025: Marie McCarthy is turning into Clapham’s theatrical mum.

Our special guest on the Show People Podcast is Marie McCarthy –  Artistic Director of the Omnibus Theatre, Clapham. Marie goes into great detail about her multi-award-winning theatre, its history, her vision and the many ways that theatre-makers can work with them as well as outlining their exciting upcoming season too.
Marie talks about growing up a Catholic and her early theatre experiences, her time training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts as an actor and her journey to becoming a director via Birkbeck University and setting up her own company – Lightning Ensemble – an immersive theatre company that creates thought-provoking productions within communities. Marie shares her experiences directing immersive productions and explains why she is so interested in exploring relationships with non-conventional spaces, she also reveals why she decided to leave Lightning Ensemble to take up her post at the Omnibus Theatre and the many challenges and rewards that face her now.

Episode features include:

Dramatic News: Andrew covers the latest industry headlines, including stories about the passing of Dame Gillian Lynne, casting announcements for Marianne Elliott’s upcoming production of Stephen Sondheim’s Company and the West End production of 42nd Street, a new Disney pop-up for The Lion King and Aladdin in Covent Garden and an update about Arion Productions’ GoFundMe campaign.

The Platform: Today’s platform is given to Joe Wilson and Matthew Rankcom’s new musical Perfectly Ordinary – a piece that explores the lives of patients with mental health illnesses and their carers and we play a song called, In-between, performed by Emily Lane.