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Rod’s Blog 09.05.14
The legacy of the 1984-5 miner’s strike. “’From the start it has been the theatre’s business to entertain people … it needs no other passport than fun’ – Brecht For the last two years Red Ladder Theatre Company has been building a relationship with Unite the Union to support the union’s work in education. Our […]
Rod’s Blog 22.04.14
As part of our research for two new plays about extremism in modern Britain, Avaes Mohammad, the playwright we have commissioned, and I have been looking under the stone that is extreme right politics. We obviously expected to find some unpleasant stuff crawling about under there, but what has been shocking is how widespread so-called […]
Rod’s Blog 27.03.14
Today is Tony Benn’s funeral. I’m not very comfortable with the idea of heroes. As soon as someone is lionised there is massive pressure on them not to disappoint, as if life isn’t hard enough already. It is inevitable that our heroes let us down – after all, they are not actually superhuman. Tony […]
Rod’s Blog 25.02.14
Rod’s Blog 25th February 2014 Today’s blog will possibly irritate other theatre makers to want to either comment on it or just tut and sigh, or roll their eyes – the international language for ‘Oh he just doesn’t get it’. The ‘it’ I don’t get is the latest trend in theatre making – I call […]
Rod’s Blog 28.01.14
I don’t want to bore you with yet more enthusiasm for our one woman musical (called Wrong ‘Un) but we kicked off the main national tour last week with press night at The Lowry and the reviews have been outstandingly positive – with lots of admiration and praise for Ella’s performance, Justin’s direction, Ali’s design […]
Rod’s Blog 8.11.13
I’m a workaholic. I’m not sitting in a circle with other workaholics and trying to use some kind of step programme to get off my addiction – I just love, to the point of obsession, my work. I have done other things in my life – for a big chunk of time I was a […]
Rod’s Blog 03.09.13
August for a high number of theatre makers means working stupid hours to share shows with other theatre makers in Edinburgh – most of whom have come up to Edinburgh from England to show their shows to …eachother.. I’m sorry to say this, but I hate the Fringe – it is a scrum, not a […]
Rod’s Blog 21.06.13
‘Wrong ‘Un,’ our new one woman musical written by Boff Whalley and performed by Ella Harris has now opened – and this coming Monday will play to a sell-out audience in Hebden Bridge as part of the Hebden Bridge Arts Festival. ‘Wrong ‘Un’ is a beautiful piece – in many ways Boff’s best piece of […]
Rod’s Blog 21.05.13
That’s that – ‘The Thing About Psychopaths’ ended a long and exciting national tour at Park Theatre – the brand new venue in Finsbury Park. I’d visited the theatre only a few weeks back and it was still a building site – so to get open in time for their first main house show and […]
Rod’s Blog 15.04.13
Rods Blog April 15th 2013 We are all in relationship – either with others or with ourselves. The death of Margaret Thatcher last week was challenging for me. My relationship to the entire world has been marked by Mrs Thatcher’s existence in my life. In 1979 when she came to power I was a student […]
