The Stage Show

Mar 03 2025 247 ep. 52 mins 41
The Stage Show Podcast artwork

In-depth conversations with the world's top directors, performers and writers for the stage.

  Arts
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Actor Stephen Rea in Krapp's Last Tape + the soul of Butoh

Mar 03 2025 54 mins  
We meet Irish screen and theatre actor Stephen Rea, who talks about meeting Samuel Beckett early in his career. Rea so wanted to perform Beckett's play Krapp's Last Tape, he had the foresight to record his youthful self reading it. In his new production at Adelaide Festival, the audience gets to hear those recordings. We head Back Stage to the hat maker's studio! In fiction there

Turning the late Ryuichi Sakamoto into mixed reality

Feb 24 2025 54 mins  
Shortly before he died, Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto performed a piano concert called Kagami – which was filmed and recorded with mixed reality technology. Thanks to that, the audience can see and hear Sakamoto play on a level of reality which pushes the boundaries of what a concert can be. Todd Eckert was a friend of Sakamoto and through his company Tin Drum, is pioneering

Dancing in the street with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Feb 17 2025 54 mins  
As a teenager in Belgium, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui grew up dancing with his friends in the street. He’s now a renowned choreographer with his own company and the director of the Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, choreographing everything from pop music videos to the new show MANIFEST at Perth Festival - where members of the public can train alongside his dancers for a performance

Robyn Nevin on Agatha Christie's 'dark side' + a play about Julian Assange

Feb 10 2025 54 mins  
Australian theatre legend Robyn Nevin is directing And Then There Were None, a classic murder mystery by Agatha Christie. She talks to Michael about the darkness in Christie's stories, her view on changing acting styles and how Robyn finds her 'inner clown'. Playwright Patricia Cornelius explains why she has five actors playing the world's most famous hacker — Wikileaks founder

Emma Rice's dark, rollicking Wuthering Heights

Feb 03 2025 54 mins  
UK director Emma Rice thinks the classic novel Wuthering Heights has many contemporary resonances, particularly around the origins of the character Heathcliff. Rice turned the story into a rollicking play after successfully adapting other English folktales and films for the stage. She tells us about her career, which included briefly leading Shakespeare's Globe theatre before found

How do you tell the world's longest tale 'Mahabharata', in five hours?

Jan 27 2025 54 mins  
The Hindu epic Mahabharata is the longest poem in the world, a tale where gods and mortals dance around each other in stories about creation, sex, death and destruction. But can it be told in under nine hours? That was the duration of Peter Brooks’ famous 1988 production of The Mahabharata at the Adelaide Festival. Miriam Fernandes and Ravi Jain, from Canada’s Why Not Theatre,

'I think the rock swallowed them up': Ian Michael takes on an Australian classic

Jan 20 2025 54 mins  
When director and actor Ian Michael first saw the stage play of Picnic at Hanging Rock, adapted by playwright Tom Wright, it was as a theatre attendant. Now, he is directing it at the Opera House for the Sydney Theatre Company. The Noongar theatre-maker has forged an exciting career performing deeply personal stories alongside innovative productions. His production of the gothic st

The surprising history of Shakespeare in a divided America

Jan 13 2025 54 mins  
Over the past 200 years, theatre has often been a lightning rod for social and political upheaval in the United States. Even the plays of William Shakespeare have been the subject of violent debate. This surprising history is examined in two recent books by James Shapiro: Shakespeare in a Divided America and The Playbook. Also, we explore Bangarra Dance Theatre's first mainstage c

Why Eric Idle always looks on the bright side of life

Jan 06 2025 54 mins  
Death is not a very funny subject. Yet, comedian, writer and musician Eric Idle has spent 60 years showing us the funny side of our all-too-fleeting lives. The Monty Python member has toured Australia with his show Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, Live! He's also written a book about the creation of his musical, Spamalot. Also, we visit Australia's Back to Back Theatre, whi

The story of the groundbreaking Warumpi Band

Dec 30 2024 54 mins  
In the desert town of Papunya in 1981, four blackfellas and a whitefella bonded over rock 'n' roll and became the history-making Warumpi Band. The Warumpis were the first rock band to sing in Aboriginal languages. Big Name, No Blankets from Ilbijerri Theatre Company tells their story on stage. Also, Australian writer James Elazzi has garnered acclaim for his frank and funny plays