Sinead Matthews as Sylvia and cast
Till the Stars Come Down
Haymarket Theatre, London, July 2025
Photo by Manuel Harlan
099 – Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel
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Beth Steel’s hilarious and heartbreaking, state-of-the-nation play, Till the Stars Come Down, is set in what was once the heart of coal-mining country in Nottinghamshire. It is Sylvia and Marek’s wedding day, and her family have gathered to celebrate in traditional English fashion. What isn’t traditional is that unlike her older sisters, Sylvia’s husband-to-be is not a local man; Marek is a Polish immigrant. As the festivities unfold, fuelled by beer and vodka, emotions run high, and fault lines appear in this family that will change their lives forever.
I say, state-of-the-nation, not to overload the play with such intent, but to reflect how the circumstances and concerns of this one family echo the scars and divisions of the country at large, most specifically in the devastating economic and social changes in the region they inhabit. Having said that, this is primarily a universal family drama, showcasing how we are bound together by blood and history, wrestling with our individual and collective desires and disappointments.
Till the Stars Come Down premiered at the National Theatre in January 2024 to great acclaim from critics and audiences alike, and as we record this episode it is back on stage at the Royal Haymarket theatre in London’s West End.
The play’s author, Beth Steel, joins me to explore her richly layered play.
Beth Steel
In addition to Till the Stars Come Down, Beth Steel’s previous plays include Ditch – High Tide 2010, Wonderland at the Hampstead Theatre in 2014, followed by Labyrinth at the same theatre, and The House of Shades at the Almeida theatre in 2022.
Recommended Play
Beth recommended 1536 by Ava Pickett.
Photo by Vicki Couchman for The Sunday Times
113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
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Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia, is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.
As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.
112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
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David Mamet’s modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross, is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The play had its world premiere in the small Cottesloe theatre at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, and was first performed in New York the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mamet also wrote the extended screenplay for the star-studded 1992 film version.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play was playing at the Old Vic theatre in London, with an all-female cast. This is a particularly provocative idea, because one of the primary themes of this play is masculine identity, and the salesmen in this Chicago office do not hold back in their display of machismo.
To explore Mamet’s unflinching slice of 1980s dog-eat-dog capitalism, I am joined by arts journalist Mark Lawson.
111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
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Bertolt Brecht’s ‘gangster spectacle’, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.
I am delighted to be joined by both the show’s translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht’s political parody.
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