As actor Mark Rylance returns to Shakespeare’s Globe to play the title part in Richard III and Olivia in Twelfth Night, he reveals how his interest in the controversial Shakespeare authorship debate – the subject of his first play I Am Shakespeare, published this month by Nick Hern Books – led to the charge that … Continue reading I Am Shakespeare: by Mark Rylance
Plays
The Hound of the Baskervilles: the Peepolykus version
You don't need an actual hellhound or a bucket of phosphorus to stage the Peepolykus version of Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles - the rib-tickling spoof, full of the company's trademark verbal and visual ingenuity, seen on national tour and in the West End. But, as co-adapter, Steven Canny explains, there's plenty of scope … Continue reading The Hound of the Baskervilles: the Peepolykus version
Helen Edmundson on her stage version of SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS
Helen Edmundson is a multi-award-winning playwright with a string of stellar hits to her name, including adapting Jamila Gavin’s novel Coram Boy for the National Theatre, and winning the John Whiting Award (Best New Play) for The Clearing. Her latest venture – bringing Arthur Ransome's classic novel Swallows and Amazons to life for the stage … Continue reading Helen Edmundson on her stage version of SWALLOWS AND AMAZONS
Charles Dickens’ THE HAUNTING: I Wants to Make Your Flesh Creep!
Hugh Janes’ spine-tingling play The Haunting is adapted from several original ghost stories by Charles Dickens, and toured extensively throughout the UK in 2010/11. Here, the author explains how the play was inspired by Dickens’ long-held fascination with the supernatural... Whether we believe in them or not, ghosts appear to be everywhere: in churches, cemeteries … Continue reading Charles Dickens’ THE HAUNTING: I Wants to Make Your Flesh Creep!
Spotlight: TOM WELLS on THE KITCHEN SINK
Talented Yorkshire playwright Tom Wells tells us a little about his hilarious new play The Kitchen Sink – ‘comic, poignant and utterly gripping... outstanding’ Evening Standard – that premiered this week at the new Bush Theatre. A play set entirely in the kitchen of an eccentric Yorkshire family, it's about big dreams and small changes, … Continue reading Spotlight: TOM WELLS on THE KITCHEN SINK
Jez Butterworth’s JERUSALEM at St Paul’s
Art often imitates life, but it’s rare that a West End play gets taken up by a group of anti-capitalist protesters as the perfect encapsulation of their spirit of defiance. But this is just what has happened to Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem, a play that is back in the West End with Mark Rylance once again … Continue reading Jez Butterworth’s JERUSALEM at St Paul’s
Spotlight: playwright CONOR McPHERSON
Playwright Conor McPherson – 'a writer who can make inarticulacy sound poetic' (Evening Standard) – returns to the theatre this month with the premiere of his new play The Veil at the National Theatre. We've published the playtext along with a striking new edition of his earliest works, McPherson Plays: One, which includes a new … Continue reading Spotlight: playwright CONOR McPHERSON
THE GOD OF SOHO Special: with director Raz Shaw
In part two of our special feature on The God of Soho, director Raz Shaw tells us what it was like bringing Chris Hannan's wild and raucous script to life for Shakespeare's Globe. You have previously directed productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet for the Shakespeare's Globe, but this is your first … Continue reading THE GOD OF SOHO Special: with director Raz Shaw
Edinburgh Festival Fringe special: with Lynda Radley
In part two of our Edinburgh Fringe special, in which a handful of our authors involved in some way in this year's Festival Fringe frenzy tell us what it all means to them, we hear from 'rising star in Scottish theatre' (Scotsman) Lynda Radley, whose latest play Futureproof premieres at the Traverse Theatre this week. … Continue reading Edinburgh Festival Fringe special: with Lynda Radley
Edinburgh Festival Fringe special: with Hywel John
To celebrate NHB's involvement in this year's vibrant Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme, we've asked a handful of our writers who have either performed, written, directed or produced work for the Festival Fringe to tell us what it means to them. First up is Hywel John, whose latest work Rose, a heartfelt study of heritage, grief … Continue reading Edinburgh Festival Fringe special: with Hywel John
The Prompt Book 