Darren Richman

1 week ago | jewishnews.co.uk | Darren Richman

Mark Rosenblatt is the toast of the West End but we meet for a coffee in East Finchley. His first play, Giant, premiered at the Royal Court last year to rave reviews and has now transferred to the Harold Pinter Theatre for a run of 14 weeks. At this year’s Olivier Awards, he took home the prize for Best New Play. It’s not bad going for a director in his 40s who didn’t think he was the man to write a play about Roald Dahl. Dahl, appropriately enough, looms large for Rosenblatt.

2 weeks ago | jewishnews.co.uk | Darren Richman

The last words of Edmund Kean, in May 1833, are alleged to have been, “dying is easy, comedy is hard.” As if to prove the point, he died soon after without much difficulty. Unfortunately for Kean, there is nobody around today to verify his comic ability. The very best comedians do not just make us laugh but find an almost unique way of doing so that feels largely without precedent.

3 weeks ago | inews.co.uk | Darren Richman

You might not know the name, but you’ll know the face. Tom Basden has been writing and acting for a couple of decades, working on Peep Show, Fresh Meat, After Life and Man vs Bee along the way. But right now is something of a boom time for the comedian. He has recently finished filming series three of Here We Go, his family sitcom for the BBC that never forgets to be funny.

1 month ago | jewishnews.co.uk | Darren Richman

Jean Hannah Edelstein is talking to me about her breasts. This isn’t how it seems. The British-American writer is speaking from her home in New Jersey and explaining how she came to write Breasts, a short memoir in which the form reflects the content, as underlined by the subtitle: “A relatively brief relationship”. Edelstein charts the relationship with her body in three distinct chapters on sex, food and cancer; the result is a cathartic and powerful work that clocks in at under 100 pages.

1 month ago | jewishnews.co.uk | Darren Richman

First, some context. David is the man responsible for Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, perhaps the two greatest American television comedies of the modern era. He is the Stravinsky of sitcom, a towering figure who broke the rules and changed the game. Maher, on the other hand, is a man who spent decades confusing being an atheist with having a personality.