Parks, pubs and pitches: where to watch UK theatre in September

Shakespeare at a cricket ground, a festival in a bombed-out church and park-bench drama – plus more socially distanced shows to enjoy this monthAugust is over but there’s still time to enjoy open-air theatre season. Presented in York’s Rowntree Park, M…

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‘It’s a Herculean effort’: UK theatre festivals adapt for summer of Covid

From Brighton to Belfast, socially distanced performances are popping up in unexpected spaces, including the beach, a shopping centre and a church‘Dive in!” commanded the cover of Brighton fringe’s 2020 programme, listing more than 5,500 performances a…

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‘It stank of fags and booze and we loved it’ – theatres that made us, from Glasgow to Soho

In the final part of our series, UK arts figures give the lowdown on the precious places that nurtured their careers‘I’ve wrestled, climbed the walls and got a black eye there’Robert Softley Gale is the artistic director of Birds of Paradise.Laura Carm…

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‘We had illicit snogs backstage!’ Love letters to theatres

Kerry Godliman, Genevieve Barr, James Graham and more share memories of the theatres that changed their livesKerry Godliman’s new podcast, Memory Lane, is released by Entale in August. Read more about the White Bear.Hannah Khalil is under commission to…

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‘The National’s Olivier theatre needs bodies and music – it’s a modern cathedral’

Michael Longhurst, Rebecca Front, Nathaniel Martello-White and more discuss the theatres that have inspired and challenged themMichael Longhurst is the artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse. His National Theatre production of Amadeus is online unti…

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Fight a pigeon for your seat! Unforgettable theatre encounters

Susan Wokoma recalls plays backed by birdsong, Tallulah Brown found a fairytale in the reeds and Gregory Doran takes a trip back to LancasterRead the rest of our series on the theatres that made us Tallulah Brown’s play When the Birds Come was at the E…

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Honk if you’re laughing: drive-in gigs aim to accelerate comedy industry

While they wait for clubs to reopen, standups are returning to the stage in car parks, with audiences tuning in on the radioIn his new Netflix special, US standup Dave Chappelle reflected on the drive-in comedy shows that have sprung up while clubs are…

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Vault festival 2020: comedy and theatre shows to see

London’s eight-week underground arts fest returns to Waterloo and the South Bank in January. Here’s a dozen picks to get started …James McNicholas: The Boxer30-31 JanuaryThe former Beasts sketch comic should have been a contender for the 2019 Edinburgh…

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Boulevard theatre, London’s new Soho venue, announces first shows

State-of-the-art West End theatre opens its doors with a season including plays by Cormac McCarthy and Lucy PrebbleA “novel in dramatic form” by Cormac McCarthy, a revival of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect and dramas directed by Kathy Burke and Yaël Farber …

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Comic Strip’s riotous Soho club reborn as state-of-the-art theatre

New Boulevard theatre aims to awaken area’s rebel spirit in the building that hosted Eddie Izzard and Rik Mayall in the 80sA tiny new state-of-the-art theatre seeking to capture the “rebellious” spirit of London’s Soho is to open in the building where …

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