CW: eating disorders, body image issues, dysmorphia
I interviewed Dr Luke Evans, the Member of Parliament for Bosworth, on a cold London morning via Zoom....
"The popularity of Derry Girls [demonstrates] that shows like this, with a good balance of witty humour and colourful characters, family dynamics and psychological insights, are the perfect blend to watch."
“I tend to be attracted to stories about outsiders,” Schwartz tells me at the beginning of our call, “about people who feel themselves not part of the culture or not part of the mainstream if you will, and are trying to figure out how to fit in, and what the cost is of doing so.”
"It’s a bit of a mad play, and a lot of quite mad things happen, because that’s what happens when you translate Victorian characters into the modern era."
It’s a strange feeling to stare into the void of a Zoom loading screen, waiting for a two-time Oscar winner to join the call. But that’s what I did one Sunday morning, counting the seconds until my interview with Cate Blanchett began.
"I think to write a play you’ve got to be constantly re-inspired. It requires so many exchanges between characters and demands inhabiting so many different psyches."
'The most thrilling moment so far was singing the opening ballad as a whole cast with the band for the first time. I’d never felt such a mix of excitement and nerves and awe all at once.'
“I don’t think the church should ever be bound to a political program. It is not a party organisation. But what the Church can do in a huge variety of ways, is to remind the world around of what matters about human beings. That maybe done as basic as organising a local route of visiting people in the suburb of Cardiff. It maybe somebody from the Church, perhaps the Pope addressing the whole nation. It maybe anything in between."
I wrote Quartet over a year and a half ago in early 2020, sitting down for an hour every morning to chip away at it as my way of getting through a term in lockdown. Having handed over my script to the trusted hands of Alex Foster (director) and our stunning actors, I was itching to find out how Quartet has developed.
Fresh off the plane from Tokyo, Paralympic gold medallist, two-time World Champion,European Champion, and current World Record Holder coxswain Erin Kennedy took sometime out...
