Katie Mitchell interview at Theatre Voice

The wonderful site Theatre Voice has uploaded an interview with director Katie Mitchell about the release of her book The Director's Craft: A Handbook for the Theatre.

I read bits of the book on the bookshop of the National Theatre and found it very interesting. After enjoying ...some trace of her intensely I have been converted to the Katie Mitchell cause. I know her directing is not everybody's cup of tea but I at least found the play refreshing and inquisitive, one of the best book adaptations I have seen onstage.

The interview itself is highly interesting, with Mitchell saying that she wrote the book for her "younger self" as she wished there had been such a book when she run into difficulties at the beginning of her career.

Our critical hero Aleks Sierz conducts the interview.

The Family Reunion, Donmar Warehouse, 8 Jan 2009

Mesmerizing production of TS Eliot's "The Family Reunion" with two of my favourite actors (Morahan and West). Most critics find Eliot's dramatic work "flawed" or "imperfect". I say they are full of it.

It was an evening (not really, I went to a matinee) full of emotion, as opossed to the typical assumption that Eliot is somehow a cerebral, chilly writer. The sets were gorgeous and the chorus of children worked perfectly, halfway creepy and wistful. Sam West, of course, is a force of nature as always but Hattie Morahan held her own against him admirably and their peculiar chemistry is what brings on the sublime moments in this productions.

Gripping, lovely, challenging.

Reviews:
Telegraph.
Independent.
Times.
West End Whingers.