Culture Secretary / Prime Minister on theatre; AI again: scams and web site help; reviews of podcast guests' productions; interview with Birmingham Fierce Festival AD
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1284: 4 October 2026
Editorial
According to The Stage newspaper this week, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said that comments claiming she “doesn’t understand theatre” have “driven her up the wall”, responding with the almost Trumpian claim that “her administration had given the arts the biggest boost of any single parliament in the history of UK democracy”.
This may be true, although Philip Fisher in his feature has pinned his hopes on a previous Culture Secretary, later to become our Mayor here in Manchester, and now the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham. I haven’t yet run into either of them in a theatre in Manchester, although I did once see Burnham in Costa in Salford Quays—and I did wonder, when two black, unmarked police cars and one liveried one hurtled past my bus the other evening with sirens blazing, whether he was in one of them, perhaps on his way from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool to Number 10 North in Manchester.
Amongst the radical, Daily Telegraph-shocking announcements made by our relatively new PM, I haven’t heard anything directly related to theatre and the arts, but if he does manage to bring down the cost of living and cost of energy, that will benefit both theatres and potential ticket buyers.
However I wasn’t sure about the message sent by him coming on stage at the conference to The Farm’s “All Together Now”, a great song by a great Liverpool band, but it’s about soldiers in the World War I trenches going over the top into No Man’s Land and probable annihilation…
AI continues to make the news, and you can blame the AI companies for your next computer being either considerably more expensive or much lower in spec than it would have been a year ago, plus it is responsible for a lot of ‘slop’ on YouTube and social media. We rarely get replies to our social media posts, but there are a few accounts that often respond to us with a basic summary of our article linked to and then an ‘opinion’, which is a classic formula for an AI post.
However, there’s a scam to beware of if you are an author. I’ve had a few of these e-mails allegedly from book groups who want to feature one of my books: one was about a book by a completely different David Chadderton—I only knew of the one who wrote about air conditioning on Amazon, but it seems there is a third—but this week I got one about one of my books. I do believe that my books can be very useful in the right context, but I can’t imagine any book group wanting to discuss a book of drama games and exercises.
But these e-mails follow the same formula as those posts on X: summarise the description of the book on the back cover and explain how their members would be excited by it. I asked Google’s Gemini AI model to tell me how the scam worked (enjoying the irony), and apparently, at some point they would ask for some money for expenses.
On the other hand, AI can be very useful for specific tasks. This week, with the help of DuckAI (from the privacy-respecting DuckDuckGo search engine), I finally solved an issue with our server that was causing some of our pages to load too slowly, especially the homepage.
We don’t have a new podcast episode this week, but we do have reviews of two productions whose directors have recently featured on the podcast talking about these same productions: Anthony Almeida’s production of Othello at HOME Manchester and Cal McCrystal’s The 39 Steps at Derby Theatre.
However, we do have a new interview in written form from Andrew Cowie, who spoke to Clayton Lee, Artistic Director of Birmingham’s biennial Fierce Festival of experimental performance.
North WestSouth WestSouth EastNorthern IrelandMidlandsNorth EastScotlandWalesNon-UKTouring
Louise Dearman will play Grizabella in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats when it goes on a major UK and Ireland tour.
The Royal Shakespeare Company has revealed details of its summer 2027 programme which features award-winning Elizabeth Debicki in her RSC debut as Richard II.
Joe Flavin, director of the Core at Corby Cube, is to leave the venue in October to take up the role of director at the Cresset Centre in Peterborough.
Tru Menier Chocolate Factory with Seaview, OHenry Productions, Mickey Liddell & Pete Shilaimon and A Dog Named Beckett Productions at Menier Chocolate Factory
The Shroudmaker Ahmed Masoud and PalArt Collective at Pleasance Theatre, London
El-Manshiyyeh The Palestinian National Theatre (El-Hakawati) and PalArt Collective at The Pleasance, London
Hanna Shammas Takes it to Heart Hanna Shammas, Palestine Comedy Club and PalArt Collective at Pleasance Theatre, London, Studio
Paranormal Activity Simon Friend and Hanna Osmolska for Melting Pot, in association with Gavin Kalin, Ken Davenport, Patrick Gracey, Jonathan & Rae Corr, Jenny King and Leeds Playhouse at Grand Opera House, York
Only Human (Vaudeville Productions, Michael Vine, Andrew O’Connor, Paul Sandler and Derren Brown for Only Human Productions Ltd) - Shaftesbury Theatre, London, –
Ilford Boy (Donmar Warehouse) - Donmar Warehouse, London, –
Cold Sweat (Forced Entertainment) - Southbank Centre, London, –
The Herd/Less (Dance Umbrella UK, Venice Biennale 2026 and Lalanbik La Reunion) - Sadler’s Wells East, London, –
Private Peaceful (Joshua Beaumont and Matthew Emeny for The Production Garden in association with Exeter Northcott Theatre) - Hall For Cornwall, Truro, –
Cats (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, with Michael Harrison for Lloyd Webber Harrison Musicals) - Theatre Royal, Plymouth, –
Annie (Michael Harrison and David Ian) - Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham, –
Do Not Pass Go (Jordan & Skinner) - Macphail Centre, Ullapool,
Do Not Pass Go (Jordan & Skinner) - Eden Court, Inverness,
Revel (Company Chordelia in association with the Byre Theatre and Luminate) - Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley,
East is East (Octagon Theatre Bolton, Citizens Theatre Glasgow and Wiltshire Creative in association with Derby Theatre) - Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, –
Ceilidh (Pitlochry Festival Theatre) - Pitlochry Town Hall, Pitlochry, –
The Void: A Horror Story (Thunder Road Theatre, in association with Watford Palace Theatre) - Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, –
Private Peaceful (Joshua Beaumont and Matthew Emeny for The Production Garden in association with Exeter Northcott Theatre) - Theatr Brycheiniog, Brecon, –
Vegas: After Hours (Senbla in association with Steven Howard for The TCB Group and David Shepherd) - Venue Cymru, Llandudno,
