Anya Ryan

1 week ago | mandy.com | Anya Ryan

So you want to cut your teeth in the theatre? The first thing you’ll need to get to grips with is the basics of performing for the stage. Unlike screen acting, in which there are close-up shots and the opportunity to repeat takes, stage acting is all about convincing in the moment. It’s live, electric, and, yes, it can be a tiny bit terrifying. After all, there’s nowhere to hide if things go wrong.

1 week ago | mandy.com | Anya Ryan

When people think of acting, they may picture the glamorous lead roles – Hollywood’s shining stars and stage leads. Standing right next to them, however, are a crucial but frequently overlooked subset of the profession: character actors. Think of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia, Mark Strong as Lord Henry Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes, and Toby Jones as the voice of Dobby in the Harry Potter films.

1 week ago | londontheatre.co.uk | Anya Ryan

Joel Tan’s bold, shape-shifting play follows the journey of a thousand-year-old statue of the Bodhisattva Guanyin, currently housed in the British Museum. Taken from its birthplace in China and brought to be displayed on foreign soil in London, the statue now stands at the centre of protests for its return.

2 weeks ago | londontheatre.co.uk | Anya Ryan

You could say that 2025 is the year of Conor McPherson. His long-awaited adaptation of The Hunger Games is finally due to open in a purpose-built theatre, Troubadour Canary Wharf, in the autumn. And now he’s pitched up at the Old Vic for the summer: in June, Girl from the North Country, his multi-award-winning Bob Dylan musical, is coming home to its original birthplace. But first, we have something more intriguing.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Anya Ryan

Objects pile and tower as walls in Chloë Lawrence-Taylor’s debut play. Since their father’s funeral, when Bea scratched an obscene picture into Veda’s car bonnet, the two sisters have lost contact, and Bea has been isolated in an ever-growing haven of “stuff”. Old vinyl, books, crockery, bags for life and mountains of cutlery have turned her home into a graveyard of the past. To an outsider, it is the depths of hoarding; to Bea, every dusty item is a relic to be pored over and adored.