Welcome to another episode of The Evening Standard Theatre Podcast.
We’re joined by actress Antonia Thomas, who you may recognise from E4’s Misfits, and writer Nina Segal, for the new play Shooting Hedda Gabler at the Rose Theatre.
Nina discusses why she decided to do a play about making a film of Hedda Gabler, rather than adapting Ibsen’s masterpiece directly, how the work was inspired by conversations that came out of the MeToo movement and issues actors can face on set. “There is often an expectation for actors that they’ll use themselves, their own personal histories, and that can be abused.”
Antonia talks about the challenging experience playing this new version of Hedda, and the hierarchy that still takes place on film sets. “It’s quite weird, the different ways people interact with each other on film sets, ‘I have my trailer, and you have your trailer.’”
Nancy and Nick Curtis review Lynn Nottage’s Mlima’s Tale, a play about the appalling ivory trade, directed by Miranda Cromwell at the Kiln Theatre. While Nick and Nick review the spicily titled Untitled F*ck M*ss S**gon Play at the Young Vic. That’s by award-winning Kimber Lee and directed by Roy Alexander Weise.
They talk about the death of Michael Gambon, and how in one play he even performed a line by Nick Curtis. Plus the news that Mean Girls the musical is arriving this side of the Atlantic – which it’s so fetch – they pick over the Stage Debut Awards winners, and talk Ulster American which is bringing bona fide movie star Woody Harrelson to the London stage for the first time in almost two decades.
Nancy chats about her recent trip to see long-running musical Wicked, Nick Clark discusses Woodhill at Shoreditch Town Hall, and Nick Curtis talks Sir Ian McKellen and Roger Allam in Frank and Percy.
Listen above, find us on Apple, Spotify or wherever you stream your podcasts.
You can hear our interview with Gabrielle Brooks, star of Mlima’s Tale, here, and our interview with Sir Ian McKellen and Roger Allam here.