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Chekhov's final masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard, follows a fading aristocratic family who return to the estate they can no longer afford, and watch it — orchard and all — sold off beneath them. The iconoclastic director Simon Stone, known for dismantling and rebuilding the classics, resets the action from Russia to a rapidly transforming modern-day Seoul, where the original noble...

BY MELODRAMA
Date 01. September 2026
3 min. read

"We just literally staged the last scene of the play", Linnea Berthelsen says, apologising for running a few minutes late. A week or so out from her London stage debut (at the Bush Theatre, which just so happens to be her local), the Stranger Things actress is keeping rigorous hours, working from eight in the morning to midnight. The point...

BY Louise Snouck
Date 26. August 2026
5 min. read

Whilst TD Moyo tells me that she found her way to opera by accident, it was a pretty auspicious accident. She was asked to join a directing programme at London's Royal Ballet and Opera, led by Katie Mitchell - which is a bit like taking a painting course, only to find out your teacher is Tracey Emin. When she first...

BY Louise Snouck
Date 24. August 2026
3 min. read
Interviews

Simon Stone Enlisted Seoul-based Architect Saul Kim to Design the House at the Heart of his Cherry Orchard

from: Louise Snouck

Chekhov's final masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard, follows a fading aristocratic family who return to the estate they can no longer afford, and watch it —...

Simon Stone Enlisted Seoul-based Architect Saul Kim to Design the House at the Heart of his Cherry Orchard

Dancing with Calder: Christine Dakin on Bringing Martha Graham to the South of France

from: Louise Snouck

The Martha Graham Technique is alive and well! Currently in the South of France at the legendary Fondation Maeght. MELODRAMA was thrilled to catch up...

Dancing with Calder: Christine Dakin on Bringing Martha Graham to the South of France

PAOLO FANTIN’S MONUMENTAL SHATTERED MIRROR ON LAKE CONSTANCE

from: Louise Snouck

Paolo Fantin is having a rather spectacular year. In February, he designed the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, and this July will reveal...

PAOLO FANTIN’S MONUMENTAL SHATTERED MIRROR ON LAKE CONSTANCE

CAMILLE ASSAF: THEATRE AS RESISTANCE

from: Louise Snouck

An encounter with the costume sketches of Rococo artist François Boucher in the Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra (Paris Opera Library) shifted Camille Assaf’s path from theory...

CAMILLE ASSAF: THEATRE AS RESISTANCE

THE AUDIENCE SEES EVERYTHING: STAGE DESIGNER ETIENNE PLUSS ON VISUAL STORYTELLING

from: Louise Snouck

Stage design is often a hidden art. While audiences marvel at the final grand result of an opera, few realize the months of drafting, sculpting,...

THE AUDIENCE SEES EVERYTHING: STAGE DESIGNER ETIENNE PLUSS ON VISUAL STORYTELLING

LEO SIMPE-ASANTE: THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD UPDATING BECKETT

from: Louise Snouck

At nineteen, the Royal Central student Leo Simpe-Asante can already list his work as a composer, poet, playwright, and actor on his resume. He has...

LEO SIMPE-ASANTE: THE NINETEEN-YEAR-OLD UPDATING BECKETT

DESIGNER TERESA VERGHO’S NEON-HUED TROLLS AND MECHANICAL DOLLS

from: Louise Snouck

Whether she is transforming actors into neon-hued trolls or mechanical dolls, the Berlin-based costume designer Teresa Vergho views the human body as a site of...

DESIGNER TERESA VERGHO’S NEON-HUED TROLLS AND MECHANICAL DOLLS

CUTTING, ASSEMBLING, AND BUILDING WITH SET DESIGNER SABINE THEUNISSEN

from: Louise Snouck

For over two decades, the Belgian set and exhibition designer Sabine Theunissen has been the close collaborator of renowned South African artist William Kentridge. While...

CUTTING, ASSEMBLING, AND BUILDING WITH SET DESIGNER SABINE THEUNISSEN

FROM COLLAGE TO CREATURES: DESIGNER ANJA VANG KRAGH’S JEWEL BOX

from: Louise Snouck

From years spent working for John Galliano during his Christian Dior reign, to the hallowed stages of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Danish...

FROM COLLAGE TO CREATURES: DESIGNER ANJA VANG KRAGH’S JEWEL BOX

RAKIE AYOLA ON FINDING THE HUMOUR IN THE DARK

from: Louise Snouck

Rakie Ayola, a powerhouse of the British stage and screen, is barreling toward an ADR session in an Uber for a film she can’t quite...

RAKIE AYOLA ON FINDING THE HUMOUR IN THE DARK

QWEEN JEAN ON THE RADICAL SPIRIT OF CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

from: Louise Snouck

The ecstatic, high-energy revival of Cats: The Jellicle Ball at the Broadhurst Theatre in New York reimagines the feline competition at the heart of the...

QWEEN JEAN ON THE RADICAL SPIRIT OF CATS: THE JELLICLE BALL

JOCELYN BIOH’S COMEDY TRAVELS (WELL) FROM HARLEM TO HAMMERSMITH.

from: Louise Snouck

At the London premiere of Jaja’s African Hair Braiding last week at the Lyric Hammersmith, the air was alight with shrieks and uninhibited, riotous laughter—the...

JOCELYN BIOH’S COMEDY TRAVELS (WELL) FROM HARLEM TO HAMMERSMITH.

SETTING THE SCENE WITH DESIGNER GARY MCCANN

from: Louise Snouck

From a childhood spent building worlds out of Lego in rural Ireland to designing for the historic stages of La Fenice and La Scala, set...

SETTING THE SCENE WITH DESIGNER GARY MCCANN

THEODORA SKIPITARES: THE PUPPET MASTER

from: Louise Snouck

Theodora Skipitares has spent forty years building a puppet population in New York City. Her work emerged from the 1970s feminist second wave, a time...

THEODORA SKIPITARES: THE PUPPET MASTER

WHITNEY WHITE’S THEATRICAL PILGRIMAGE

from: Louise Snouck

Theatre polymath and artistic force Whitney White spent the last month on a sort of pilgrimage to the "Holy Land" of theater makers. Otherwise known...

WHITNEY WHITE’S THEATRICAL PILGRIMAGE

The Ruffled Universe of Costumier Hannah Oellinger

from: Louise Snouck

Getting a peak into opera costumier Hannah Oellinger’s mind is a wondrous thing. In this conversation with Melodrama she shares how her imagination is fed...

The Ruffled Universe of Costumier Hannah Oellinger

“Oh—you’re still playing the clarinet?” Spotlight On Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect

from: Louise Snouck

The young Armenian-American clarinetist Anoush Pogossian is at the start of her career, thinking carefully about who classical music is for. She is a fellow...

“Oh—you’re still playing the clarinet?” Spotlight On Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect

Downtown Theater’s Scott Shepherd on the Wild, Hilarious, and Lyrical beauty of James Joyce

from: Louise Snouck

Actor and practitioner Scott Shepherd has an “extreme‑sport attitude toward performance.” A beacon of The Wooster Group and Elevator Repair Service—experimental theatre ensembles known for...

Downtown Theater’s Scott Shepherd on the Wild, Hilarious, and Lyrical beauty of James Joyce

From Flash Mobs to Opera: Meet Colombian Soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong

from: Louise Snouck

Opera found Julieth Lozano Rolong by accident—and she followed it all the way from Colombian flash mobs to international stages. Calling in from rehearsals in...

From Flash Mobs to Opera: Meet Colombian Soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong

KEENAN TYLER OLIPHANT ON THE PROCESS OF DIRECTING

from: Louise Snouck

Keenan Tyler Oliphant is a theatre-maker and director from Cape Town, South Africa. Melodrama’s Kate Purdum recently spoke to Oliphant over the phone about his...

KEENAN TYLER OLIPHANT ON THE PROCESS OF DIRECTING

SAM PRITCHARD ON MYTHS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

from: Louise Snouck

Sam Pritchard is a theatre director and the former Associate Director at the Royal Court Theatre in London. Most recently, he directed Romans: A Novel,...

SAM PRITCHARD ON MYTHS OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN

SOUTRA GILMOUR IS INTERESTED IN HOW THEATRE FEELS IMMEDIATE AND CLOSE

from: Louise Snouck

Costume and set designer Soutra’s creative partnership with director-of-the-moment Jamie Lloyd has shaped some of the most talked-about productions of the past few years—Evita, Sunset...

SOUTRA GILMOUR IS INTERESTED IN HOW THEATRE FEELS IMMEDIATE AND CLOSE