Taking on the iconic role of the titular crime-solver in ‘Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts’, Tom Chambers admits to being daunted at the prospect of following in the footsteps of John Thaw from the much-loved TV series. “But it’s a thrilling challenge,” he smiles, “and it’s a delicious treat for anyone who is a fan of Morse, like I was and indeed have been throughout the decades.”

For most theatregoers ‘House of Ghosts’will be a brand-new story full of surprising twists and turns. It was written in 2010 by Alma Cullen, who (along with Anthony Minghella and Danny Boyle) was one of the original writers on the ‘Inspector Morse’ TV show when it premiered in 1987. Cullen’s play enjoyed a small tour and a Radio 4 broadcast, but the UK tour marks the first major production of the first-ever Morse story on stage.

Reunited with director Anthony Banks after ‘Dial M for Murder’, Chambers says: “Morse is such a fantastic brand and we’re both really excited about the fact that the audience is going to see something that the vast majority of them won’t have seen before. And given that Alma was one of the original writers, he’s very much the Inspector Morse that we know and love.”

The ITV show has been hailed by Radio Times as the greatest British crime series of all time and it inspired the equally beloved spin-offs ‘Lewis’ and ‘Endeavour’. In ‘House of Ghosts’ a chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress suddenly dies on stage during a performance and Detective Chief Inspector Morse and his sidekick DS Lewis are called in to investigate, as what begins as a suspicious death inquiry takes a darker turn when they uncover a connection to sinister events in Morse’s own past at Oxford 25 years earlier.      

As for why he’s both thrilled and daunted about heading the cast for the tour, Tom says: “The thrill for me is in the dialogue and the writing, the camaraderie between Morse and Lewis and their relationship – where you have that classic thing of him putting Lewis down but with a sense of irony or jest and sometimes despair.

“So it’s great fun but daunting too, because you know that an audience is going to want to see something in the style of what they’ve seen before. They don’t want to see something that’s completely, shockingly unexpected, although there’s a different kind of energy to the setting because we’re back in 1987 where there are no mobile phones and it’s all analogue.”

Born in Derbyshire, the actor attended the National Youth Music Theatre, studied at the Guildford School of Acting and came to fame as Sam Strachan on ‘Holby City’. His theatre credits include the musicals ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Crazy for You’, as well as the thrillers ‘Murder in the Dark’ and the aforementioned ‘Dial M for Murder’.

Asked why he feels murder mysteries are so popular, especially on stage, Tom muses: “We are curious creatures, aren’t we? We like a puzzle, we like a challenge and the stimulation that goes with it. And in the theatre, of course, everyone is in the same space, in the dark, watching the mystery unfold on stage.”

Now 48, Tom adds with a smile: “I’m not necessarily someone who’s really modern and really cool, and I think Morse is like that too. He’s not necessarily chivalrous, because he can be quite hard at times; he can harsh, very black and white and very honest. He says it how it is, but he does have a sort of gentlemanly manner about him. I like playing that and exploring it.”

Tachia Newall plays Detective Sergeant Lewis and says of the character: “He’s pretty down-to-earth and hard-working. He loves his family and he’s usually thinking about getting home to his wife and kids, but he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery.”

Is Tachia anything like that? He laughs: “I’m probably quite different because I wouldn’t say that I’m relatively chill. I’m down-to-earth, but I’m a little bit nutty. People will tell you that I’m very excitable.”

The banter between the characters is fun to play. “Lewis is really loyal to Morse and Morse in turn respects his views, even if he gets exasperated by him at times. Morse is from quite an educated background, while Lewis’s accent leads people to believe he’s not that well-educated by comparison.”

Born in Manchester, Tachia grew up watching ‘Inspector Morse’ on TV but is avoiding rewatching episodes now. “With most acting jobs that I do, if there’s been a previous iteration then I tend to stay clear of it until the job’s finished, just because I don’t want to try and emulate anything that’s been done before.”

Best known as Bolton Smilie from ‘Waterloo Road’, Newall is pleased to be reunited with Tom. Their paths crossed when Chambers did a stint on the show in 2009. “I hadn’t seen him since, so it’s good to be back in the room with him. He’s a cracking lad and he’s not changed at all. He’s still got that playful bounce about him.”

Tachia’s theatre credits include ‘Macbeth,’ so is ‘House of Ghosts’ a doddle compared to doing Shakespeare? He laughs. “I wouldn’t say it’s a doddle! This is a complex show, with complex timelines. It’s maybe easier emotionally for me, but it’s still challenging. And I just love being on the stage. With theatre, it changes every night. Just having a live audience in front of you, it brings you to life because anything can go wrong and you’ve got to be on your toes. You’ve got to be able to bring it back around.”

Murder mysteries are popular, he feels, because: “They’re such an escape from everyday life and you get to unpick things. You get to go on this journey with the protagonists, and you get to go ‘So they did it? Amazing!’.”

As for whether he’s make a good DS in real life, Tachia reckons: “Probably not. I think frustration might get the better of me. If I hit a brick wall, I might find it difficult to jump outside the box and view things from a different angle.”

Having helmed ‘Dial M for Murder’ as well as ‘The Girl on the Train’, ‘Gaslight’ and ‘Strangers on a Train’, director Anthony Banks is well-versed in stage thrillers. Summing up the appeal of Morse and Lewis in ‘House of Ghosts’, he says: “They are ordinary people who, by chance or by accident, have found themselves in these jobs as policemen working for Thames Valley police. They’re told to follow the rules, but people love them because they are messy, accident-prone individuals who are just doing a job. They’re not superheroes.

“There are various little asides where they kind of go ‘You know, we could be doing something else’ but I think that’s why people like them so much – because they recognise their faults and they are modest, and they don’t seek approval in the way that some heroes in fiction do.”

When Anthony read Cullen’s play his first thought was that, having worked with Tom on ‘Dial M for Murder’, he’d be the perfect actor to play Morse. “John Thaw is from Manchester and Tom is from the North, so there was that connection, plus he’s around the same age that John was when he started the TV series. Tom has a presence on stage that the audience warms to.”

Then there’s Tachia, about whom the director says: “I met him and immediately thought ‘I’ve found my Lewis’. He’s Mancunian, so he brings a very fresh sound to the character in a slightly working-class and very on-the-nose, straight-down-the-lens kind of way.”

Cullen’s play is interesting, he continues, because: “It’s a feminist piece of writing. Wherever possible she brings into focus what professional life was like for women in Oxford in the 1980s. Very few women held the position of head of department or professor or chair even. These were very changing times and Margaret Thatcher was running the country, but there was a massive amount of work to be done in terms of equality between the sexes. Unfortunately I think there’s still so much work left to be done on that front.”

As to why he feels it’s timely to stage the play now, Banks recalls gifting his father a book about the making of the TV series back in the 80s, in which the author of the Morse books Colin Dexter talked how the world had gone sour, people were going from one crisis to another and the Inspector was just trying to make things a little better.

That memory prompted his decision to revive a play that is set in 1987 and was first performed 15 years ago. “Now here we are, the world has gone a little sour again, we do seem to be moving from one crisis to another, and here’s this guy who wants to make things better. That struck me as a story that audiences would enjoy today.”

Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts is at Lowry, Salford from 7-11 April 2026.

The post The greatest British crime series of all time gets a stage makeover appeared first on Quays Life.

“Every year we did a show for the Stage Golfing Society. They did a ‘70s variety show and asked if I would do Eric Morecambe,” Jonty Stephens says. Sat buttoned up and thickly-bespectacled in the Lowry theatre bar, he could break into the act at any moment. Next to him, equally crisp with an easy grin, fellow actor Ian Ashpitel perches on his seat.

“And I said, well, I need an Ernie,” Jonty carries on. “And I looked over at the bar – it was the summer, and Ian had his shorts on because we’d been playing golf – and I saw his little, short, fat, hairy legs like Ernie Wise and thought, ‘he’s perfect’.”

Ian and Jonty have known each other for 43 years, only a year less than the original Morecambe and Wise. Self-confessed ‘anoraks’, the pair have built a joint career in bringing comedy’s greatest dynamic duo back to life. Following a string of sellout West End plays and an Olivier nomination, a special run of their latest show ‘Eric & Ern’ will come to the Lowry theatre this March, in celebration of the comedians’ 100th birthdays this year.

Cramming in classics from ice cream-police sirens to Mr Memory, ‘Arsenal!’, ‘Eric & Ern’ also teases a smattering of original material, based on the work of original joke-writer Eddie Braben. With the flick of a curtain and a guaranteed grand piano (if you know, you know), the show promises to bring love, sunshine, and laughter as it skips its way to the Salford stage for both old and new fans alike.

“The comedy and the writing is good,” Ian says. “It’s excellent, it’s timeless. It wasn’t cruel or horrible, it wasn’t crude, it wasn’t political. It looks easy and funny, and it should do.”

The original run of the show was a sellout, to rave reviews cheering nostalgia-done-well. With a list of gleefully manic, mischievously smug performances behind them, ‘Eric & Ern’ shapes up to be a variety act revived, promising a song, a dance, a string of gags, and if past performances are to be believed, a mystery stooge ripe for humiliation. “If this is living in the past,” one reviewer said of the 2022 run, “it is certainly a fun place to be.”

“It’s an exciting thing,” Jonty says. “The die-hard Morecambe and Wise fans, who grew up with Morecambe and Wise, bring their children or their grandchildren now. You get three generations of the same family, sat in the front row, all laughing at the same thing – that’s just so rare now.

“We’ve done a few [original] bits and bobs and people go, ‘Oh, I loved them when they did that’. And I say, ‘Well, they didn’t do that – we really did that!’. But it’s still very true to Morecambe and Wise.

“We’re in continual touch with the family, and they’ve been supportive of everything we do. They’ve seen the show, they know what we’re doing, they know what we’re including – and in fact, they’re coming to see it in Morecambe!”

In keeping with the spirit of authenticity, ‘Eric & Ern’ has already been put through the wringer of trial and error – and now stands “in the best shape it’s ever been”, according to Ian. That said, for the benefit of the audience, the pair insist there’s a line to be drawn between going through the motions and a faithful rendition.

“We’ve often talked about it,” Jonty says, “we were inspired by a live video of Eric and Ernie live at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon in the ‘70s. And we watched and watched and watched it and tried to do every mannerism, every little tick and be faithful to that, and of course we soon discovered that you’ve got a live audience in front of you that may not laugh at something that they got a laugh for at Fairfield.”

Jumping in, Ian draws an invisible string with his hand. “Tring to move your hand on a line literally drives you insane. [This show] is abandoning that,” he says. “That’s an impression, and what we’re doing is a portrayal – we’re portraying these ‘characters’. As actors, we’ve studied them as characters, and then added onto that is all the other information we’ve come up with.

“[Morecambe and Wise] were very different sorts of people, which works, because they’re a bit like me and [Jonty]. We’re like the ying and yang of each other, and I think Eric and Ernie were like the ying and yang of each other. That’s why they worked. That’s why we work.”

The pair have come far since their early golf club days, and their even earlier days in acting school where they were routinely asked if they were a double act (to which they would answer, in unison, ‘no’). Having since exploded as the UK’s most successful Morecambe and Wise duo, neither see themselves hanging up the jackets just yet.

“We are Eric and Ernie, for this set amount of time, and then after this, we’re still actors trying to do other things,” Ian says. He smiles: “But we never had a clue it would be this successful or last this long. This is our baby.”

“Without the talent of Morecambe and Wise, we wouldn’t be doing it,” Jonty nods. “We shine a light on that talent, and for that moment, that two hours that you’re in the theatre, we hope people forget where they are and all the horrible things that are going on in the world, and we take them away from that and they have a good old laugh.

“They were loved, so hopefully if we do a good job, we get a bit of that love from the audience. We’re very lucky in that respect: it’s wonderful to do.”

It must be an incredible feeling to get to perform with your best friend, too. “Yeah, it is,” Ian laughs. “He’ll be here in a minute!”

‘Eric & Ern’ is at Lowry, Salford from 24 to 28 March 2026.

The post “You get three generations of the same family, all laughing at the same thing – that’s just so rare now” – Jonty Stephens appeared first on Quays Life.

Now arguably the biggest showdown in pop history has opened a new front – on the stage, with ‘The Battle’ transporting modern-day audiences back into the midst of what has been described as ‘the sweaty mid-90s carnage of the Battle of Britpop’.

Blur verses Oasis, art school intellectuals verses plain-speaking working-class lads, South verses North. The battle lines that were drawn then are revisited here in writer John Niven’s swaggering and audaciously funny story.

But while the production is infused with the sounds of the Britpop era, anyone expecting a 90s jukebox musical or a live gig may be in for the first of several surprises.

“We’re much more interested in the drama of their lives than in the drama of the music,” explains ‘The Battle’ director Matthew Dunster. “Really, it’s a play about friendship and ambition, and how the latter might break the former.

“When John thought about the events, in his mind he thought it could be like a sweaty David Mamet play where people were in rooms, and the emotional temperature is ramped up a little bit more with each scene.”

Thus, this battle unfolds not on amp-stacked stages in front of thousands of music fans, but on the fringes of award ceremonies, in recording studios, pubs and dressing rooms, beyond VIP ropes and at home behind closed doors.

Dunster was approached to join The Battle’s creative team early on and has worked closely with first time playwright Niven to recreate the intense, simmering sense of rivalry and rising tension underpinning the real-life 90s clash which spilled over from the charts and tribal fan factions and into the wider public consciousness.

It’s an era both know well – Niven as a former A&R  (Artists and Repertoire) man in the record industry and Dunster as a music fan who was there in the middle of it.

“As soon as I heard ‘Battle of the Bands’ it transported me straight back,” says the director, who reveals he saw Oasis play their fourth ever gig when they supported his friend’s group at The Hurricane Club in Oldham.

As for the ‘battle’ itself, he says he bought both singles and “was more excited about the event and the competition than taking sides.”

“I think I was probably emotionally team Oasis,” he admits, “but artistically I thought at that point that Blur were streets ahead. Then in the next 12 months, Oasis released ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ and from that point on…it was all Oasis.”

Meanwhile actor Mathew Horne was a music-mad 16-year-old, although he too maintains he didn’t mind who won the chart-busting head-to-head.

“It probably sounds like an actor being diplomatic, but from my experience, everybody I know was both Blur and Oasis,” says Nottinghamshire-raised Horne, who plays the late Blur manager Andy Ross, the man who signed off the decision to release Country House on the same day as Oasis’s Roll With It.

“My record collection is of equal size, and the number of times I’ve seen Blur and Oasis are the same too. And I think the outcome of the battle for number one didn’t really matter. What mattered was our movement, the thing we were part of, was suddenly seen by everybody.”

It means that alongside decades of storytelling experience, both director and actor bring with them first-hand knowledge of the cultural phenomenon that was Britpop.

Horne has also, rather like his character, found himself in the position of a kind of paternal figure to the young cast, some of whom weren’t even born when the real-life showdown took place and have scant knowledge of the time – a fact which, it turns out, has also informed the creative approach when revisiting the events of 30 years ago.

Dunster recalls: “When I was auditioning people I’d ask: ‘did you know about this?’, and they didn’t. They said: ‘I know about Blur and Oasis because my dad’s into them, but I didn’t know about this battle’. So, the audience (too) could be very split in terms of who knows the outcome and who doesn’t.”

But whether or not theatregoers already know what ultimately happens, he says “I think you’ve just got to play the stakes of the characters on stage. And they get increasingly wound up and neurotic and frazzled by the competition they’ve found themselves locked in. It’s the biggest thing any of them had ever been part of.”

Saying that, he adds: “Having been to see Oasis last year in Heaton Park, it was incredible how there was a real mix of people, from 16 to 65, and everybody seemed to be as into it, and everybody seemed to know every word to every song.

“It would be great if we had a similarly broad range of ages (in the theatre). That would mean people will get different things from it. I’m not afraid of the nostalgic side of it: that’s really good fun, exploring a moment in time.”

Meanwhile Horne, who also saw the Mancunians on their triumphant 2025 reunion tour, points to the current “huge zeitgeist of 90s nostalgia”. And it’s true that right now the music, fashion and culture of the final decade of the 20^th Century is certainly enjoying a resurgence.

Between those who lived through the era, the music of the time being sought on streaming platforms and shared on social media, and with rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar keeping the grand tradition of the music feud alive, ‘The Battle’ should hopefully resonate with everyone who sees it.

“At the end of the day if you have even a passing interest in music, which most people do, there’s something in there for you,” Horne says. “I’m really excited to see what people think.

“I hope we deliver for audiences on a nostalgic level. And I also hope that we deliver for them in terms of making a really funny piece of theatre – one with a huge, hilarious twist.”

The Battle is at the Opera House, Manchester from 17 to 21 March 2026.

The post Matthew Dunster and Mathew Horne on bringing the ultimate battle of the bands to the stage appeared first on Quays Life.

Could you introduce us to Murder at Midnight?

Jason: “It’s a brand new comedy-thriller from a great writer called Torben Betts, a follow-up to his play Murder in the Dark. It’s a blend of razor sharp wit and gripping murder mystery, full of twists and turns, dark humour, and chilling suspense. Throw in a suitcase full of cash, a bunch of ravenous dogs, a chainsaw and an unsolved murder, and what’s not to like? If Tarantino was to write a play, this would be it. And I can guarantee it will keep the audience guessing almost until the curtain comes down”.

Tell us about your intriguingly-named character, Jonny the Cyclops

Jason: “He’s such a colourful character, who lives in a luxury Kent mansion, where the play is set. Essentially he’s a one-eyed drug dealer, pig farmer, and notorious gangland killer, whose past is catching up with him fast. Everyone in the play is hiding something, not least Jonny. We also meet his mum, his girlfriend, his trigger-happy sidekick, a vicar, and a nervous burglar dressed as a clown. It’s a heady blend, and I can’t wait to bring Jonny to life”.

You go back a long way with the director, Philip Franks

Jason: “I do. He played Sergeant Craddock to my PC Mike Bradley back in our Heartbeat days, when we spent several happy years up in Leeds filming the show. And he’s become not just a dear friend but a terrific director as well. So it’s lovely to be working with him again. And I’ve wanted to work with Original Theatre since they started 20 years ago, so it’s great we’ve finally made it happen”.

There are also some fellow TV stalwarts in the cast, including Susie Blake, Max Bowden and Katie McGlynn

Jason: “It’s a fantastic company, we’re really blessed. When you get to work with people with naturally funny bones it’s just such a delight. We’re still in rehearsals but we get on famously already, so I’m sure that’ll continue out on tour. We’ve got a great support cast as well, an outstanding bunch of actors. I think one of the challenges will be that we might have too much fun, and I’ll be struggling not to laugh the whole time”.

Do you enjoy the touring life?

Jason: “I do, and I know a lot of the venues we’re visiting very well. They’re just right for the show, intimate enough that the audience will feel they’re really part of the show. I’m looking forward to seeing how audiences in different parts of the country react, and keeping them on the edges of their seats. I’m really excited to get out there”.

What was the initial instigator for you becoming an actor?

Jason: “I always knew I wanted to act, every since being a young boy. We had a dressing up trunk full of funny hats and props, which I loved playing with then and have ever since. I’ve been fortunate in my career, starting off at the Royal Shakespeare Company and then getting to explore a huge range of roles on screen as well”.

Do any particular roles stand out over the years?

Jason: “I love variety and mixing things up. I’ve got to play everything from a knight in shining armour in Gawain and the Green Knight, to a gay punk in Young Soul Rebels, to a sociopathic serial killer in Above Suspicion. I even played Tony Blair on stage in the satire Follow My Leader, which was a riot. It’s difficult to pinpoint a favourite, but I just try to bring humanity to all of them. The most interesting role is always the next one, and Jonny is certainly interesting!”

What do you most often get recognised for?

Jason: “I still get people talking to me about Heartbeat, and saying they’d love the show to come back. I also often have people ask me about my character in Casualty, who had bipolar disorder, and they’ll say he helped them to understand the condition better, which is lovely. But every conversation is different. It’s still the strangest thing when you’re on holiday somewhere and someone will walk up to you and say how much they enjoyed Above Suspicion”.

How do you relax away from acting?

Jason: “I live in the Cotswolds, and I love being surrounded by nature. I probably need to get out more, because I spend more time talking to animals than people. But I also love to keep fit whether it’s going to the gym or climbing, and I read a lot as well. When you’re on stage or filming a TV show it can be very intense, so living in a rural setting is the ideal way to get away from it, and spark new ideas”.

Murder at Midnight is at Lowry, Salford from 19-24 January 2026.

The post ‘If Tarantino was to write a play, this would be it’ – Jason Durr appeared first on Quays Life.

You recently finished your run at the Royal Court in ‘Deaf Republic’. How did it feel to share your work as a sign language poet on such a prominent stage?

Zoe: “It was an amazing privilege to work on such a high-profile production with Dead Centre, with that level of production values. The set, aerial, puppetry, and technical spec of the production was impressive and the reception from Deaf audiences was great. Some people have commented that this was their favourite translation of the Deaf Republic poem. The whole thing was really unbelievably inspiring and I hope the production builds on its success and continues to thrive as a production. Everyone has said they absolutely loved the set, the signed dialogue and loved the translation. It is a huge honour to receive this praise from the poet author. Following Deaf Republic’s successful opening run at the Royal Court, I know there is a lot of enthusiasm for further performances after the Dublin run and I hope to see it on tour in the future. The whole experience was incredibly positive”.

You’ve also worked as a consultant for the RSC. What do you think is most important for hearing people to understand about representation of the Deaf community on stage?

Zoe: “I think the most important thing for hearing people to understand is that in order to work in a production with dialogue in BSL, they would need to already have a grasp of this language because if hearing actors don’t know sign language already, it’s not possible to teach them a language from scratch that will have any believability, certainly to a Deaf audience. Also, a hearing perspective on the Deaf experience can only ever be superficial, so it’s vital to have Deaf creatives in collaboration and there are plenty of hearing actors who are CODAs (child of a deaf adult), or have Deaf family or who otherwise sign, who can be cast alongside Deaf characters (played by Deaf actors), so there is credibility for those relationships/interactions and this is where, I believe, so many productions fail, because they don’t think of or understand this.

“Importantly, casting panels need to have Deaf representation so that they can accurately assess a person’s sign language skills or proclivity for taking on and learning some BSL and often this is totally overlooked by an all hearing casting team, which is hugely frustrating, as it adds a huge burden and extra work, not to mention the time cost associated with teaching BSL, additional time for script translation and necessity for BSL consultancy roles to support actors with text translation and I feel like we need to move away from this model of using BSL consultants as the ticket to achieving cultural sensitivity when there is so much more involved in achieving cultural credibility than merely ensuring the dialogue is signed well. It’s about how events happen, how characters relate to one another in the context of the play”.

Following Eloise Pennycott’s New Views competition win, Barrier(s) was first staged as a short play at The National Theatre. How has it developed for this new production?

Zoe: “So, I didn’t get to see The National Theatre staging of Barrier(s) after it won the New Views competition, but I know it has evolved a lot since then and of course Eloise has written more scenes for the play and the characters of Katie and Alana’s backstories have developed a lot and influence the play’s overall narrative arch and the building of the world of the play”.

Can you tell us a bit about your character Katie? What drew you to this role?

Zoe: “My character, Katie, like me, is profoundly Deaf, from a strong Deaf family that has a multigenerational line of Deafness in their genes. Katie talks about the barriers her parents and grandparents faced and this resonates with me, as someone coming from a long line of Deafness. Katie is not a saint and she’s not the perfect victim. It’s really nice for me to play a complex character who isn’t perfect. She’s cheeky and I think people either love her, or hate her, which is what real life is like, and it makes her a fun character to play. There are of course some really tough themes in the play and Katie goes through a lot, so I have empathy for her”.

How does it feel to be the first actor to create this role in the full-length version of the play?

Zoe: “I feel really lucky to be offered the opportunity to play and improvise during rehearsals. It has been a really fun process and it’s been amazing to be able to discuss directly with Eloise, the writer of the play, and the creative team throughout the writing and rehearsal process, to have all the differing perspectives that feed into the narrative and the two characters themselves. It’s been a real privilege to be part of the first production of the play and its future legacy”.

Barrier(s) explores connection through language and its barriers. How do you think this theme will resonate with audiences?

Zoe: “I think the modern world of social media, people being censored on and offline with what they can and cannot say – language being policed? – current police arrests for people using particular language etc. means that the play’s themes of connection through language and its barriers are very relevant.

“Also, the way big corporations manipulate through language and the current rush to collect and feed AI language models influences and changes how we all use language and connect. Hopefully audiences will watch Barrier(s) and understand that no matter the language divides we may have, we can still jump over these divisions and connect meaningfully with one another without risk or harm.

“It’s great to see Alana’s character being proactive and learning BSL and we see Alana’s language skills develop through the play, like a kind of timelapse, as the play covers an extended period of time that scenes jump through. I think this could inspire audiences, and maybe some people will make that step to be proactive themselves and learn sign language”.

What would you like people to know about the play?

Zoe: “Prepare to be surprised. Prepare to have your mind opened, to discover a world maybe unknown to you, an extra layer of intersectionality you’d not yet considered.
The play is a love story, a lesbian romance about the meeting of two people. I’ve personally worked hard to create scenes that feel authentic, truthful, soft and loving – so you have that to look forward to!”

Deafinitely Theatre’s production of Eloise Pennycott‘s Barrier(s) is at Home, Manchester from 6-8 November 2025. Age recommendation 14+ The play is also touring to The Rep, Birmingham, before ending its run at Camden People’s Theatre in November.

Read our review.

The post Actor Zoë McWhinney – “Maybe Some People Will Make That Step To Learn Sign Language” appeared first on Quays Life.

The show is co-produced by pop superstars Steps and features their most beloved songs, prompting Rebecca to add with a smile: “Oh and it has the best music you’ll ever hear! Audiences are taken on a journey and they will leave the theatre on an absolute high.”

She knows what she’s talking about. Here & Now – which is written by Shaun Kitchener and directed by Rachel Kavanaugh – had its world premiere at The Alexandra in Birmingham last year and played for three weeks after it became the theatre’s fasting-selling show ever, with Lock earning glowing reviews for her performance as shop worker Caz.

“Like the audience she goes on a real journey,” the actress teases of a character who in an employee at seaside superstore Better Best Bargains (as a nod to Steps’ 1999 smash hit Better Best Forgotten). “She works there with three friends and at the beginning of the show it looks like Caz has everything she’s ever dreamed of, then her world is shattered.”

Lock is careful not to give spoilers, but it turns out that the shelves of the store are stocked with lies and betrayal and the summer of love (another Steps reference) that Caz and her mates have been dreaming of suddenly seems like a tragedy (ditto!).

She’s no stranger to musical theatre, with a vast CV that includes Elf, Curtains, Heathers, Mary Poppins and Mamma Mia! to name just a few. As with the latter, she feels Here & Now is a relatable story “with diverse characters that everyone can relate to”.

With a smile Rebecca adds: “And I love playing Caz, so I’m so happy that I get to do it again for the tour. I get to do comedy, I get to do pathos, I laugh, I cry and I get to sing all these amazing songs.”

Asked to pick a favourite number in the show, she settles on the slowed-down version of Love’s Got a Hold on My Heart. Then there’s the megamix at the end. “Everyone is up and dancing, and they have the biggest smiles on their faces. And I think we all need a show like this at the moment, with high drama, escapism, bright colours, happiness, some silliness and a bit of campery. And of course some banging tunes.”

Those banging tunes come courtesy of the UK’s most successful mixed-gender band ever, who have 22 million record sales and 500 million streams under their collective belts since they came to fame in 1997.

Their numerous hits include the song that gives the musical its title, prompting Jacqui Dubois to quip: “It’s the perfect show for here and now because it’s so joyful, and we all need some joy in our lives. It’s heartwarming, it’s funny, it’s got a bit of everything and you can share it with all the generations in your family.”

Jacqui plays Vel, who is one of Caz’s best friends at Better Best Bargains and about whom she says: “Vel’s been there for 25 years and she’s very loyal, both as a friend and to her work. She’s very warm and likeable, and like the rest of the characters she’s so relatable because she’s an everywoman.”

New to the Here & Now cast for the tour, Jacqui’s theatre credits include The Wizard of Oz, The Lion King, Rent, The Full Monty and Fame. A seasoned tourer, she’s looking forward to taking the show around the country. “I love travelling and it’s great to visit all these different places and different audiences,” Dubois says, adding with a laugh: “In Liverpool or Glasgow, for example, they tend to be a bit more raucous.”

When she toured in Fame she starred opposite Ian ‘H’ Watkins, who is in Steps alongside Claire Richards, Faye Tozer, Lee Latchford-Evans and Lisa Scott-Lee. “So it’s a nice reunion,” she grins, adding that the band have been very hands-on with the show to make sure it has a strong story.

“The script is so good,” Duboi says. “When I first read it I was so immersed in the story, which really sets it apart. And obviously the music is great. As with all great pop bands, Steps songs are really catchy and they stick in your mind.”

Her faves? That’d be opening number Stomp, Last Thing on My Mind (“which is so much fun, with lots of trolleys and baskets and things”) and The Way You Make Me Feel.

Rosie Singha, who stars as Neeta, is a big fan of 5,6,7,8. “It reminds me of school discos,” she says, “and doing all the dance moves. I also love Better the Devil You Know and Scared of the Dark, which is my biggest number in the show where Neeta gets to let loose and have loads of fun.”

She already knew Lee before she signed on for Here & Now, since they were both in & Juliet on tour together. “It’s been nice seeing him again, and Steps are really behind the show. They want it to be brilliant, which it is.”

Rosie describes Neeta as “a true sweetheart and an optimist” who has a crush on fellow staffer Ben. “Never in her wildest dreams does she believe that she would ever be good enough for him, but she’s got such a tight-knit group of friends for support. They have the most amazing dynamic, where they’re silly together and they can tell each other anything.”

Of South Asian heritage, Rosie is proud to be in the show because: “You don’t often see South Asians on stage, plus this show has such a gorgeously diverse cast. On top of that, all of the characters are just living their lives with real-world troubles and fears. Audiences will see people that they know or can identify with.”

This is only her second professional role after & Juliet and she’s pinching herself.

“I’m really excited and I feel very humbled to be amongst this incredible cast, and it’s the sort of escapism that we need right now. The real world can be pretty scary at times, especially at the minute, so it’s nice that we can provide people with a night out where they can forget everything, have some drama and some fun and a dance at the end.”

Played by Blake Patrick Anderson, Robbie is another store worker. “And he’s a bit of a playboy and a bit of a commitment-phobe. Caz inspires the group to take a chance on falling in love, so he goes on that journey but his coping mechanism is definitely to be silly. He’s a really fun character to play.”

Blake was in the original cast and was part of the workshops, admitting with mock embarrassment: “Back then I didn’t know Steps at all, apart from one or two songs from my sisters growing up. That’s been a brilliant part of this – getting to learn about their music and how much people love it.”

Returning to the role for the UK is a joy because: “We had such a short run in Birmingham, so we were still very much exploring and finding the characters. Knowing that I’m going to sit in this character for the next few months is really exciting and the reaction to the show was insanity beyond what I could have imagined! I remember on opening night, as soon as the overture started playing the screams were deafening.”

Blake’s many musical theatre credits include Be More Chill, Gatsby The Musical, Rent and Closer To Heaven. This show is particularly special to him, as he explains: “For me as a queer man, there are often stories about moving to the big city and how you have to go and find your community. But Here & Now is about people who have found their community at home. I’m really excited to take this show on tour because it means that a real-life Robbie somewhere is going to see it in his hometown.”

Blake’s favourite song in the show is Say You’ll Be Mine. As for why he feels Steps have such a huge LGBTQ following, he muses: “There’s a lot of camp to their songs and they’re all about having a good time. Having met the band, they are so open and inclusive and so lovely, which is as much a credit to them as it is to their music.”

River Medway is another of the musical’s returnees. A familiar face from the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, he plays Jem – a Better Best Bargains customer, Robbie’s love interest and a drag queen. “So it’s the perfect part for me! Jem has his own drag persona, which the audience gets to see when he performs Chain Reaction. Maybe I’m biased but it’s my favourite number in the show.”

Since Drag Race River has toured the country and starred in Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch and Death Drop: Back in the Habit. He was hooked in by Here & Now because: “Steps’ music was a big part of my childhood. I trained in musical theatre and when this role came up it was like ‘I love musicals, I love pop music, I love Steps and the character is a drag queen. I’m in!'”

There was another reason why River said yes to the role. “With all the other shows I’ve done before, I’ve been in drag the whole time, whereas here I’m actually playing a real person who is also a drag queen. When we did it in Birmingham last year, it was the perfect amalgamation of so many things all coming together and with an amazing team. The fact that people like Shaun and Rachel, who have done such amazing work before, are involved reinforces just how good a show it really is.”

Echoing the sentiments of his castmates, River feels: “It’s a fantastic musical that has a lot of heart and tells a lot of really great stories that I think everyone can relate to. It’s about all these different types of people from all different walks of life – different age ranges and ethnicities and body types and sexualities.”

He grins. “And let’s not forget all those amazing Steps songs! They’ve always been really welcoming to everyone and their shows have always been about having fun and being yourself. The same is true of Here & Now.”

Here & Now the Steps Musical is at the Opera House, Manchester from 2 to 13 September 2025 before continuing on tour. Read our review

The post Behind the scenes with the cast of Here & Now the new Steps’ Musical appeared first on Quays Life.

After scooping the award for Best New Play In 2024 the production has been updated following last year’s UEFA EURO tournament to reflect Southgate’s final chapter as England manager.    

Quays Life meets its stars Gwilym Lee (Gareth Southgate), Liz White (Dr Pippa Grange), Josh Barrow (Jordan Pickford) and Jude Carmichael (Marcus Rashford) to find out more:

Q: How challenging is it to play such well-known characters who are so prevalent in the media?

Josh Barrow (Jordan Pickford): “You don’t get much in terms of characterisation when they’re on the pitch and in the post-match interviews, so you have to go digging for scenes like in the locker room when it’s just them. You have to make your choices with the characterisation and that’s when you get to play around a little bit.”

Gwilym Lee (Gareth Southgate): “I think we benefited during Southgate’s tenure from them opening up to the England fans with social media – for instance, the YouTube videos that go behind the scenes at St George’s Park. They are really illuminating because when you watch them do post-match interviews, they present a version of themselves which is quite considered for the media, whereas when you see them in those videos when they’re with the inflatables in the swimming pool or just messing around, that’s when you see them kind of free and without constraints.”

Q: Gwilym, while you’re not a caricature of Gareth Southgate, how much study did you do to create such a convincing performance?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “You start with the outside in when you’re working with a real person, which is kind of the opposite way around to how I’d usually approach a character. The trick is to find the ‘why’s’ – constantly ask that question – the ticks and the twitches and the mannerisms – I wonder why he moves like and what is it about his character that makes him move like that? 

We’re not impersonators, we’re actors and the aim of an actor is hopefully to find the humanity of a character and also to find yourself in a character. This is very much my version of Gareth.”

Q: The staging is so impressive, featuring a huge round stage with three revolving segments. How much of a challenge is that when you’re performing?

Josh Barrow (JP): “We had a whole portion of the rehearsals to learn how to use the revolve, as it’s three tiers – so one goes this way, the other goes this way, the other goes that way. We have to really practice on how to walk on it.”

Q: Jude, how does it feel knowing you’re going to be playing Marcus Rashford a stone’s throw from Old Trafford?

Jude Carmichael (MR): “When my agent called me to say I’d got the job, it was like the fear came through. I was thinking ‘when we go to Manchester, everyone’s gonna be like ‘Go on then!’”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “When you get closer to the weekend, you start to get some football crowds in and it’s really fun – you have people who react when the players come out and Leicester City is mentioned or Manchester City etc and they go yay or boo and it’s really fun.”

Josh Barrow (JP): “We feed off it. When you go to the theatre, you sit down, you watch the show, you applaud the actors etc – but I think with this, it almost demands participation. There’s laughs and cheers even boos but then it culminates in this a massive party at the end with ‘Sweet Caroline’ and I think the more a crowd lean into that and the more a crowd really give themselves over to you, the more fun it is. When we do get some football fans in an audience, that end moment is just wild, almost like a rock concert.”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “Some people come not knowing anything about football and it resonates on a different level, and then there’s the polar opposite – people who come expecting it to be a football play, which it is, but then it’s also kind of a Trojan horse, it’s about so much more. I think the idea of bringing in new audiences is a real bonus.”

Q: This play feels so special because while we know the outcome, the audience still watch with a sense of hope, thinking ‘maybe, just maybe’. Does that translate to you all on stage?

Josh Barrow (JP): “You clock audience members during some of the penalties – and even though everybody knows how it goes, as it was such a big moment – everyone is sat watching gripped and is so engaged. It’s just perfect.”

Jude Carmichael (MR): “You kind of get swept up in it. While you know the outcome, obviously, you know what it means to be a fan watching and then even the aftermath.  Whether that be good or bad, you can’t help but get caught up in it.”

Q: Have any of you performed at the Lowry before?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “I was part of a tour years ago where we did King Lear up there with Derek Jacobi. I’m looking forward to going back, I love it! It’s a beautiful theatre and a perfect match to the Olivier Theatre at the National, it’s a very similar kind of space. It’s a great city and it’s going to be fun taking it to a new audience up there and seeing how they’ll respond to it.”

Q: There are so many themes in this play – what do you want audiences to take away from it?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “It was very interesting watching Gareth Southgate’s lecture recently and it feels like everything that was touched upon in that lecture is the heart of this play. It’s about resilience, belief and giving that resilience and belief to people.”

Liz White (Dr PG): “Masculinity is an interesting part of it, too. I’ve really enjoyed researching Pippa because I get to listen to all her strategies and her approaches for a better, calmer life and one that’s filled with deeper joy and deeper loss as well. She talks about how to lose. This sometimes gets a laugh and I can imagine that sounds quite defeatist but actually, what she’s just saying is, you can look at it in a very reflective way and let that feed the way you approach your next battle or your next match. I feel kind of infused by her lessons and I hope people watching it might look at the way they approach things in a more whole, holistic way.”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “I think one of my favourite things of Pippa’s is the idea of winning deep and winning shallow and there’s a difference to just winning at all costs. It’s like winning with integrity and winning with depth.”

Liz White (DR PG): “I feel like that means that actually, if you got out there and played with integrity after all your prep and put the effort in, regardless of the outcome, you’ve won.”

Q: Sport and theatre have many parallels, in terms of the shared experience – this is something the play explores so well, isn’t it?

Gwilym Lee (GS): “We need these national moments of togetherness because when have them, you realise how brilliant this country is and how great the people in it are and it’s a divided world at the moment, even at times a divided society. When Gareth wrote that Dear England letter, it was a galvanizing moment, encouraging people to come together. There’s something about this country and when we do come together, it’s brilliant and has power and strength and it can be glorious. I think that’s why this play has such power because it taps into that collective consciousness and hopefully that’s what audiences take away from it. There’s hope, there’s joy, there’s power in being together.”

Liz White (Dr PG): “On a very base level, all of those things say you’re not alone. Someone else is there having the same experience as you, it’s so powerful.”

Gwilym Lee (GS): “There are a lot of parallels, sport is about performance, we’re dealing with fear. I was scared about taking on this job, I read the script and thought ‘yes, you’ve got to take on your fears and go for it’. Put yourself in the uncomfortable position and see what happens!”

Dear England opens at Lowry on Thursday 29 May and runs until Sunday 29 June.

The post Dear England cast reveal their approach to playing well known faces on stage appeared first on Quays Life.

Can you tell us about your new show, ‘Toxic’?

Nathaniel: “It is a semi autobiographical show about two queer people in their early 30s who meet and fall in love and the polite version is they mess it up but the non-polite version is they f**k it up.

“After my ‘First Time’ show I had come out about my HIV experience quite spectacularly and I had such a great response with standing ovations. However, my personal life was not….my career life was on a high and my personal life was the complete opposite.

“I was stuck at the end of a very toxic and at the time abusive relationship and after I left that relationship I wanted to delve more into that setback and the fact it was all a lie. The ‘First Time’ was all true but obviously when you write a story you crash when it ends. But that wasn’t the end of that story, so I wanted to delve back into it and explore what had happened in my own life. I started to speak to other people and do creative workshops with other queer people and I soon found out that there were common themes and most of us had found that we were carrying extra trauma from things that had happened in our lives which was showing up in our relationships.

“As queer people we have to deal with transphobia, homophobia, queerphobia and racism in the community as well as in the country there’s misogyny and HIV stigma and extra things that are thrown in there. We watch them fall in love within all of these issues within society and see the red flags that they don’t see and they find a very powerful trauma bond. It is a very hopeful show and relatable if you have been in a toxic relationship before. The show ultimately is about queer resilience and showing that there is hope and that you cannot only survive these things, you can thrive from these things”.

What can the audience expect from this show compared to your last?

Nathaniel: “It is set in the underground Manchester queer rave scene. The minute you are in the space you are confronted by the beautiful set, lighting and visuals with original music by a local musician called Shar (Charlotte Barber), which mixes a lot of Britney Spears songs, as we can’t ignore the title ‘Toxic’ without Mrs Spears being thrown in there.

“It is a more serious play and messier play than the first one and it dares to sit in the messiness and complexity of life. It doesn’t necessarily give suggestions on how to deal with life and no answers.

“I wanted to capture the queer community as magic. They are the wittiest and kindest, most compassionate people in the world. It is because we overcome so much and that resilience is there, we have to go out into the world and say we are proud, right? We have Pride celebrations because we have to actively fight the shame that is put upon us but behind that glittery curtain of Pride I know that many people in our community still hide with all that crippling shame.

“Hopefully it’s for anyone who has felt shame in their lives or who has had these things that have impacted their personal relationships and make them feel seen and validated by that, because it is really important for us to acknowledge that LGBTQ life isn’t always Pride parades and that there are challenges that we do face”.

How do you feel about using your own experiences in your work?

Nathaniel: “I use my personal stories in this play. ‘First Time’ was easier to write as an autobiography as it was almost 15 years in the past. But with this show it was very much more recent and I was very clear from the start that this isn’t a revenge art piece against any of my ex partners or about saying they were bad people.

“One in 4 gay men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetimes above the age of 16, which is almost as high as hetrosexual women, but it isn’t something we talk about as there is a real stigma and shame attached to it. When I found myself in this abusive situation I found it difficult to label the abuse as I felt partially responsible. The longer I was in that situation the longer I felt I was potentially behaving in ways that I thought wasn’t an expectation of myself and also abusive.

“It states at the start and end that all of what happens in the show has happened to someone although it’s not all my story. All of the elements are true and have happened to someone and come from other people’s life.

“Writing and performing for my trauma is part of my therapy to share my experiences. Some people do it in private but I do it on stage. So I think it is really important to not just recreate a list of awful things that have happened to me on stage as it isn’t healthy to relive that. I wanted to use this play to show how we are going to work through that and share a message for others through the work that we make”.

What is the goal for the audience?

Nathaniel: “I really want people to come out of the show and have real compassion for themselves and to really look at some of the things that have happened in their own lives with compassion.

“In the modern Pride movement and more generally in the world there is a space with forced positivity and it’s unhealthy. I think it’s really important to have spaces to grieve, to get angry, to be rageful, to sort of pick things apart and rebuild ourselves. Hopefully people feel moved and feel less isolated if in particular they’ve experienced anything that they see in the show. The show deals with a lot of layers of different complicated themes such as HIV stigma around the time PREP came out – 2017 – when this couple met. We’re still living with that trauma and the magic.”

Why do you think it is important for your show to be performed now?

Nathaniel: “Drugs are present in the show and casual sex ,although it’s not a play necessarily about chem sex, which is a sort of slightly different issue within our community. I think what people don’t realise is that actually, you know, often we mask a lot of pain which some people don’t escape from as well. I mean you know, we’ve just seen that The Vivienne‘s family has come out and said that it was an overdose of ketamine. In London, three men die a month from overdoses at parties and those are the ones we know of.

“I think one of the things as a community we are always a little bit fearfull of doing is showing the bad things, because it gives the homophobes and the haters fuel to the fire. We try to cover it and suggest everything is fine and we’re all great, but that’s doing a disservice. So, that’s why I want to bring this up again, as it is important we don’t forget the shame this community has been through”.

Toxic is at Lowry, Salford from 16 -19 April 2025.

The post Nathaniel J Hall draws on lived experience to explore toxic relationships in his new play appeared first on Quays Life.

Coronation Street fans will recognise you as reporter Suki Waters. If you could choose your own storyline to return to Weatherfield what would it be?

Laura: “Suki loves to stir the pot, always after the best story and it’s got her in trouble before now. She’s been thrown out of a couple of houses on the street as it is! I do love playing the villain and would definitely like to explore this more. Maybe she’s due a fling or two, but I wouldn’t like to say who with!”

This is your second time working with HER productions what is it about the company and this play in particular that attracted you back?

Laura: “Hannah and the team have been producing really high quality and exciting theatre for a long time now, I will always jump at the chance to work with them again”.

HER productions is well known for adding a unique twist to classic plays. What can audiences expect from this new production of Blithe Spirit?

Laura: “Well, I would get in trouble if I shared any spoilers! But we can guarantee it will be a very fun night out, we are in constant fits of giggles in the rehearsal room.”

Can you tell us a bit about your character?

Laura: “Violet Bradman, she’s an attention starved socialite, a snob and a bit of a flirt! She’s great fun to play!”

Do you have any real life experiences of ghosts and the supernatural?

Laura: “When I was first going to acting classes in Manchester, there was an old building in Ardwick we used to rehearse in. There were rumours it was haunted and few people had seen an ‘old woman’ appear. I remember the clock spinning round really fast one evening, we were all a bit freaked! I’m more into angels than I am ghosts.”

What do you enjoy about performing at Hope Mill theatre?

Laura: “I’ve had the privilege of performing at Hope Mill a number of times now, it has a gorgeous atmosphere and a wonderful team who work there. Its a ‘Manchester gem’ for sure”.

What is it like to perform a farce in such an intimate space?

Laura: “I prefer a smaller space, I’m really looking forward to feeling the energy the audience brings each night”.

What would you say to someone who has never seen the play before and is thinking about coming to see the show?

Laura: “It will be a very entertaining evening for all ages! It’s a brilliant story and there are some hilarious performances from the cast.”

Blithe Spirit opens at Hope Mill Theatre on February 12 and runs until the 22 before heading to The Dukes in Lancaster from February 25 to March 1 2025.

The post Laura Littlewood talks Noel Coward, Coronation Street and Ghosts appeared first on Quays Life.

Can you tell us briefly what Husk is about?

Rupert: “A man is released from prison and goes in search of the man responsible for putting him in there. The story spans over 30 years with varying timelines and hopefully the audience will be second guessing right up to the last scenes as to what has actually happened to these characters”.

Many people will know you for your acting. What led you to want to write and why particularly this play?

Rupert: “I’ve written a few short films and a low budget feature but this is my first play. I really enjoy writing and the benefit of writing a play and casting myself in it is that I can hopefully write something authentic to me! You can come up with a simple idea, put pen to paper and then one day you’re in a room full of the most amazing cast and crew and they’re all there to realise your simple idea. That is humbling and magical to me.”

You’ve talked in the past about your own battle with alcohol addiction. How much of the play is autobiographical?

Rupert: “In a literal sense, not much at all. The play follows a man who has been utterly beaten by life. He’s homeless for a period, he’s had a very troubled past and nothing has worked out for him. I’ve been much more fortunate, thank god! As an allegory for escaping the prison of addiction and finding hope out of hopelessness, I guess it’s a little autobiographical. When I quit alcohol, I felt an overwhelming sense of freedom. In fact I got my daughter to write the word ‘free’ which I then got tattooed on my right wrist -my drinking hand and a reminder in case I ever slip”.

Did you have any concerns about portraying a character you had created?

Rupert: “I had and have many concerns. I watch the other actors in rehearsal and I think to myself. ‘What a rare thing! They’re all amazing! There are no weak links in this cast’ and then the next thought arrives ‘well if there is a weak link, then it must be me!’. But, in general, I have just approached my character the way I would if I hadn’t written it. All the same work applies”.

How much have you been involved in the casting?

Rupert: “I was totally involved with the casting process and it was extremely humbling seeing the extraordinary calibre of the actors auditioning for my play! Our incredible director Joe Houston and our amazing producer Hannah Ellis were very kind to include my opinions and I thank them for that”.

Has anything surprised you as the play has developed from page to stage?

Rupert: “Yes! Actors breathe life into characters that you never imagined. Their decisions and traits blend in with the words and create something so much more well-rounded and alive! The set design by Sorcha, the original score by Alec and the video projections by Grant elevate the world the characters inhabit and make the text richer and the story more magical. It’s a gift to me and I’ll never forget this communal experience.”

As a first time playwright what has been the biggest learning curve for you?

Rupert: “In the Bob Dylan song ‘A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall’ he sings the words ‘I’ll know my song well before I start singing’ – this resonates with me. You need to know your material inside out before you start running with it. I’ve written so many discarded ideas and you just have to wait and let the real stuff arrive in its own time. Don’t force it. And I think it’s important to trust all the other creatives around you and don’t be afraid to make mistakes….. ever.”

The story tackles a lot of hard-hitting issues. How important was it for you to have dark humour in there and how did you balance this with the serious subject matter?

Rupert: “I really try to add comedy to everything I write! People in everyday life are often very funny and our darkest moments are often navigated with copious amounts of gallows humour. The whole point of the play is to find a shred of light in an otherwise bleak darkness and that is also what the humour gives the drama, I hope”.

What are your hopes for the play and how audiences will respond?

Rupert: “I hope they laugh and are moved by the story. I hope they find it exciting and are desperate to find out the truth as it slowly unfolds. I hope they find the multimedia presentation of the piece dynamic and visceral. I hope they bloody love it!”

Are you working on anything else?

Rupert: “In November I will be directing the north west premier of the Mike Bartlett play ‘Cock’ at 53Two in Manchester. It’s a terrific play and I’m very excited to start on it”.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about the show?

Rupert: “Come and see it!”

Husk, written by Rupert Hill premieres at Hope Mill Theatre where it runs from 25-29 September 2024. Age guidance 16+

The post Rupert Hill on battling addiction and his play writing debut Husk appeared first on Quays Life.