The pain of writing; the failures of AI LLMs; creators still lobbying UK government for protection from huge AI companies; new podcast episode: Paula Garfield MBE on The Vagina Monologues for Deafinitely Theatre
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1220: 13 July 2025
Editorial
American journalist, author and dramatist Gene Fowler famously said, “writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at the blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.”
That isn’t always the case in my experience, but it can sometimes feel that way. I’ve been writing lyrics over the past few weeks; sometimes it just flows out and it feels great and I feel so clever and talented, while other days it’s just not working and I feel like a fraud who has let everyone down.
I looked up the above quote in a dictionary of quotations which resides on my bookshelf with my rhyming dictionaries. I could have used a large language model (LLM)—the type of AI that uses a chat interface so you can ask it questions—but, like one or two teachers I’ve come across, if they don’t know the answer, they will often just make something up that sounds plausible.
I recently had a press release that included quotes that did come from our review and four stars which definitely did not. When I pointed this out to the sender, she was mortified and said she had asked ChatGPT to format the e-mail and hadn’t noticed it had added the stars.
I could ask Chat GPT or similar to write this editorial for me; in fact, for fun, I asked it to write it in the style of William Shakespeare:
“Lo, the American scribe and playwright, Gene Fowler, did once proclaim:
‘Writing is easy: thou must but sit, and gaze upon the barren page, until crimson drops do gather on thy brow.’
“Yet, by my troth, it is not ever thus. For oft hath it been my lot, these past weeks, to wrestle with the Muse in lyric’s form. At times, the words do tumble forth like summer rain, and I, flush’d with pride, do deem myself both cunning and inspired. Yet anon, the wellspring drieth up, and I am left a wretched fraud, fearing I have betrayed all trust reposed in me.”
That it can do this shows that it is very familiar with Shakespeare’s works and style, but what about a writer still in copyright, or even a living writer still trying to earn a living from their writing? In Shakespeare’s time, copyright rested in whoever published first or owned the prompt copies of scripts, but now, writing can be disseminated across the globe instantaneously. Is it right that huge multinational companies such as OpenAI or Google can ingest all of a writer’s works and profit from them without permission, acknowledgment or payment?
As Philip Fisher has written in his feature this week, a great many creators from novelists to painters to songwriters to computer programmers have been lobbying the UK government to legislate to protect them, but so far their pleas seem to have fallen on ears more responsive to the whims of the US president than the creative forces behind some of the largest sectors of the UK economy.
There is a lot more I’d like to say on the subject, but time and space is short, and we do have a new podcast episode this week, which I urge you to listen to.
Paula Garfield MBE co-founded Deafinitely Theatre in 2002, and her adaptation for both deaf and hearing audiences of V’s (formerly Eve Ensler) 1990s megahit The Vagina Monologues is on a very short tour over the next week. I spoke to her about the production and generally about her approach to creating bilingual productions.
As I mentioned briefly last week, the voice on the recording is that of the brilliant BSL interpreter Katy Yeoman-Owens, who joined us via Zoom from Australia. This was modern technology working for us and not seeking to replace us or to take credit for our work.
Gatsby in Pitlochry and Derby Elizabeth Newman on adapting and Sarah Brigham on directing The Great Gatsby at Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Derby Theatre
Hayman tours as Miller's Willy Loman Actor David Hayman and director Andy Arnold on the current touring production of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman
Lichfield Garrick has secured almost £300,000 from the National Lottery and Arts Council England for a three-year outreach project in the parish of Burntwood.
Wilko: Love and Death and Rock and Roll Jetty Productions Ltd and Canvey Rock Productions Ltd in association with and Cahoots Theatre Company at Leicester Square Theatre
Big Big Sky New Vic Theatre at New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Maiden Voyage (Mark Cortale, Dale Franzen, Jonathan Murray & Harvey Reese in association with Shared Experience) - Southwark Playhouse Elephant, London, –
Rough Magic (Shakespeare's Globe with Splendid Productions) - Shakespeare's Globe / Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London, –
The Daughter of Time (Excelsior Entertainment, Mercurius Theatre and Steven M Levy for Charing Cross Theatre Productions Ltd) - Charing Cross Theatre, London, –
House of Life (Sheep Soup, Tilted and Rodeo Productions) - Park Theatre, London, –
Tina – The Tina Turner Musical (Stage Entertainment, Joop van den Ende and Tali Pelman, in association with Tina Turner) - Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, –
Last Rites (Ad Infinitum) - Bristol Old Vic, Bristol, –
Calamity Jane (Jamie Wilson Productions / The Watermill Theatre) - Theatre Royal, Plymouth, –
FRIENDS! The Musical Parody (Mark Goucher, Matthew Gale and Oskar Eiriksson in association with The Barn Theatre Cirencester) - The Barn Theatre, Cirencester, –
Grace Pervades (Theatre Royal Bath and Second Half Productions) - Theatre Royal Bath / Ustinov Studio / the egg, Bath, –
The Koala Who Could (Nicoll Entertainment present a Rose Theatre, Lowry, Northern Stage, Unicorn Theatre and MAST Mayflower Studios production) - Norwich Theatre Playhouse, Norwich, –
The Koala Who Could (Nicoll Entertainment present a Rose Theatre, Lowry, Northern Stage, Unicorn Theatre and MAST Mayflower Studios production) - The Radlett Centre, Radlett, –
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Elliott & Harper Productions and Catherine Schreiber, based on the original Leeds Playhouse production) - Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury, –
SPLAT! (OfTheJackel) - South Hill Park Arts Centre and Wilde Theatre, Bracknell,
Only Human (Vaudeville Productions, Michael Vine, Andrew O’Connor, Paul Sandler and Derren Brown for Only Human Productions Ltd) - Milton Keynes Theatre, Milton Keynes, –
Top Hat - Chichester Festival Theatre, Chichester, –
Poor Clare (Orange Tree Theatre) - Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, –
The Comedy of Errors (Guildford Shakespeare Company & Yvonne Arnaud Theatre) - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, –
A Company of Rascals (Guildford Shakespeare Company & Yvonne Arnaud Theatre) - Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, –
Don’t Rock The Boat (The Mill at Sonning) - The Mill at Sonning Theatre, Reading, –
Make It Happen (National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Playful Productions and Neal Street Productions) - Dundee Rep Theatre, Dundee, –
