Sean McEvoy Archives - The Play Podcast

079 – The Hills of California, by Jez Butterworth

by Douglas Schatz | Apr 19, 2024 | Podcast Episodes

079 – The Hills of California, by Jez Butterworth

It is the Summer of 1976, and Britain is sweltering through record heat and sunshine. The proprietress of the Seaview guest house in Blackpool lies dying upstairs, and her three, possibly four, daughters are coming together to say goodbye to her. This is the setting of The Hills of California, a new play by Jez Butterworth, which as we record this episode is playing at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London

A new play by Jez Butterworth is a theatrical event. He has written eight plays over the past 30 years, including his breakout hit Mojo, The River, The Ferryman, and most famously Jerusalem, which we covered in episode 50 of the podcast. As in his last play, The Ferryman, The Hills of California is a multi-generational family drama that features a large ensemble cast. Do not be misled by the play’s title, however, as we are not in sunny California, but in the baking back-streets of Blackpool. The Hills of California, as described in Johnny Mercer’s song of the same name, stands in for a far-away dream for Veronica and her four daughters in Blackpool.

The play alternates between the daughters’ reunion in 1976 as their mother is dying, and scenes from their childhood back in 1955, when Veronica had dreams of molding her four girls into a famous singing troupe in the model of the Andrews Sisters. She drills them in song and dance routines, determined that one day they will perform at the London Palladium or even Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, things don’t turn out as they’d all hoped for. The play is a portrait of lost dreams, of deeply ingrained patterns of love and hurt within a family, and of suppressed and mutable memories.

I am joined to explore this major new play by Dr Sean McEvoy, who is a Fellow in English at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. Sean is the author of Class, Culture and Tragedy in the Plays of Jez Butterworth published in 2021, and a great fan of his work.

Listen to our episode on Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem here:
050 Jerusalem

Sean McEvoy

Dr Sean McEvoy is a Fellow in English at Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. Sean has taught drama at sixth form, undergrad and post-grad levels, as well as published books on Shakespeare (Shakespeare – The Basics), Tragedy (Tragedy – The Basics), and riots on the stage (Theatrical Unrest: Ten Riots in the History of the Stage 1601-2004), but most importantly for our purposes he is the author of Class, Culture and Tragedy in the Plays of Jez Butterworth published in 2021.

Recommended Play

Sean recommended Bingo by Edward Bond.

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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.

Sean McEvoy

by Douglas Schatz | Apr 18, 2024 | Contributor

Sean McEvoy

Podcast Episode(s)

079 - The Hills of California, by Jez Butterworth

Recommended Play(s)

Sean recommended Bingo by Edward Bond.