In this week’s Theatre Chat Live, Jess talked to Dave Hearn, actor and founding member of the Olivier Award-winning Mischief Theatre as well as TV, film and stage star Saffron Coomber.
Jess begins the episode with an exciting reminder that West End LIVE will be returning to the stage this year from 18-19 September.
Joining her first up is Dave who tells Jess about what he’s been up to off-stage including parkour; a training discipline where practitioners aim to get from one point to another in a complex environment, without assisting equipment and in the fastest and most efficient way possible.
He moves on to telling us about Mischief Theatre and how their journey started with some small improv shows and writing shows including The Play That Goes Wrong. When the producers loved their work, they took the shows on tour and transferred to West and as they say, the rest is history… or in the words of Dave “The silly empire was born!”
He shares how they’ve evolved over the years and some exciting details about Mischief Movie Night In, a show which allows you, the audience members, to decide the genre, location and the title. With the team improvising everything on the spot, every performance is a completely different show. If you’re into improv, you’ll definitely want to tune into the full episode as Dave some helpful tips.
Our second guest of the night is Saffron Coomber who you may recognise from Eastenders and Tracy Beaker Returns. Saffron shares her journey into performing arts which began from a very young age and covered dance and acting classes. Out of curiosity, Saffron attended an audition and received her first acting job at the age of 12!
Saffron has most recently starred in the Olivier Award-winning Emilia which she says was a highlight of her career and moves on to share her most recent project, a horror movie with the Original Theatre Company. Original Theatre Company has evolved over the pandemic and is breaking boundaries by creating some brilliant theatrical shows for people to enjoy online.
Viral, filmed in south east London, tells the story of an online activist who is trying to uncover the facts before she went missing earlier this year… Now, her FaceTime history has been extracted and it’s worse than you think. The brand new horror film was filmed entirely on iPhones and Saffron spills all the details!
Find out more about Mischief Movie Night In and Viral in our Theatre Chat episode below and we’ll look forward to seeing you next Tuesday at 6pm on Official London Theatre’s Instagram channel for some more stagey chat!