Regrets, I've Had a Few: Recent Episodes
Told by an Idiot
Told by an Idiot's Artistic Director Paul Hunter in free-flowing conversation with friends and colleagues from the theatre industry, delving into what made them the people they are today.
The beginning of his career as Alan Rickman’s follow spot operator, being referred to as a grubby thruster by an Equity councillor and his tenures as Artistic Director at both the Bush Theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth. All of this and more is discussed in our 30th episode of Regrets I've Had A Few, in our 30th year, featuring celebrated Director, Simon Stokes.
About Simon Stokes
Simon became an Artistic Director at the Bush Theatre in London from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s. A new play specialist, he developed and directed many of our now celebrated playwrights and performers.
The Bush also worked with a wide range of independent theatre companies including such as the People Show, Phantom Captain, Paines Plough, Hull Truck, the Women’s Theatre Group, Gay Sweatshop and Black Theatre Co-op.
In the 1990s he was Artistic Associate and Director of Development for Howard Panter’s Turnstyle Group, developing new plays for production in the West End.
As a freelancer, he directed in Germany, Switzerland, Israel and the USA as well in the UK.
As a director some of his most highly profiled work has included Manuel Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Bush with Simon Callow and Mark Rylance, When I Was A Girl I Used to Scream and Shout by Sharman Macdonald at the Bush; the Edinburgh International Festival and the West End with, variously, Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Geraldine James and Dawn French; A Slip of the Tongue by Dusty Hughes with John Malkovich and Ingeborga Dapkunaite; The Green Man by Doug Lucie with Phil Daniels and Danny Webb; and Monster Raving Loony by James Graham at the Drum Theatre Plymouth and Soho Theatre.
As Artistic Director at the Theatre Royal Plymouth from 1998 to 2018 he turned the Drum, a large studio space, into another nationally noticed theatre, winning many plaudits. He again followed a programming strategy of mixing Drum productions with visiting companies and developed several distinctive coproducing relationships with companies like Frantic Assembly, Ontroerend Goed, Paines Plough and Told by an Idiot.
Celebrating his 5th birthday with TV legends Sooty and Sweep, his interest in directing Tom Hanks on stage and his recent appointment as Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre. All of this and more is discussed in this month's episode of Regrets I've Had A Few featuring award-winning Director, Justin Audibert.
Over the past 25 years Tanika Gupta has written over 25 stage plays that have been produced in major theatres across the UK and has written extensively for BBC Radio drama. Tanika’s plays The Empress and her adaptation of A Doll’s House are on the National Curriculum in the UK for GSCE school examinations.
Theatre credits include: Out West and A Doll’s House (Lyric Hammersmith); Lions And Tigers (Wanamaker Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe); Red Dust Road (National Theatre Scotland, Edinburgh International Festival); A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare’s Globe –Dramaturg); Anita and Me (Birmingham Rep); Love N Stuff (Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Empress (Royal Shakespeare Company); Wah! Wah! Girls - A British Bollywood Musical (Sadler’s Wells); Mindwalking (Bandbazi Theatre); Great Expectations (Watford Palace Theatre/English Touring Theatre); Meet The Mukherjees (Bolton Octagon Theatre); White Boy (National Youth Theatre/Soho Theatre); Sugar Mummies (Royal Court Theatre); Gladiator Games (Sheffield Crucible Theatre); Hobson’s Choice (Young Vic); Fragile Land (Hampstead Theatre); Inside Out (Clean Break); Sanctuary, Brecht’s The Good Woman Of Setzuan and The Waiting Room (National Theatre); Skeleton (Soho Theatre); A River Sutra (Indoza).
Television credits include: Doctors, London Bridge, All About Me, EastEnders, Grange Hill, The Bill, Flight, Banglatown Banquet, Our Lives As Animals, The Fiancee and Bideshi.
Radio credits include: The Goldilocks Zone, A Passage to India, Trumpet, Death of a Matriarch, The Home and The World, Emma (Adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel), Writing The Century, Bindi Business, Song Of The Road, The God Of Small Things, Baby Farming and Ibsen’s A Doll’s House.
In 2008 she was awarded an MBE for Services to Drama and in 2016 was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Tanika has an honorary doctorate in the Arts from Chichester University and is an Honorary Fellow at Rose Bruford College and Central School of Speech and Drama.
For more information: www.tanikagupta.com
Rachel Mars is a writer and performer based in the UK. She has been working at the cross-over of performance art and theatre for 13 years. Her work explores female, Jewish and Queer identities and their intersections.
Her recent performance work includes Our Carnal Hearts, a choral dissection of envy; Your Sexts Are Shit: Older Better Letters, a queer archive of sex letters; Roller, with Mars.tarrab, an interrogation of female aggression for 7 women and Story #1/#3, a collaboration with Greg Wohead on radical narrative.
She won a Total Theatre Award and an Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award. She has performed all over the UK and internationally, including recently at Barbican London, Brisbane International Festival, Brighton International Festival, Fusebox Festival Austin, On The Boards, Seattle.
Stephen is an actor, teacher and director and has worked in theatre for the past 26 years. A long time collaborator of Told by an Idiot, he has performed in a total of seven of our shows and has been part of the research and development team for many more.
Stephen has worked at the National Theatre on War Horse and Theatre of Blood and the RSC on A Mouse and His Child and Merry Wives of Windsor as well as touring extensively throughout the UK and internationally with Little Soldier, Improbable and Told by an Idiot.
Directing credits include Cabaret of Blood and co–director of All You Need is LSDfor Told by an Idiot, Flat Pack for OH Productions and I Had a Black Dog for Smallnose Theatre.
Stephen is also a key member of our Taught by an Idiot practitioner team, teaching in academic settings, leading community projects and making work with underrepresented theatre makers across the UK and internationally. He has most recently directed 3 short silent films as part of our The Silent Treatment participation project, inspired by and delivered alongside our production of The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel.
In 2021, Stephen formed Corned Beef Croissant Theatre Company, who have recently performed as part of the Worthing Theatre Trail, held an a research and development period on The 13 Labours of Popeye and ran a programme of slapstick workshops.
From a background of sculpture, Sophia creates installations, sets and objects for audiences and performers to inhabit, manipulate and transform. Much of her work is participatory and interactive, collaborating with artists in theatre, dance and music and with the general public.
Recent work includes: Would You Bet Against Us? (Told by an Idiot, Birmingham Rep); Space to Be (Oily Cart); Get Happy (Told by an Idiot, Barbican); All You Need Is LSD (Told by an Idiot, Birmingham Rep); The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk (Kneehigh Theatre, Bristol Old Vic); The Paper Man (Improbable Theatre, Norfolk & Norwich Festival); Journey to the Impossible (Little Soldier Productions, The Bike Shed Theatre); And The Horse You Rode In On (Told by an Idiot, Barbican, Brighton Festival, Theatre Royal Plymouth); 16 Singers (Katherine Morley, Dance Umbrella, Theatre Royal Bath); Phenomenal People (Fuel, WOW Festival); In This Place (Pentabus Theatre); A Crash Course in Cloudspotting (Raquel Meseguer Zafe, MAYK, Coventry City of Culture 2021, Unlimited, Camden Alive); Parallelist (Clay Gold & Laura Moody, Aldeburgh Festival).
Dennis Mortimer was born in Liverpool April 1952 and his professional football career spanned 721 league, Cup and European games. He was captain of the Aston Villa team which won the 1st Division Championship in 1981 and the European Cup in 1982.
Dennis' career began at Coventry City F.C. in 1967 with a 3 year apprenticeship. Dennis signed his first Professional contract in 1969 and transferred to Aston Villa in 1975 for £170.000, after which he transferred to Brighton and Hove Albion and then to Birmingham City. He was also loaned to Sheffield Utd in 1984/85.
After retiring from Professional football, Dennis had positions at the PFA and the FA.
About Omar Elerian
Omar Elerian is a freelance director, dramaturg and theatre-maker. Italian of Palestinian descent, Omar trained in Italy and then graduated from Lecoq International Theatre School in Paris in 2005.He was the resident Associate Director at the Bush Theatre from 2012 to 2019, where he commissioned and directed some of the theatre’s most successful shows.
Omar is currently developing projects with Manchester International Festival, National Theatre, Royal Court, Collective Malouba and The Shed in New York.
Theatre includes:
As Director: The Chairs (Almeida); Misty (Bush Theatre/ West End); NASSIM (Bush Theatre/ Traverse Theatre/ World Tour); Going Through; Islands; You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy (Bush Theatre); The Return of Danton (Munchner Kammerspiele); The Mill: City of Dreams (Freedom Studios).
As Associate Director: The Royale; Leave Taking; Perseverance Drive (Bush Theatre).
Lolita Chakrabarti OBE is an award-winning playwright and actress.
Her adaption of Yann Martel's Booker prize winning novel Life of Pi for the stage, premiered to 5-star reviews at the Sheffield Crucible in July 2019 and opened in London's West End in November 2021. It has been nominated for nine Olivier awards including Best New Play, won four UK Theatre Awards and the WhatsonStage award for Best New Play.
Lolita’s original play Hymn streamed live from The Almeida during the coronavirus pandemic in 2021 and opened to audiences in July that same year.
Her adaption of Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities premiered at the Manchester International Festival before transferring to Brisbane Festival. This ambitious production was a collaboration between Rambert dance company, 59 Productions and Lolita.
In 2012 Lolita’s debut play Red Velvet premiered at the Tricycle Theatre in London. It returned to the Tricycle in 2014, before transferring to New York and the West End. Red Velvet was nominated for nine major awards including two Oliviers. Lolita won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright, The Critics Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright and the AWA Award for Arts and Culture.
She curated The Greatest Wealth at the Old Vic in 2018, commissioning eight monologues of which she wrote one, about the NHS on its 70th birthday, which was updated in 2020 to play online and reflect the pandemic, featuring a new monologue by Bernadine Evaristo starring Sharon D Clarke.
In 2020 Lolita was dramaturg on Message in a Bottle for ZooNation and Sadlers Wells and is dramaturg on ZooNations’ forthcoming Sylvia.
In 2020 Bloomsbury published Adrian Lester and Lolita Chakrabarti: A Working Diary which followed a year in their working lives.
Other writing credits The Goddess for Woman's Hour BBC Radio 4 and Last Seen Joy for the Almeida.
As an actress credits include Vigil (BBC1), Showtrial (BBC1), Wheel of Time (Amazon), To Provide All People (BBC2), Delicious (Sky One), Born to Kill (CH4), Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands (ITV), Vera (ITV), Jekyll and Hyde (ITV), My Mad Fat Diary 3 (E4), Death in Paradise (BBC1), One Night (BBC1), The Smoke (Sky1), Outnumbered (BBC1), J K Rowling’s A Casual Vacancy (BBC1/HBO), Riviera (Sky Atlantic), Criminal (Netflix), Defending The Guilty (BBC), WPC Blake in The Bill (ITV), Fanny & Alexander (Old Vic), and Hamlet directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh (RADA).
Lolita also co-produced Of Mary, a short film directed by Adrian Lester, which won Best Short Film at PAFF, Los Angeles.
Phil Belfield has a BA in Drama & Theatre Studies from Middlesex University. He worked in a number of arts organisations including the NT, Lyric Hammersmith, Riverside Studios & Royal Court. He then helped set up the Stage Holding UK office and assisted Matthew Bourne at Adventures in Motion Pictures (now New Adventures) for 6 years before joining Cassie Mayer Ltd as a junior agent in 2000, and then as an agent for BBA from 2004.
London International Mime Festival (LIMF) is an established, annual festival of contemporary visual theatre. Essentially wordless and multi-disciplinary, its programme embraces circus-theatre, puppetry/animation, object theatre, mime, live art and physical theatre.
Founded in 1977 at the Cockpit Theatre as a one-off event to showcase the work of British mimes, theatre clowns and other physical and visual theatre artists, the festival rapidly grew in scale, quality and reputation. Since that start in one small theatre, LIMF has used more than thirty London venues – from Tate Modern, a private house and West End theatres, to the Royal Opera House, Almeida, Barbican, ICA, Sadler’s Wells and Southbank Centre. To date, the festival has presented over 800 productions over its 46-year history.
LIMF assists in the creation and presentation of excellent, innovative non text-based theatre that is new to London. Most shows are UK premieres. It works with young, up and coming artists as well as established companies.
LIMF has an international reputation and is the UK’s longest established annual, international theatre festival. In recent years the festival’s productions and its two directors have received various honours and awards, most notably three Olivier Award nominations including winner of Best New Dance Production in 2015 (Peeping Tom’s 32 Rue Vandenbranden at The Barbican), a Total Theatre lifetime achievement award and most recently the 2017 Empty Space – Peter Brook Special Achievement Award.
Lisa is an actress, writer and theatre maker. She has worked regularly with Told By an Idiot performing in Shoot me in the heart, A little fantasy, Beauty and the beast and Too clever by half. She has also worked with Improbable on No idea and The hanging man. Other theatre work includes The National Theatre, Trestle, The RSC, Graeae and many other regional and international theatres and companies. She was a regular character in “Eastenders” (BBC) from 2014-2018 her other tv credits include Vera (ITV); Patricia (Sky Atlantic); One Night (BBC); Psychoville (BBC); Max and Paddy’s Road to nowhere (Ch4); Where the heart is (ITV). She has also featured in the BBC’s genealogy programme Who do you think you are?
Lisa has appeared in the following Told by an Idiot shows: Shoot Me In The Heart, A Little Fantasy, Beauty and the Beast and Too Clever By Half
Sophie Scott CBE is a British neuroscientist and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London (UCL). Her research investigates the cognitive neuroscience of voices, speech and laughter, and she is very interested in how our the neural basis of human vocal communication. She was the 2017 Royal Institution Christmas Lecturer and she was awarded the Royal Society's Michael Faraday prize and lecture in 2021. Sophie is the Divisional Director for Equity Diversity and inclusion in the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL.
The documentary mentioned in this episode is here.
Jos Houben is internationally acclaimed as a leader in the field of Comedy and Physical Theatre.
Performing, writing, teaching, and directing world-wide for the past 30 years he has worked with leading international organisations and artists including: Peter Brook, Ecole Jacques Lecoq, The Right Size, Georges Aperghis, Theatre de Complicite- Simon McBurney, National Theatre London, Ragdoll Ltd, Thames TV, Opera North, Centre National Des Arts Du Cirque, British Council and Opéra Comique.
He has received the prestigious Perrier Comedy Award (1986, Theatre de Complicite) and Olivier Award for Best Entertainment (1999, The Right Size).
Houben’s one man show The Art of Laughter has been touring the word for the past 12 years. He has played month long stints to sell out audiences at the prestigious Rond Point Theater on the Champs Elysees three years in a row. The show is such a success that Jos was featured on the front page of France’s Le Monde and interviewed on national news channels.
In 2016 Jos did comedy directing for the hit West End musical Girls and toured extensively with the comedy duo Marcel.
He directed Czech Physical Theatre Company Squadra Sua’s new hit show Crossings which opened to wide acclaim in Prague in May 2019.
He is currently preparing two Operas for the Opéra Rennes and Opera Caen as well as a new movement based show with contemporary dancer Raphaelle Delaunay.
Jason Barnett biog:
Theatre includes:
THE VISIT (National Theatre), INSTRUCTIONS FOR CORRECT ASSEMBLY, THE VICTORIAN IN THE WALL, FRIDAY NIGHT SEX, PRIMETIME, THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE (all Royal Court Theatre), SAINT GEORGE & THE DRAGON, EMIL & THE DETECTIVES, WAR HORSE, AMATO SALTONE (all National Theatre), LIFE OF GALILEO (Young Vic), ABOUT A BOY (Young Vic and tour), MOGADISHU (Manchester Royal Exchange), THE WINTER’S TALE, PERICLES, DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE (all RSC), THE FIXER (Almeida Theatre), CRUISIN’ (The Bush) , JOHN DRYDEN’S TEMPEST (Shakespeare’s Globe).
Television includes:
BRIDGERTON, AGATHA RAISIN (Series 1-4), LEE & DEAN, HAILMAKERS, PORRIDGE, BLISS, JONATHAN CREEK, JOSH, DEATH IN PARADISE , THE JAVONE PRINCE SHOW, PHONESHOP, BAD EDUCATION, STAGE DOOR JOHNNIES, HOTEL TRUBBLE, THE BILL, EXTRAS, COMING OF AGE, DEAD RINGERS, DREAM TEAM and LITTLE BRITAIN
Film includes:
LONDON ROAD, CINDERELLA, SUPERBOB, ONE MAN AND HIS DOG, THE SIGHT
Omari trained at the Arts Educational Schools, London, graduating in 2015.
His theatre credits include Rush at the King’s Head Theatre, Peter Pan and Jesus Christ Superstar at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, Clarke Peters Five Guys Named Moe at the Marble Arch Theatre, Kneehigh’s Tristan & Yseult at Shakespeare’s Globe, The Life at the Southwark Playhouse, Annie Get Your Gun at the Sheffield Crucible and High Society at the Old Vic.
Omari returned to the Old Vic to perform in Emma Rice’s adaptation of Wise Children, the inaugural production for her new company of the same name. The production then toured to several cities around the UK.
Omari can currently be seen as one of the leads in Russell T Davies’ new 5 part series It’s A Sin for Red Productions/Channel 4/ HBO Max.
Internationally renowned award-winning actress and director, Kathryn was born in New York, grew up in England, read French and Drama at Bristol University then trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. As an actress, she has worked with leading companies worldwide including Royal National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare's Globe and Peter Brook's renowned CICT Centre International de Recherches Theatrale company in Paris as well as being an associate member of the acclaimed Theatre de Complicite Company. Her many leading and award-winning appearances include title roles in, RICHARD III, KING LEAR, ANTONY & CLEOPATRA, YERMA, MOTHER COURAGE and the acclaimed solo performance KAFKA'S MONKEY. She received an Olivier BEST ACTRESS award for THE VISIT (Complicite/RNT). Film and television credits include HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX, Mike Leigh's ALL OR NOTHING, ORLANDO, THE BABY OF MACON, MARIA'S CHILD and THE TALE OF TALES. Directing credits include MY PERFECT MIND, OTHELLO (RSC), THE BIRDS (RNT), COMEDY OF ERRORS and PERICLES (Globe Theatre).
Emma Rice is the proud Artistic Director of her company, Wise Children, and an internationally-respected theatre-maker and director. For Wise Children Emma has adapted and directed the productions, Angela Carter’s Wise Children, Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers and Romantics Anonymous.
As Artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe (2016/18), she directed Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Little Matchgirl (and Other Happier Tales).
For the previous 20 years, she worked for Kneehigh as an actor, director and Artistic Director and created critically acclaimed productions including The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Tristan & Yseult, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips, The Wild Bride, The Red Shoes, The Wooden Frock, The Bacchae, Cymbeline (in association with RSC), A Matter of Life and Death (in association with National Theatre), Rapunzel (in association with Battersea Arts Centre); Brief Encounter (in association with David Pugh and Dafydd Rogers Productions); Don John (in association with the RSC and Bristol Old Vic); Wah! Wah! Girls (in association with Sadler’s Wells and Theatre Royal Stratford East for World Stages); and Steptoe and Son.
Emma received Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre award at the 2019 UK Theatre Awards. Acclaimed for her vision, wit and warmth, she is one of the most dynamic and influential directors working in contemporary theatre today.
Aitor is an acclaimed performer, teacher and clown, as well as a Co-Founder of Spymonkey.
Performing credits include: The Servant of Two Masters at Sheffield Crucible (1996), Axomate at the Seville Expo (1992), Eulenspiegel (1991) and in Karl’s Kuhne Gassenchau’s Grand Paradis and Stau in Zurich (1997 and 1998). Director of Little Prince for Donkey Productions (1997), Un Vento Impetuoso for La Canoppia (1996) and Meci Y Me Fui for Pez Enraya ( 1997). In 1999 he appeared in Circus Knie, the Swiss State Circus, and in 2000 formed his own company Punto Fijo, based in Bilbao. Appeared in Cirque Images’ 2003 series Solstrom for Bravo Cable Network.
Aitor appeared in Bertold Brecht’s Senor Carrera’s Rifles at the Young Vic, directed by Told by an Idiot Artistic Director Paul Hunter (2007).
Directing credits include: ‘Lily & Marlene’ for La Dinamica (Spain 2015); ’Looking for Duende' for Teatro Entre Escombros (Spain 2015); ’Hondycops' for Squadra Sua (Czech Republic 2015); ’Ferucchio Peru is Extraordinaire’ for Leebo Luby (UK 2015); Manifest Destiny (New York 2015); Fabulous Bäckström Brothers (Finland 2014); Entre Escobros '600 Teatro' (Spain 2014); 'Gloriator' for Skipstick Productions (London 2013); 'NMIIDP' Simone Riccio, (London 2013); 'Herr Ist Immer Der Natur' for Die Drei Auf Den Baum (Berlin 2012); 'Discombobulated' for Publick Transport (Bristol & UK tour, 2011); 'Ramshackadelicious' (Bristol 2011); 'Shake' for The Last Baguette (Switzerland 2010).
Amanda has appeared in two Told by an Idiot shows: The Firework-maker's Daughter and Playing the Victim.
Described in The Observer as “a remarkable pianist by any standard”, Zoe has firmly established herself as one of the brightest stars on the contemporary jazz scene. She won a MOBO Award for best Jazz Act in 2012 and was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize for her 2006 album Melting Pot, which also won Jazz Album of the Year at the UK’s first Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
A vibrant and highly individual pianist and composer, her style is deeply rooted in jazz yet it reflects her classical background, British/Bengali heritage and her very broad musical taste. Known for her powerful technique, wide-ranging imagination and exuberant performance, she has become a highly sought-after musician, working with the likes of Courtney Pine, George Mraz, Jerry Dammers Spatial AKA Orchestra, Martha Wainwright, among many others.
Zoe studied classical piano at the Royal Academy of Music, took a music degree at Oxford University and then won a scholarship to study jazz performance at Berklee College of Music, Boston.
Zoe has collaborated with Told by an Idiot a number of times over the years, most recently composing the wonderful piano score for The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. https://www.toldbyanidiot.org/the-strange-tale-of-charlie-chaplin-and-stan-laurel
Between the ages of 12 and 17, Ayesha Antoine played the character of Poppy Silver in TV's Grange Hill and has since gone on to follow a wide-ranging acting career across television, radio and theatre. Ayesha has starred in three Told by an Idiot productions: 'The Firework-maker's Daughter' (2003-2005), 'The Ghost Train' (2015) and 'Napoleon Disrobed' (2018). Find out more here: https://www.toldbyanidiot.org/Pages/Category/past-productions
Edward Petherbridge has had an amazing acting career spanning seven decades, with highlights including his portrayal of Lord Peter Wimsey in the 1987 BBC television adaptations of Dorothy L. Sayers' novels, and creating the role of Guildenstern in Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1967. He performed in Told by an Idiot's My Perfect Mind alongside Artistic Director Paul Hunter and directed by Kathryn Hunter. My Perfect Mind toured the UK in 2013 and 2014, transferring to Teatre Barcelona in 2014 and New York in June 2015, as part of 59E59 Theater's Brits Off Broadway season . You can find out more about the show and Told by an Idiot here: https://www.toldbyanidiot.org/my-perfect-mind