BANDITS! OR THE COLLAPSING BRIDGE by David Mayer with Bryony Dixon centres on the earliest surviving motion picture filmed in a British theatre. Brief but amazingly eventful, it records the conclusion of The Bandits, a London Hippodrome sketch performed in 1902: soldiers give chase on horseback; a bandit queen fires a pistol; a mill explodes into flame; a bridge collapses in the millrush . . .

Thespians is about the life of actors, especially actors of a certain age who worked in and...

In his new book Stephen Boswell meanders down memory lane strolling through reminiscences of a life full of colourful characters and equally colourful events. He gives us a glimpse into a life that may not have made him rich and famous but was certainly never boring . . . This is an informative and entertaining book which will appeal to anyone who likes backstage stories (and scandal), is interested in the old rep system or is seeking an insight into how farce can and should be played.

For Ellen Terry, actress-manager Lena Ashwell (1860-1957) was ‘a passionate voice”. From her first...

Luvvies. Tyrannical directors. Useless agents. Less job security than an England football manager....

In 1971, Michael Blakemore joined the National Theatre as Associate Director under Laurence Olivier. The National, still based at the Old Vic, was at a moment of transition awaiting the move to its vast new home on the South Bank.