Latest news with #NationalYouthTheatre
The Irish Sun
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
BBC comedy legend forced to quit the stage midway through performance after falling ill
MATT Lucas has been supported by fans are revealing he was forced to pull out of Les Miserables mid-show over health concerns. The Little Britain star was performing on stage in Australia when he fell ill on stage. 3 Matt Lucas pictured last year at the Gladiator II premiere Credit: Getty 3 On stage with David Walliams in 2006 Credit: Getty - Contributor The 51-year-old had to leave the theatre on Wednesday night when his voice began to fail him Matt, who is starring in the role of Monsieur Thénardier, was replaced by a fellow actor during the production in Sydney. He updated fans in a post on Instagram on Friday. While he did not go into detail about his health problem, he said it was related to his voice. "In over 30 years, I've never had to bow out of a performance, but tonight, as I was singing Master Of The House, I could feel my voice deserting me." He continued: "So if Thénardier looked very different in act two, that was because the amazing Connor James took over. I am now in bed resting up, and I hope to be back on stage soon." Most read in Showbiz The two comedians revealed earlier this year that they would be unleasing their very first podcast together called, Making A Scene. They have since released regular episodes, some featuring interviews with big names including Simon Pegg, and Daisy May Cooper. Little Britain legends David Walliams and Matt Lucas reunite for new comedy project together 19 years after sitcom Matt and David met at the National Youth Theatre in the early 90s and quickly bonded over their love of comedy and impressions. One of their first collaborations was on Rock Profile, which started in 1999. After other TV parts they finally made it big in 2003 with Little Britain, with the show running until 2009. They also came together to write and star in Come Fly With Me, which ran from 2010 until 2011. The pair stopped working with each other in 2011, amid reports the friendship became strained. Matt wrote in his autobiography about how tensions rose between the pair in 2005 during their epic Little Britain Live tour, leading to a spectacular fight backstage one night. One of their first collaborations was on Rock Profile, which started in 1999. After other TV parts they finally made it big in 2003 with Little Britain, with the show running until 2009. They also came together to write and star in Come Fly With Me, which ran from 2010 until 2011. Much to fans' delight the comedy duo reunited in 2019 after an eight-year feud, announcing that they were planning a "huge TV comeback". Brexit which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, where the show started in 2000. In 2019, the comedy duo were Matt says: 'I do get asked about Little Britain a lot but what I can say is that David and I are the very best of friends and we speak or exchange messages every single day." Read more on the Irish Sun And he admitted that modern tech He added that the pair "make each other laugh all the time". 3 The pair reunited in 2019 and have been friends ever since Credit: Instagram/@realmattlucas
Scoop
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
140 Christchurch Kids Shine In National Youth Theatre's Historic CATS Premiere
In a landmark moment for Christchurch, 140 young performers across Christchurch and Canterbury take centre stage in the National Youth Theatre's (NYT) premiere production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's CATS – Young Actors Edition at Isaac Theatre Royal, 23-25 May for 4 shows only. This spe-cat-ular musical, seen by 73 million worldwide, brings four unforgettable shows to Ōtautahi, blending iconic songs like 'Memory,' dazzling choreography, and vibrant costumes, performed entirely by Canterbury youth aged 7-21. CATS invites audiences to the Jellicle Ball, where 140 local kids, from first timers to seasoned stars, share their stories through music and dance. Directed by Christchurch-born Jack Shatford (WAAPA-trained, Shrek the Musical), this production is more than a show - it's a life-changing journey. 'We're filling these kids with confidence to shine in life, from job interviews to school speeches,' Shatford says. The cast's stories prove it. CATS performer Alexis (Rum Tum Tugger) shares, 'It's definitely made me more confident.' Oliver (Gus) adds, 'Singing in CATS gave me a massive confidence boost.' David (Munkustrap) says, 'This huge role helped me believe I can take on anything.' Julia (Grizabella) rediscovered her passion: 'CATS brought back my love for dance.' Isabella (Grizabella) notes, 'CATS has been a big step for my singing and acting confidence.' NYT's all-access programme welcomes everyone, no auditions needed - with over 100 kids vying for lead roles. Supported by Christchurch City Council, CATS also creates youth tech jobs, cementing its community impact. Don't miss this historic premiere, perfect for families and schools. Book now through Ticketek and also enter to win tickets in our NYT's Mother's Day giveaway, offering two double passes on our Facebook and Instagram (9-12 May)! ** National Youth Theatre – Changing Lives from the Stage #nytnz #nationalyouththeatrenz #catsthemusical #whatsajelliclecat Performance: Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch
The Guardian
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘I can't believe I'm paid to watch Ncuti Gatwa!': Doctor Who's boundary-pushing new companion, Varada Sethu
Most teenagers rebel against their parents in small ways: sneaking out, stealing a nip of Cointreau, arriving home past curfew. Not Varada Sethu, the Newcastle-raised actor who's about to grace screens as new companion Belinda Chandra in the forthcoming season of Doctor Who. Her rebellion took on a go-big-or-go-home attitude befitting a future screen star: when she was 18 she entered, and subsequently won, the Miss Newcastle beauty pageant. 'Oh my God, I thought that was gonna be buried somewhere!' she exclaims when I bring it up. The whole thing was 'kind of an accident', she explains: 'My sister and I were walking around in Eldon Square shopping centre, and they asked us if we wanted to enter, and I thought: 'Yeah, I'll give it a go' – I thought it might piss off my parents a bit!' The decision to enter definitely caused 'a bit of friction', but Sethu's parents didn't raise a quitter. 'On the day we had the rehearsals, I called my mum up and said: 'I don't want to do this, can you please take me home?' And Mum was like: 'Well, you've signed up for it, so you're doing it,'' she recalls. 'None of us expected me to win – the whole thing was a bit of a bodge job for me!' Now 32, the beauty pageant world 'doesn't really align with' Sethu's value system, and her chosen vocation is miles – galaxies, really – away from that world of tiaras and special skills. In recent years, thanks to a starring role in the acclaimed Star Wars series Andor and her forthcoming turn as Belinda, as well as a part in the 2018 BBC drama Hard Sun, she's become known as a go-to British sci-fi actor. 'You don't often see brown people in space – well, you do more than in other genres, because they're futuristic – but I don't think I necessarily saw myself as part of the sci-fi world,' she says. 'So I don't quite know how I ended up here, but I love it, and I'm very, very happy to be here.' Born in Kerala, India, Sethu moved with her parents and twin sister to Newcastle upon Tyne when she was six. Her entire family are artistic – her father sings and her mother is a dancer – but 'everybody does it as a hobby', so when she caught the acting bug after doing National Youth Theatre as a teenager, her parents insisted she pursue a veterinary degree as well. After a few months in vet school, she was ready to drop out. '[One day] my dad outright asked me: 'Are you actually happy?' and I completely fell apart. I was honest, saying: 'No, this isn't what I want to do – I want to follow my dreams, I want to go into acting,'' she says. 'My mum thought it was an impulsive decision – she thought that I found uni quite hard and I didn't want to do it any more, which is, you know, maybe a fair thing to say – I am impulsive!' After Sethu landed a few jobs – including in Russell T Davies's 2016 TV adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream – her mum came round. 'When she saw that I'm able to support myself, [her opinion] changed,' she says. 'She's very much onboard now that she knows it's what I love doing, and that I'll find a way to survive.' Sethu's breakout came in 2022 when she was cast as the medic Cinta Kaz in Andor, a prequel to the acclaimed 2016 Star Wars spin-off Rogue One. Andor has been praised as one of the best Star Wars properties in many years – the franchise has been hampered, of late, by a deluge of tepidly received streaming shows – and Sethu says she 'knew that it would do well, because it's such beautiful writing, it's so considered and layered and complex'. In the show, Sethu's character is in a same-sex relationship, still a rarity in mainstream franchises. 'It meant a lot to me – I think the best thing about that part was that it wasn't this huge deal, it was just normalised, nobody bats an eyelid,' she says. 'I believe that's how it should be. Unfortunately, there are certain parts of the world where it's illegal to be gay or to be queer in any way. It's a fundamental part of someone, but it's also so arbitrary, and sadly there's still a ways to go. So anything that is moving towards highlighting how totally normal and fine it is to be queer, I'm on board with. It meant a lot to have that representation in the Star Wars world as well – the first, I think we were told, openly queer relationship [in Star Wars].' Despite the shows being vastly different, Andor gave Sethu a little bit of experience in terms of shouldering a massive, beloved franchise when it came to stepping into Doctor Who, which she wasn't a fan of before appearing on the show. In 2023, she filmed a guest spot as a soldier who comes to the aid of the Fifteenth Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) in the episode Boom, and later that year was asked to take a meeting to be Gatwa's new companion. 'I wasn't expecting to come back,' she says. 'It was amazing to be able to come back, and it was great because it didn't feel like the first day at school, not knowing anybody – I had already had a little taste of it, and everyone knew me.' Although Sethu is forbidden from revealing too much about Belinda's arc this season, she liked that 'she was able to stand on her own, and she felt very much like the main character in her own story', she says. 'She felt very independent from the Doctor – it really feels like they're equals.' Working with Gatwa, whose turn as the first non-white Doctor has won rave reviews, was a dream come true. 'He's so talented, and to watch him every day you have to match that energy. I think that's what was great about us – if one of us was feeling knackered or whatever, the other one pulled our weight,' she says. 'I never got sick of [seeing him act] – I'd think: 'God, I can't believe I'm getting paid to do this, to watch Ncuti, one of the greatest actors of our time, perform this great piece in front of me.'' Sign up to What's On Get the best TV reviews, news and features in your inbox every Monday after newsletter promotion Sci-fi fans are notorious for rejecting or trolling any non-white actors who enter their favourite worlds, but Sethu says she has thus far been unscathed. 'What I try to concentrate on, and what Ncuti tries to concentrate on, is the gratitude and the joy we have in being able to share stories with people who are choosing to be kind and accepting,' she says. 'I mean – Doctor Who is about an alien who changes skin every couple of years, so why does it matter?' As for the rumours that Gatwa is looking to make this season of the show his last, in search of greater opportunities in the US, Sethu remains coy. '[Gatwa and I] speak about all sorts of things, but I think it's ultimately … I feel like the decisions are made by people above us, right?' she says. 'It's kind of above my pay grade to be able to say if anyone's staying or going or whatever.' Whether or not Sethu signs on for another season, she's sure to be in high demand very soon, thanks to both Doctor Who and a new season of Andor. 'There's not a lot I can say, in the same way there's not a lot I can say about Doctor Who, but there's some more action in Andor season two,' she says. 'I got to do some very, very cool stunts. But I don't want to give a lot away!' In the meantime, Sethu is hoping to pick up roles outside of the sci-fi niche she's becoming known for. 'I'm hungry for more of all of it – drama, comedy, tragedy, all of it. I would love to do something silly, like a fun romcom, or a very, very serious drama,' she says. 'The reason I went into acting, or what I love most about acting, is that you get to experience the full spectrum of the human experience – and sometimes outside of it. I love that I've been able to explore space without actually having to, you know … go there!' Doctor Who returns 12 April, 6.50pm, BBC One.
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Actor Temi Wilkey: ‘No one saw me as a Blanche DuBois or a Juliet'
The seed of actor and writer Temi Wilkey's new one-woman show was planted when she saw a photo of herself dancing at an east London party. As she recreates it for me, she throws her arm up and adopts a model-esque expression, personifying, as a friend described it, 'main character energy'. 'I felt very empowered by her saying that, like: Is this how people could see me? Is this who I actually am?' Main Character Energy became her show's title, long before it was written. 'Not to compare myself to Charli xcx,' she laughs, 'but it makes me think about Brat, because she didn't write any of the music until she'd come up with a name. It was a guiding principle, like: is that brat?' Wilkey is channelling main character energy when we meet, sweeping through Soho theatre in a floor-length furry coat and animal-print hat, telling me about a recent tarot reading that predicted an incredibly busy, but very fulfilling 2025. To Wilkey, the phrase at the centre of her show 'means believing that you're worthy to be seen and celebrated. It means that your story is important. Main characters are allowed to be flawed and messy.' It's something, she says, that hasn't always been afforded to Black women and something she struggled to feel in years past. The title became 'a north star' as she decided where to put her creative energy. She realised: 'No one's going to put me in the limelight. You have to do it yourself. In some ways it's annoying, but in others, it's empowering.' The resulting show is effervescent, blending cabaret, comedy and theatre, and dissecting both the tropes of a one-woman show and the insidious reaches of racism. In it, Wilkey plays a version of herself, one who is super-serious about acting, determined to show us that she's a star, but doesn't realise she's starring in a comedy. 'I was really interested to explore self-indulgence, what it means to play yourself,' she says. 'I've always been obsessed with self-portraiture, what an artist presents of themselves and what that says about them.' She had already built an eclectic CV – she'd trained with the National Youth Theatre repertory company, co-founded drag king company Pecs in 2013, won the Stage Debut award for best writer in 2020 with her first play The High Table, and had written for the screen, including an acclaimed episode of Sex Education. Yet while writing opportunities rolled in, acting work didn't. Even when she wrote a TV part she knew she'd be perfect for, when she auditioned, she never heard back: 'I only found out when I visited the set and saw someone else's picture on the wall.' It was demoralising, and started to percolate with past experiences. Wilkey was a shy but imaginative child. She grew up in north London, the eldest daughter to two British-Nigerian doctors who valued academic excellence and sent little Temi to a theatre group 'to come out of my shell'. It worked, she 'flourished', and even picked up jobs on TV shows, including as an EastEnders extra. 'I love it when people are looking at me, I love surrendering to a moment and sharing something with people,' Wilkey says. 'I secretly harboured the dream to act.' She found an outlet in religion, too, especially as a teenager. 'I grew up in a Pentecostal church: speaking in tongues and fainting, there's so much theatricality to that, which I think I loved. I led worship once – it was incredible having a captive audience.' Wilkey stopped being religious 'very sharply' during her first year of university in what felt like 'a big existential breakdown' but also helped her realise she was queer. She still harbours curiosity about higher powers, exploring 'pre-colonial spirituality' in The High Table, where her character's ancestors decide whether to bless her marriage to a woman, and gravitating towards tarot and astrology as ways to contemplate big questions. When Wilkey went to study English literature at the University of Cambridge, she got involved with student theatre, joining a production of Macbeth at the Edinburgh festival fringe (she cringes after realising she's said the play's name inside Soho theatre). Even though she had a tiny part, was sharing a flat with too many people, and flyering daily in the rain, she thought: 'I have to pursue this, regardless of the circumstances, I'm so happy.' Wilkey had been to private school and was from a middle-class family but, as a young Black woman without pre-existing connections there, felt the layers of exclusivity at Cambridge. She thought talent would be spotted and rewarded with roles, but says the students calling the shots 'didn't see me as Blanche DuBois or Juliet, or even a supporting part. I was a servant or an ensemble character.' Later, the same was true at the National Youth Theatre: 'I was cast as a doctor in every single thing, just these tiny, tiny parts.' She had seen people create shows for themselves and, thinking it wasn't for people like her, almost resented it. 'I hadn't seen a Black woman do that,' she says. As she started creating Main Character Energy, which premiered at Edinburgh last summer, her perspective shifted. 'I was like: what does it mean to be unapologetically taking up space as a Black woman?' She wanted the show to be funny and so began doing spots at comedy nights. She'd dabbled in comedy at university as part of all-woman sketch group Rookie and found it 'fulfilling … thrilling and live' but also egalitarian, the funniest ideas winning out. When Rookie came to a sudden end, it felt as fi comedy was yet another role that wasn't meant for her, and it took Wilkey a long time to acknowledge the chasm that left. She realised during the pandemic, while watching comedies such as The Good Place and People Just Do Nothing, how much she missed writing and performing comedy. Sign up to Inside Saturday The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend. after newsletter promotion Returning to it, 'I was saying I was just doing it to get better at writing jokes, but I had quiet dreams and ambitions.' She is inspired by comedian friends Sophie Duker and Kemah Bob, is dabbling with improv and burlesque, and has been enraptured by clowning while watching acts such as Julia Masli. She feels like 'a little sideways crab', approaching comedy from an odd direction, but increasingly excited about folding it into her work. Standup also helped her find the fictional Temi, whom Wilkey describes as 'the most camp version of myself'. In Main Character Energy, her time as drag alter ego Drag King Cole ('He was a bit of a crooner but would also rap and dance') is evident, too, as she dances, sings, lip-syncs and plays with the audience. The show is performed in the round which, as her director Ragevan Vasan noted, makes Wilkey the centre of attention. She's thrilled by shows where the audience 'have no idea what's going to happen', where 'the boundaries are elastic'. The show is sexy and silly, but doesn't shy away from darkness. While Wilkey was writing the show, Black British actor Francesca Amewudah-Rivers was in the West End playing Juliet, and facing a disturbing racist backlash. 'Juliet is a part I've always wanted to play,' says Wilkey. 'There's this beautiful line: 'My bounty is as boundless as the sea, my love as deep,' this feeling of a huge uncontainable emotion that I really relate to.' Wilkey turns that urge into a dark joke: despite the torrent of racism, her character covets the role. 'It's the psychosis of racism, the monster it makes of you,' she says. 'Here, in this country, it's worse to be called a racist than to be racist, which is incredibly smart, because it means you can never call it out. It's like Schrödinger's racism.' Instead, she decided to show its effects in the show, where a hard-working, ambitious, highly educated Black woman tries over and over to fit in but is consistently overlooked. The conclusion is clear: it's not a level playing field. 'You can say that racism doesn't exist, but I'm here telling you how I experienced it.' Main Character Energy has drawn together the threads of Wilkey's past endeavours. She feels focused on building work that is 'queer in content … and in form' and is channelling that into new screen and stage projects. She laments the loss of many theatre scratch nights, those spaces for performers to experiment, and dreams of setting up an artist-development programme, a place where people can 'demystify' the industry for one another. 'I'm powered by joy, connection,' she says. 'Before I started writing the show, I knew I wanted people to feel empowered, like they had permission to be their fullest, most authentic selves. Everyone wants main character energy: come and get it!' Main Character Energy is at Soho theatre, London, 25 February to 15 March.
