact at the Barn

Are women punished in drama for liking sex and drink? What has modern classic The Rise and Fall of Little Voice got in common with Greek drama? What’s the secret to vocal impressions?

I was delighted to return to Cirencester this weekend to chair my third consecutive post-show discussion at the pioneering Barn Theatre. For this […]

By Terri Paddock|23 July 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Opinion, Plays, Regional Theatre, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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It Happened in Key West Q&A video and photos: But did it ACTUALLY happen? (Yes)

It Happened in Key West Q&A video and photos: But did it ACTUALLY happen? (Yes)

Andrew Lloyd Webber came up twice in conversation at last night’s post-show for It Happened in Key West. The second pertained to the title of the show which, many years ago, when Jeremiah James was first inspired by a late-night television documentary about Carl von Cosel. James had originally wanted to call this musical Love Never Dies… […]

By Terri Paddock|12 July 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Why are we still so fascinated by these Sirens of the Silver Screen?

Q&A video and photos: Why are we still so fascinated by these Sirens of the Silver Screen?

If you had to choose just three Hollywood legends to build a theatre show around, who would you choose? For Sirens of the Silver Screen, Beth Burrows selected Judy Garland, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. At last night’s post-show discussion at the Tabard Theatre, she explained why she did, how much fun she had researching […]

By Terri Paddock|6 July 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Pressure Q&A video and photos: How did David Haig come to write and star in a play about unsung Scottish hero and weatherman James Stagg?

Pressure Q&A video and photos: How did David Haig come to write and star in a play about unsung Scottish hero and weatherman James Stagg?

If you’d never heard of the James Stagg before David Haig’s latest play Pressure, don’t feel bad: neither had he. Haig was approached by director John Dove and Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre who wanted to create a play about an unsung Scottish hero. They drew up a list of possible candidates and Stagg caught […]

By Terri Paddock|3 July 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Touring, Videos|0 Comments|

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Beirut Q&A video and photos: When is an AIDS play not really about AIDS at all?

Beirut Q&A video and photos: When is an AIDS play not really about AIDS at all?

A warning to start: Beirut is not for the prudish. In this two-hander, Robert Rees’ Torch starts the evening buck naked (doing pull-ups) and he and co-star Louisa Connolly-Burnham, as his lustily willing-to-risk-anything girlfriend Blue, spend the next 65 minutes in various stages of undress, tumbling in and out of bed (well, a single mattress on […]

By Terri Paddock|15 June 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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The Yellow Wallpaper Q&A video and photos: What does a 19th-century American short story tell us about modern misogyny and mental health?

The Yellow Wallpaper Q&A video and photos: What does a 19th-century American short story tell us about modern misogyny and mental health?

Audience member Jessica McClellan at the Omnibus Theatre tweeted that last night’s post-show discussion for The Yellow Wallpaper was “deep AF” (I’ll assume you know what the AF stands for in social media speak…). It was pretty deep, in keeping with the extraordinary performance we’d just witnessed of Gemma Yates-Round as Alice, a woman suffering from […]

By Terri Paddock|14 June 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Schism Q&A video and photos: Talking feminism, diversity, accessibility and toxic relationships with author-actor-activist Athena Stevens

Schism Q&A video and photos: Talking feminism, diversity, accessibility and toxic relationships with author-actor-activist Athena Stevens

Two scratch-your-head stats shared during my post-show Q&A for Schism last night at London’s Park Theatre: one, less than five percent of the UK population has dated someone with a disability, and two – wait for it – only one in four have even had a conversation with a disabled person.

Is it any wonder that diverse […]

By Terri Paddock|1 June 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Katy Brand and 3Women‘s stars on feminism and happiness

Q&A video and photos: Katy Brand and 3Women‘s stars on feminism and happiness

So much laughter at last night’s post-show Q&A for Katy Brand’s debut play 3Women, now running at the West End’s Trafalgar Studios 2 until 9 June 2018!
Brand’s 80-minute comedy-drama explores what it means to be a woman in the 21st century and the consequences of the generational gap on attitudes, cultural expectations and family dynamics. It’s set […]

By Terri Paddock|18 May 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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The Swallow Q&A video and photos: How do homophobia and grief translate?

The Swallow Q&A video and photos: How do homophobia and grief translate?

Another post-show Q&A first for me. Due to a last-minute scheduling conflict, Spanish playwright Guillem Clua had to cancel his flight to London to attend last night’s performance of his acclaimed two-hander THE SWALLOW at the Cervantes Theatre, but he desperately wanted to take part in the post-show discussion – so the game team at […]

By Terri Paddock|9 May 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Personal, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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The Big Things Q&A photos and podcast: How can theatre better raise awareness about autism?

The Big Things Q&A photos and podcast: How can theatre better raise awareness about autism?

The Big Things, currently running at Barons Court Theatre, brings us into the world of Grace who, after meeting and falling in love with Malcolm and becoming a parent, is diagnosed with autism.

The London premiere is presented by Kibo Productions, who selected it from some 200 scripts received after an open submissions call. It’s […]

By Terri Paddock|29 April 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Discussing racism & representation at Rasheeda Speaking

Q&A video and photos: Discussing racism & representation at Rasheeda Speaking

What a provocative play and post-show discussion! Are we all racist? How different are racial relations in 21st-century America versus Britain? How do we get more unheard voices onstage? Can white men tell valid stories about minority groups? Should they?

Joel Drake Johnson’s four-hander Rasheeda Speaking caused a stir when it was first seen in Chicago and New […]

By Terri Paddock|26 April 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: What happens in the Dames loo on a Friday night?

Q&A video and photos: What happens in the Dames loo on a Friday night?

I missed a trick with my questions last night at the world premiere of DAMES, the surreal comedy about six millennial women who meet in a nightclub loo, which marks the playwriting debut of Charlotte Merriam and the producing debut of Siberian Lights, the company she co-founded with three of her peers at Royal Welsh College […]

By Terri Paddock|20 April 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Videos|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Things are blooming with The Secret Garden at Cirencester’s new Barn Theatre

Q&A video and photos: Things are blooming with The Secret Garden at Cirencester’s new Barn Theatre

The Barn Theatre’s inaugural production of The Secret Garden extended by a fortnight – which very helpfully allowed me to fit another trip to Cirencester and a post-show Q&A into the diary. And I’m so glad.

Three weeks on, it was wonderful to revisit this beautiful, new, 200-seat theatre and this stunning, folk-influenced production in […]

By Terri Paddock|16 April 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and podcast: How did Miss Nightingale fly into its perfect venue at the Hippodrome?

Q&A video and podcast: How did Miss Nightingale fly into its perfect venue at the Hippodrome?

When I chaired my first post-show Q&A at Miss Nightingale a year ago, I thought its home then was ideal: The Vaults, in its labyrinth beneath Waterloo Station, so like an air raid shelter, seemed to perfectly fit the setting of London during the Blitz. But now that it’s moved to the London Hippodrome, it’s […]

By Terri Paddock|1 April 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A photos and podcasts: Getting Angry with Philip Ridley, Georgie Henley and Tyrone Huntley

Q&A photos and podcasts: Getting Angry with Philip Ridley, Georgie Henley and Tyrone Huntley

Updated 8 March 2018 following third event: This post has been updated with podcasts, photos and other content from all three post-show Q&As in the ANGRY series.
In November 2016, a week after the election of Donald Trump, I chaired a post-show Q&A at Philip Ridley’s Tonight with Donny Stixx. That one-man show, which follows a would-be magician […]

By Terri Paddock|22 February 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|1 Comment|

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Q&A video and photos: Questioning the point of philosophy with The Soul of Wittgenstein company

Q&A video and photos: Questioning the point of philosophy with The Soul of Wittgenstein company

What’s the point of philosophy? According to Ludwig Wittgenstein, as portrayed in Ron Elisha’s moving and thought-provoking two-hander The Soul of Wittgenstein now running at Clapham Omnibus:
“It creates the illusion of knowledge. Which gives one a sense of order. Which, in turn, suggests a measure of control. Which rolls back the waves of raw fear.”
That […]

By Terri Paddock|16 February 2018|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Talking therapy & sexual misconduct at The Secondary Victim

Q&A video and photos: Talking therapy & sexual misconduct at The Secondary Victim

It was a packed house – including many therapy professionals – for last night’s performance of Matthew Campling’s new play The Secondary Victim at the Park Theatre. Which made for some very knowledgeable comments and insights at the post-show Q&A, for which I was joined by Campling, director Matthew Gould and the entire cast.

The […]

By Terri Paddock|22 November 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A video and photos: Bringing Beckett’s Waiting for Godot home after 62 years

Q&A video and photos: Bringing Beckett’s Waiting for Godot home after 62 years

I had my own Godotesque moment to start last night’s Waiting for Godot Q&A. The stage was bare. Where were the chairs? Was anyone bringing chairs? How long would we be waiting for chairs? Did such things as chairs exist? In the end, five chairs did materialise – just enough for the show’s director and […]

By Terri Paddock|7 September 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A podcast and photos: What would Lucille Ball think of I Loved Lucy?

Q&A podcast and photos: What would Lucille Ball think of I Loved Lucy?

It’s always a real privilege to have the playwright involved when you’re chairing a post-show Q&A. But when the play is also based on the playwright’s own best-selling memoir… When the memoir recounts his relationship with a legend like Lucille Ball… Well, that’s extra special.

Add to the presence of I Loved Lucy author Lee Tannen the show’s […]

By Terri Paddock|27 July 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A photos and video: Monkeying around with nose flutes at King Kong

Q&A photos and video: Monkeying around with nose flutes at King Kong

Before I attended King Kong, Daniel Clarkson’s bonkers stage parody of the 1933 film classic, last week at The Vaults, I never knew there was such a thing as a nose flute.

Now I will never forget! A diva nose flautist is one of the hundreds (?) of characters portrayed by King Kong’s multi-roling cast of […]

By Terri Paddock|17 July 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A podcast and photos: How new British one-man musical Superhero took flight

Q&A podcast and photos: How new British one-man musical Superhero took flight

How many creatives does it take to make a one-man musical? The answer can be “quite a few”. And that it is in the case of SUPERHERO, the British one-man – or rather “one-dad” – musical now receiving its world premiere at London’s Southwark Playhouse.

At a post-show Q&A I chaired after last night’s performance, I was joined […]

By Terri Paddock|12 July 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A podcast and photos: The latest in Rotterdam‘s extraordinary trans journey

Q&A podcast and photos: The latest in Rotterdam‘s extraordinary trans journey

Just 11 months after I chaired my first post-show talk for Jon Brittain’s Rotterdam – then at Trafalgar Studios for its West End premiere – and so much has changed. The play went on to win an Olivier Award and transfer to New York before now returning for its second West End run, this […]

By Terri Paddock|29 June 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A photos and podcast: Swinging Sixties-style with new musical Pete ‘n’ Keely

Q&A photos and podcast: Swinging Sixties-style with new musical Pete ‘n’ Keely

A string of hits, a cast of two, ‘Forever Plaid’ meets ‘I Do, I Do’. James Hindman’s 2000 Off-Broadway musical two-hander Pete ‘n’ Keely gets its European premiere at Tristan Bates Theatre, where it’s now runs to 20 May 2017. The production, directed by Matthew Gould, stars David Bardsley and Katie Kerr as the […]

By Terri Paddock|7 May 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Q&A photos and podcast: Why has James Shirley’s The Cardinal been overlooked since the 17th century?

Q&A photos and podcast: Why has James Shirley’s The Cardinal been overlooked since the 17th century?

James Shirley’s 1641 tragic masterpiece THE CARDINAL, one of the last plays staged in England before Oliver Cromwell’s ban on theatre, this month receives its first major production since the 17th century. This critically lauded rediscovery is directed by Justin Audibert for Troupe Theatre in a limited season now running at London’s Southwark Playhouse […]

By Terri Paddock|3 May 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos, video & podcast: Creating a musical out of wartime prejudice in Miss Nightingale

Photos, video & podcast: Creating a musical out of wartime prejudice in Miss Nightingale

What a great way to get the Bank Holiday weekend off with a swing. Last night, I hosted a post-show Q&A at MISS NIGHTINGALE. This original British musical is now in its sixth iteration – musicals, as Sondheim says, aren’t written but re-written – since starting life as a short piece in Ipswich and […]

By Terri Paddock|14 April 2017|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Nearly 300 years on, why does The Beggar’s Opera still resonate?

Photos and podcast: Nearly 300 years on, why does The Beggar’s Opera still resonate?

There’s something in the water with The Beggar’s Opera at the moment. Lazarus Theatre’s new, modern-dress, 80-minute version at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre is the third major London presentation of the story of womanising highwayman Macheath this year.

Dougal Irvine’s musical The Buskers Opera, set in post-Olympics London with a Boris Johnson-like mayor (premiered on the day […]

By Terri Paddock|16 November 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Opinion, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Brush up your Berkoff with Nigel Harman and co

Photos and podcast: Brush up your Berkoff with Nigel Harman and co

Two rarely seen short plays by Steven Berkoff are professionally performed together for the first time in this much-anticipated West End premiere. LUNCH and, written 20 years later, its sequel THE BOW OF ULYSSES are both set at the seaside where a couple first passionately collide and, decades later, sit reflecting on their wasted […]

By Terri Paddock|18 October 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: One-to-one with The Book Club‘s Amanda Muggleton

Photos and podcast: One-to-one with The Book Club‘s Amanda Muggleton

If you have to work on your birthday, this is just the kind of work you want. After watching the wonderful Amanda Muggleton rip through her 90-minute one-woman comedy The Book Club on Friday night, I joined her one-on-one on the onstage sofa for more hilarity.

In The Book Club, Amanda plays suburban housewife Deb, whose […]

By Terri Paddock|16 October 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Mart Crowley and The Boys in the Band cast on making history

Photos and podcast: Mart Crowley and The Boys in the Band cast on making history

UPDATED: The Boys in the Band transfers to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre for a strictly limited season from 7 to 18 February 2017. Buy tickets here.

Mart Crowley’s seminal play, The Boys in the Band, premiered in New York in 1968, just 14 months before the Stonewall riots that ignited the gay rights movement. […]

By Terri Paddock|7 October 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Regional Theatre, Terri's Blog, Theatrical, Touring|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Post-show Q&A at the European premiere of NYC hit Waiting for Waiting for Godot

Photos and podcast: Post-show Q&A at the European premiere of NYC hit Waiting for Waiting for Godot

Two hapless understudies on a production of Waiting for Godot occupy their time backstage, trying to understand art, life, theatre and their precarious existence within it. Dave Hanson’s hit New York comedy Waiting for Waiting for Godot receives its European premiere at London’s St James Theatre and, just before he flew back to New […]

By Terri Paddock|6 September 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Men, misogyny and Neil LaBute at Some Girl(s) Q&A

Photos and podcast: Men, misogyny and Neil LaBute at Some Girl(s) Q&A

I first – and last – saw Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s) in its world premiere in the West End in 2005, in a production that starred Friends’ David Schwimmer along with “girls” including Catherine Tate and Lesley Manville. In this first major London revival, Charles Dorfman takes on the pivotal role of a writer (never addressed […]

By Terri Paddock|22 July 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: I’m Getting My Act Together with Landi Oshinowo and co

Photos and podcast: I’m Getting My Act Together with Landi Oshinowo and co

Last seen in London in 1981, when its premiere production ran at the West End’s Apollo Theatre after success Off-Broadway, I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road has returned 35 years on for a limited season at Jermyn Street Theatre, where Landi Oshinowo takes on the role of pop star […]

By Terri Paddock|11 July 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Peter Tatchell and the real-life Nazi war crimes behind Savage

Photos and podcast: Peter Tatchell and the real-life Nazi war crimes behind Savage

Most theatregoers will have only learned about Carl Peter Værnet from watching Claudio Macor’s new play Savage, now running upstairs at the Arts Theatre. But the Nazi doctor from Denmark has played a large role in the life of LGBTI activist Peter Tatchell for decades.

It was in the late 1980s that Tatchell first learned of Værnet, […]

By Terri Paddock|7 July 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Plays, Politics, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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PHOTOS: The new cast of Some Girl(s) show their sassiness

PHOTOS: The new cast of Some Girl(s) show their sassiness

Character portraits aren’t just for Harry Potter. Photographer Darren Bell gained access to the new cast of Buckland Theatre’s revival of Neil LaBute’s Some Girl(s) to snap these beauties.
In the play, directed by Gary Condes, Guy (played by Charles Dorfman) is desperate to clear his conscience before he gets married. So he sets off on […]

By Terri Paddock|9 June 2016|Events, Features, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Sideways author Rex Pickett and the wine-mad cast

Photos and podcast: Sideways author Rex Pickett and the wine-mad cast

Did you know that Sideways was an unpublished novel – rejected, like the efforts of the character Miles in the story, some 66 times – when the film rights were first picked up? In fact, the novel and film, about middle-aged buddies Miles and Jack on a pre-nuptials road trip through California wine country, were […]

By Terri Paddock|2 June 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Opinion, Plays, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Talking politics and musicals at The Buskers Opera

Photos and podcast: Talking politics and musicals at The Buskers Opera

The Buskers Opera, set during the London 2012 Olympics, is inspired by John Gay’s 1728 The Beggar’s Opera which, amongst other works, has also inspired Brecht’s 1928 piece The Threepenny Opera, revived later this month at the National Theatre.

But while the basic structure and characters are owed to Gay, the zany genius of The Buskers Opera […]

By Terri Paddock|12 May 2016|Events, Features, Interviews, Musicals, Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos: Final Father post-show panel on Women in the Arts

Photos: Final Father post-show panel on Women in the Arts

All good things must come to an end. Last night was the third and final post-show panel discussion in the series that I’ve programmed and hosted around Jagged Fence’s new production of The Father, starring Alex Ferns. While I’m sad the series has finished (it was such invigorating fun!), I’m happy to say that […]

By Terri Paddock|8 April 2015|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Equal parenting, Fathers4Justice and Strindberg’s The Father

Photos and podcast: Equal parenting, Fathers4Justice and Strindberg’s The Father

I’m still reeling after the thrillingly heated and thought-provoking panel discussion I hosted last night at Trafalgar Studios 2. This was the second in a series of post-show events I’ve programmed around issues and themes raised in Jagged Fence’s explosive new production of Strindberg’s The Father, starring Alex Ferns.

We set a high benchmark with last […]

By Terri Paddock|31 March 2015|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Feminism, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Father

Photos and podcast: Feminism, Fifty Shades of Grey and The Father

How far have we come with feminism since August Strindberg was writing in the 1880s? “About halfway,” said Polly Toynbee on Monday night at Trafalgar Studios, in the first of a series of post-show panel discussions I’ve programmed and am hosting around Jagged Fence’s explosive new production of Strindberg’s The Father, starring Alex Ferns and […]

By Terri Paddock|25 March 2015|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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You’re invited: Join my post-show panel debates at The Father

You’re invited: Join my post-show panel debates at The Father

Updated 1 April: New speakers now added for “Women in the Arts” debate on Tuesday 7 April – London Evening Standard chief arts correspondent Louise Jury and writer-director-feminist Fiona Laird …

I just love a good post-show Q&A and, frankly, I miss doing them as often as I used to in my WhatsOnStage days. My firm belief is that a […]

By Terri Paddock|5 March 2015|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|1 Comment|

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My theatre diary: Plays to make you think – Widowers’ Houses, Visitors, Hope and Sirens

My theatre diary: Plays to make you think – Widowers’ Houses, Visitors, Hope and Sirens

If your brain has started to turn to mush after too much turkey and mash, get yourself along to one of these four plays quick. I can personally recommend each for provoking serious thought, discussion and reflection on urgent issues including local government, austerity, dementia, discrimination, feminism, urban housing and corruption, to name a […]

By Terri Paddock|29 December 2014|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Video and photos: Spoiling debate ahead of Scottish referendum

Video and photos: Spoiling debate ahead of Scottish referendum

“Talk about handling a hot potato,” Gabriel Quigley said to me after I chaired a post-show Q&A with her and her co-star Richard Clements following last Thursday’s performance of Spoiling at Theatre Royal Stratford East. John

McCann’s new play, a co-production between Stratford East and Scotland’s Traverse Theatre, is ferociously topical – taking as its […]

By Terri Paddock|8 September 2014|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: Therese Raquin post-show Q&A

Photos and podcast: Therese Raquin post-show Q&A

What a turnout! After a Twitter RT frenzy with the cast of Therese Raquin yesterday, every single one of them joined me for a post-show Q&A after their sensational performance last night at the Park Theatre – including, as promised, feline star, Francois the Cat!

We were also joined by Nona Sheppard, who adapted Emile […]

By Terri Paddock|8 August 2014|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|

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Photos and podcast: The Frida Kahlo of Penge West post-show Q&A

Photos and podcast: The Frida Kahlo of Penge West post-show Q&A

I had a great time last night (3 July 2014) hosting the post-show Q&A at the hilarious new “two-woman comedy about putting on a one-woman show”, The Frida Kahlo of Penge West. I was joined by writer/director Chris Larner and the show’s two stars, Cecily Nash and Laura Kirman.

Amongst the topics discussed were: comedy […]

By Terri Paddock|4 July 2014|Terri's Blog, Theatrical|0 Comments|