The Play Podcast

Episode 100: A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O'Neill Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Beth Wynstra Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. A Moon for the Misbegotten is the last play that Eugene O’Neill wrote. It is in some way a eulogy for his brother, Jamie O’Neill, who like the character of Jim Tyrone in this play, drank himself to death. In fact, it is also an epilogue of sorts to his autobiographical masterpiece Long Day’s Journey into Night, where we first met Jim Tyrone. It is eleven years later, and Jim is about to leave the family home in Connecticut following the death of his parents, but not before saying a final goodbye to the woman who lives next door, Josie Hogan. Josie and Jim have unacknowledged feelings for each other, but their tortured moonlit night together does not offer them the salvation or future that they may have thought possible. As we record this episode, a new production of A Moon for the Misbegotten is playing at the Almeida theatre in London, and I am delighted to be joined by O’Neill expert, Beth Wynstra, to explore what one American critic called ‘a major minor-masterpiece”. To mark our 100th episode listeners have a chance to win £100 of theatre tokens – visit https://www.theplaypodcast.com/100-a-moon-for-the-misbegotten-by-eugene-oneill/ for details on how to enter!

Episode 099: Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Beth Steel Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. It is Sylvia and Marek’s wedding day. But this is not an entirely traditional English wedding, because unlike her older sisters, Sylvia’s husband-to-be is not a local man; Marek is a Polish immigrant. As the festivities unfold, fuelled by beer and vodka, emotions run high, and fault lines appear within the family that will change their lives forever. Beth Steel’s Till the Stars Come Down, is an hilarious and heartbreaking family drama, as well as a richly layered exploration of the social and economic landscape of the country they live in. Till the Stars Come Down premiered to great acclaim at the National Theatre in January 2024, and as we record this episode is back on stage at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End. I’m delighted to be joined by the play’s author, Beth Steel.

Episode 098: Stereophonic by David Adjmi Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: David Adjmi Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. It is 1976, and a fictional rock band are holed up in a studio in California attempting to record their much anticipated second album. The pressures of an inflated studio budget and raised artistic expectations expose the fault lines in the band’s professional and personal relationships. David Adjmi’s Tony-award-winning play, Stereophonic, is a fly-on-the-wall depiction of both the magic and the monotony of collaborative artistic endeavour, as the cast recreates the live process of making music, and play out the price they pay for their art and fame. As we record this episode, Stereophonic has opened in London’s West End following its triumph on Broadway, and I am thrilled to be joined by the play’s author, David Adjmi, to explore his unique creation.

Episode 097: Giant by Mark Rosenblatt Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Mark Rosenblatt Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. It is 1983, and the famous children’s author Roald Dahl’s life is in some turmoil. He has just divorced his wife of 30 years, and his new fiancée has just moved into the family home and has initiated disruptive renovations to the house, disturbing his very particular writing routines. Dahl also now finds himself the target of publlic outrage for the antisemitism contained in his recent published criticism of Israel’s violent attack on Lebanon. Representatives from his British and American publishers have arrived to try to persuade Dahl to issue some conciliatory response, but Dahl is characteristically disinclined to retreat from his deeply-felt opinions. This is the premise for Mark Rosenblatt’s award-winning first play Giant, which is currently earning five-star reviews in London’s West End. I am delighted to be joined by the play’s author, Mark Rosenblatt, to explore his electrifying play.

Episode 096: Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Patrick Marber Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. A poker game in the basement of a London restaurant is the setting for six men to play out their dreams and disappointments in Patrick Marber’s first play, Dealer’s Choice. The play premiered at the National Theatre in 1995, and thirty years on a cracking new production is on stage at the Donmar Warehouse in London. I’m delighted to be joined by its director, Matthew Dunster, to explore Marber’s perceptive portrait of male conflict and compulsion.

Episode 095: Rhinoceros by Eugène Ionesco Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Omar Elerian Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. A rhinoceros charges through the square of a small French village, and soon all of its inhabitants are being transformed into rhinoceros themselves. Eugène Ionesco’s 1959 absurdist satire, Rhinoceros, was conceived as a metaphor for support for the rise of Fascism in Europe between the world wars, and for conformism more generally. As we record this episode an imaginative new adaptation of the play is playing at the Almeida theatre in London, and I’m delighted to be joined by the show’s translator and director, Omar Elerian.

Episode 094: Oedipus the King by Sophocles Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Professor Edith Hall Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Sophocles’ tragic drama of the myth of Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, not only directly inspired Freud’s notorious dream theory, but has itself survived as a masterpiece of theatrical invention and power. Written nearly two and a half thousand years ago, Oedipus the King has endured because of the dramatic trauma of Oedipus’s personal story, and also as an allegory of authoritarian political rule. The play has proved remarkably adaptable to modern social and political times, which is attested by the fact that not one, but two major productions of the play have been staged in London this year. I’m delighted to review Sophocles’ shattering classic with the esteemed Classics professor, Edith Hall.

Episode 093: Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Rory Mullarkey Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, the third of the quartet of great plays that he wrote in the last years of his short life, is a symphonic study of the search for purpose and love. Three Sisters premiered in January 1901 at the Moscow Arts Theatre, where his previous two major plays, Uncle Vanya and The Seagull had debuted. As we record this episode a spellbinding new production is on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe theatre in London. The text for that production is translated by playwright Rory Mullarkey, who joins us to explore Chekhov’s masterpiece.

Episode 092: A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Tinuke Craig Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. When Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun opened in New York in 1959, its author became the first African-American woman to have a play on Broadway, and this with her debut at age of 29. The play was ground-breaking for its realist portait of a black working-class family, spotlighting their personal dreams and the public prejudice they confront. We recorded this episode shortly after an acclaimed new production of the play completed its run at the Lyric Hammersmith theatre in London, and I am delighted to talk with the production’s director, Tinuke Craig, about this landmark play.

Episode 091: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Arifa Akbar Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Tennessee Williams’s third great play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a blistering drama of family conflict and repressed sexuality. The play opened on Broadway in 1955 to rapturous reviews, and the film that followed with Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman was a box-office hit, despite its egregious watering down of the play’s sexual trauma and family strife. As we record this episode a stunning new production of the play is on at the Almeida Theatre in London, and I am delighted to talk about this classic with Arifa Akbar, the Guardian newspaper’s chief theatre critic.

Episode 090: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Max Webster Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is arguably the most famous romantic comedy in theatrical history. The play is renowned for its effervescent portrait of aristocratic romance, and its impossibly clever wit, including some of the most quotable lines in dramatic literature. But it is also an anarchic parody of social custom and pretension – a serious statement of aesthetic principles and coded sexual politics. As we record this episode, a joyous new production of the play is running at the National Theatre in London, and I am delighted to talk about Wilde’s classic with its acclaimed director, Max Webster.

Episode 089: Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Matthew McFrederick Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Samuel Beckett’s tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot, is a notoriously confounding work of theatre. The play is renowned for its lack of conventional plot or exposition, and for its existential predicament. Given its desolate philosophical landscape it is also surprisingly funny. Its theatrical imagery and intellectual provocation remain as potent as when it was first performed in Paris in 1953. As we record this episode an illustrious production is on stage at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London starring Ben Whishaw and Lucian Msamati. I am delighted to be joined by Dr Matt McFrederick from the University of Reading to help survey this famously challenging landmark of modern drama.

Episode 088: Roots by Arnold Wesker Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Diyan Zora Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Arnold Wesker’s quiet classic, Roots, is a story of doomed love, rural poverty and social protest, and most of all, of cultural aspiration and growing up and away from family, from one’s roots. We recorded this episode as a sensitive revival of the play was finishing its run at the Almeida theatre in London, and I was delighted to be able to talk to its director, Diyan Zora, about Wesker’s love letter to his wife and her roots.

Episode 087: Look Back in Anger by John Osborne Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Dan Rebellato and Atri Banerjee Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger is one of the landmark plays of twentieth century British theatre. It’s raging protagonist, Jimmy Porter, represented a generation of disaffected youth, and its proletarian setting heralded a new style of ‘kitchen sink drama’. But how well has Jimmy’s abusive anger aged? I’m delighted to welcome two experts to help us address this question, and many more: Dan Rebellato, the author of 1956 and All That: The Making of Modern British Drama, and, Atri Banerjee, the director of the first revival of the play in London for 25 years, currently running at the Almeida Theatre.

Episode 085: The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Mark Lawson Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Tom Stoppard is renowned for his intellectual wit and playful dramatic form, both of which are certainly on show in The Real Thing, but the play also explores more personal emotional territory: on what constitutes the real thing in love, politics and art. As we record this episode, a new production of the play is on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London. My guest to help us navigate the romantic entanglements and structural twists in the play is the renowned arts journalist, Mark Lawson.

Episode 084: Abigail's Party by Mike Leigh Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Nadia Fall Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Mike Leigh’s 1977 ‘tragi-comedy’, Abigail’s Party, is renowned for its iconic snapshot of the material and social fabric of its time. The play’s portrait of suburban social pretensions is both hugely funny and excruciating to witness. It is not just an exercise in period kitsch, however, because underneath there are universal human truths, about aspiration and identity, as well as about honesty and generosity, or the lack thereof, in intimate relationships. As we record this episode a vibrant new production of the play is on stage at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, directed by the theatre’s Artistic Director, Nadia Fall. I’m delighted to talk with Nadia about this classic of British theatre.

Episode 083: The Caretaker by Harold Pinter Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Justin Audibert Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. When it premiered in London’s West End in 1960, The Caretaker catapulted its author to fame and fortune. The play is set entirely in a single room in a dilapidated house, and presents the territorial battle between three men living on the margins of society. The pschological manoeuvrings of the men are dramatised in what we now recognise as Pinter’s cryptic mix of comedy and menace, along with his characteristic relish in the precision and panache of language. As we record this episode a new production of the play is playing in the Minerva theatre in Chichester, and I am delighted to welcome its director, Justin Audibert, to the podcast to help us explore Pinter’s enigmatic work.

Episode 082: People, Places & Things by Duncan Macmillan Host: Douglas Schatz Guests: Duncan Macmillan and Jeremy Herrin Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places & Things is a blisteringly frank and funny portrait of addiction and invented identity. When the play premiered at the National Theatre in 2015, Denise Gough won awards for her electrifying performance, and as we record this episode she revives her role in London’s West End. It is a fascinating and challenging play, and an exhilarating piece of theatre. I am delighted to talk in this episode with its author, Duncan Macmillan, and the production’s director, Jeremy Herrin.

Episode 081: The Government Inspector by Nikolay Gogol Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Patrick Myles Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Vladimir Nabokov described The Government Inspector as the “greatest play in the Russian language”. Gogol’s comedy of mistaken identity is an unexpected mix of fantastical farce and serious social satire. that has survived as a paradigm of political corruption and social hypocrisy in any age or place. As we record this episode a new adaptation of the play written and directed by Patrick Myles arrives on the London stage, and I’m delighted to talk with Patrick about this classic play and its enigmatic author.

Episode 086: Death of England by Clint Dyer and Roy Williams Host: Douglas Schatz Guest: Roy Williams Welcome to The Play Podcast where we explore the greatest new and classic plays. Each episode we choose a single play to talk about in depth with our expert guest. We’ll discuss the play’s origins, its themes, characters, structure and impact. For us the play is the thing. Clint Dyer and Roy William’s trilogy of plays, Death of England, is a searing state-of-the-nation drama voiced by both black and white working-class characters. Having been performed individually at intervals at the National Theatre through Covid lockdowns, the three plays were greeted with acclaim when they were finally brought together at the Soho Place theatre in the summer of 2024. I am delighted and honoured to welcome playwright Roy Williams to the podcast to discuss this important work.