Nick Smurthwaite

Since its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1994, the award-winning clowning show has toured all over the world, enchanting audiences of all ages. As it blows back into the UK after a seven-year absence, creator Slava Polunin and producer Gwenael Allan talk to Nick Smurthwaite about the key to the longevity and success of a company of “fools” that has become a global phenomenon

‘I’ve interviewed so many charmers – people you’d like to get to know properly,’ says Nick Smurthwaite of his career writing for The Stage, as he reflects on the publication, the people, the pandemic – and the passion that has driven him on

The director has loved Hanif Kureishi’s 1970s-set novel about a Pakistani teenager growing up in south London since first reading it in her 20s. She tells Nick Smurthwaite why the book remains relevant and how she set about adapting the work of one of her heroes

A century after Bram Stoker’s iconic character broke through on stage, Blackeyed Theatre is sending him back out on tour. Given the many audience preconceptions about Dracula, fashioning a show that avoids parody is key, its creators tells Nick Smurthwaite

As a fresh production of US writer and activist Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking first play A Raisin in the Sun prepares for a UK tour, the director of the revival tells Nick Smurthwaite of the lasting impact of both the show and its writer

First played by Alison Steadman and now brought back to life by Tamzin Outhwaite, the central character in Mike Leigh’s tragicomedy about an Essex couple hosting a party has fascinated audiences for almost 50 years

Twenty years after it first took to the stage at the National Theatre then stormed the world, The History Boys is now back touring the UK. Director Seán Linnen tells Nick Smurthwaite how he’s respecting the original while still making sure it feels new for today’s audiences

As a new production of Hello, Dolly! opens at the London Palladium, Nick Smurthwaite talks to its director Dominic Cooke about how the show has always been influenced by its central performer

To develop his ideas, Bertolt Brecht would cut out images to form into collages. Nick Smurthwaite visits the performance-based brecht: fragments experience in London to find out how the German dramatist’s visual art impacted his theatre work

Forty years ago, after scoring a huge hit with Cats, Andrew Lloyd Webber set his sights on creating something the theatregoing public had never seen before. Nick Smurthwaite looks back at that ambitious original production ahead of a new revival in London