Mark Rosenblatt Archives - The Play Podcast

Mark Rosenblatt

by Douglas Schatz | Jun 25, 2025 | Contributor

Mark Rosenblatt

Mark Rosenblatt has worked for more than 25 years as a freelance theatre director across the UK and internationally, directing productions at Shakespeare’s Globe, the National Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Northampton, Leeds Playhouse, the Edinburgh Festival, the Young Vic, and in the West End, off-Broadway and Tokyo, to name a few. He was full-time Associate Director at Leeds Playhouse from 2013-16 and an Associate Artist there till 2020, directing nine main house productions. Before that, he was the Associate at the National Theatre Studio from 2011 to 2013.

Mark’s first play, Giant, premiered at the Royal Court in the Autumn of 2024, before transferring to the West End in the Spring of 2025. The play won three Olivier awards for: Best New play; John Lithgow won Best Actor for his towering performance as Roald Dahl; and Eliot Levy was Best Supporting Actor as Dahl’s British publisher Tom Maschler.

Mark is also a screenwriter, writing and directing the award-winning short film GANEF, and co-writing Dominic Dromgoole’s feature film debut MAKING NOISE QUIETLY. He is currently working on a new feature film.

Podcast Episode(s)

097 - Giant by Mark Rosenblatt

Recommended Play(s)

Mark recommended A Good House by Amy Jephta.

097 – Giant by Mark Rosenblatt

by Douglas Schatz | Jun 25, 2025 | Podcast Episodes

10. John Lithgow in Giant at the Harold Pinter Theatre (c) Johan Persson

John Lihgow as Roald Dahl
Giant at the Harold Pinter theatre
May 2025
Photo by Johan Persson

097 – Giant by Mark Rosenblatt

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It is 1983 and the famous children’s author Roald Dahl finds himself embroiled in a public controversy that threatens his reputation, the potential sales of his books around the world, and even his life. His writing of a book review criticizing the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon has crossed the line into explicit antisemitism, and has been greeted with outrage. The scandal comes at a time when the long-estabished stability of Dahl’s life is in turmoil. He has recently divorced his wife of thirty years, the renowned American actress, Patricia Neal, and his new fiancée, Felicity Crossland, has just moved into the family home, Gypsy House, and initiated a program of disruptive renovations.

These are the true facts that serve as the premise for Mark Rosenblatt’s electrifying first play, Giant, which imagines an encounter between Dahl and representatives from both his British and American publishers, who have arrived at Gypsy House to try to persuade Dahl to issue some conciliatory response to critics of the review. Dahl is characteristically disinclined to retreat from his deeply-felt opinions.

The play is full of thorny moral issues that are hugely topical, including the potential conflict between the character of the artist and our appreciation for their art, and most pointedly, it addresses the conflation of opposition to actions by the state of Israel with antisemitism. It is an utterly riveting rollercoaster experience in the theatre – thought provoking and entertaining in the best possible way.

I am hugely delighted to be joined by the author of Giant, Mark Rosenblatt, to explore his extraordinary play.

As we record this episode, Giant is currently playing at the Harold Pinter theatre in London’s West End, having transferred after its acclaimed run at the Royal Court theatre last Autumn. Giant has rightly received rave reviews and awards, including at the Oliviers this year, where it was Best New play, and John Lithgow won Best Actor for his towering performance as Dahl, with Eliot Levy also winning the Olivier for Best Supporting Actor as Dahl’s British publisher Tom Maschler.

Mark Rosenblatt

He is also a screenwriter, writing and directing the award-winning short film GANEF, and co-writing Dominic Dromgoole’s feature film debut MAKING NOISE QUIETLY. He is currently working on a new feature film.

Recommended Play

Mark recommended A Good House by Amy Jephta.

We have footnotes for this episode …

The Footnotes that accompany our episode on Mark Rosenblatt’s award-winning play, ‘Giant’, include a selection of trivial facts about Dahl, as well as observations on the character of Jessie Stone and the balance of our sympathies.

Footnotes for Patrons

Become a Patron!

Since I launched The Play Podcast in April 2020, I have managed to eschew any form of advertising or sponsorship, and I would like to continue to produce the podcast without doing so. I therefore invite you to help me to continue to make the podcast by becoming a Patron. Additional benefits available to Patrons include Footnotes on the plays covered in the podcast, as well as early access to The Play Review. For details click here Thank you very much for listening and for your support. Douglas

The Texts

If you are interested in buying the play text or other related books, we’d be delighted if you choose to purchase them from our selected partners Bookshop.org and Blackwell’s. Not only will you be supporting independent booksellers, we will also earn a small commission on every book you purchase, which helps to keep the podcast going. Click on the cover to buy from our chosen partner. Thank you.

112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet

Jul 27, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Jul 2, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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.

110 – Our Town by Thornton Wilder

Jun 12, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Playwright Edward Albee described Thornton Wilder’s Our Town as “the greatest American play ever written.” In fact Wilder’s quintessential portrait of rural America in a bygone time has somehow transcended its iconic American setting to become a universal meditation on mortality, community, and how we live our individual lives, wherever that may be.

The play premiered on Broadway in 1938, winning Wilder the Pulitzer Prize, and it has been a staple of school, amateur and stock performance ever since. In fact, according to critic John Lahr writing in the introduction to the text of the Penguin edition, “the play is performed somewhere in the world every day.”

Howard Sherman, author of Another Day’s Begun – Thornton Wilder’s Our Town in the 21st Century, joins me to explore this American classic.

Michael Sheen as the Stage Manager in Our Town, Welsh National Theatre, photo by Helen Murray.