Beth Steel Archives - The Play Podcast

099 – Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel

by Douglas Schatz | Jul 25, 2025 | Podcast Episodes

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

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115 – The Dance of Death by August Strindberg

Oct 6, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death is set in a remote army base on the coast of Sweden, where an army captain and his wife are trapped together in an unhappy marriage. The captain, bitter at his lack of promotion, and his wife, frustrated at having been forced to give up her career as an actress, occupy their empty hours tearing into each other in a brutal dance of mutual cruelty.

Strindberg’s scorching portrait of marital strife was written in 1900, but has had a lasting influence. Arthur Miller dubbed Strindberg, “the mad inventor of modern theatre”, and echoes of his unflinching dissection of marital discord can be seen in the plays of Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and John Osborne.

Sir Richard Eyre adapted and directed a wonderful production of Dance of Death at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames earlier this year, and I am delighted that Sir Richard joins me in this episode to guide us through Strindberg’s blistering onslaught on marriage.

114 – Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare

Sep 22, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is described on the title page in the first publication of its text in 1598 as “A Pleasant Conceited Comedie.” I imagine that the epithets were intended to highlight the play’s courtly aesthetic, its frothy merry-go-round of courtship, and above all perhaps, its ostentatiously intricate word play. For it is a play rich in the love and perils of language.

I am joined to assay Shakespeare’s conceited comedy by the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, Tom Littler. In the summer of 2026 Tom adapted and directed a magical double bill of Shakespeare, producing Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing in repertory, and staging them both ‘en plein air’.

113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Aug 24, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

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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.

Beth Steel

by Douglas Schatz | Jul 24, 2025 | Contributor

Beth Steel

Beth Steel is the author of Till the Stars Come Down, which premiered to great acclaim at the National Theatre in January 2024, before transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in July 2025.

Beth’s previous plays include Ditch – High Tide 2010, Wonderland at the Hampstead Theatre in 2014, Labyrinth at the same theatre, and The House of Shades at the Almeida theatre in 2022.

Photo by Vicki Couchman for The Sunday Times

Podcast Episode(s)

099 - Till the Stars Come Down by Beth Steel

Recommended Play(s)

Beth recommended 1536 by Ava Pickett.