With his new play recently staged at Kingston’s Rose Theatre, here we catch up with Reigate-based playwright Oliver Lansley to discover how he gets his local culture fix
If I want to go to the cinema, I...
Buy a large bucket of popcorn, mixed sweet and salt, and a bag of sweets, and then settle in and enjoy the film. I love the escapism of being in a cinema.
The last film I saw was...
Recently I saw Her by Spike Jonze, which I thought was spectacular. He’s such an excellent writer and director; he mixes the absurd and the mundane and explores his themes in a truly original way.
For my theatre fix, I like to...
Go to the Edinburgh Festival; you get a year’s worth of theatre all in the space of one month.
If I get the chance to go to a concert, I...
Seek out someone I’m really keen to see live. Or go to a festival and squeeze in a few in one go.
I’m currently reading...
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt; it’s a western that’s set in the underworld of the 1850s frontier. I recently performed in The Man who shot Liberty Valance on stage and it gave me the bug.
The last time I went to my local library was...
I went to a local library earlier in the year to do some writing – I didn’t read any books though.
At home, I’m most likely to be listening to...
Radio 6 music, or whatever I’m in the mood for from my iTunes. I recently got a record player actually so it would probably be a crackly Stevie Wonder record or something like that.
Whereas in the car, I generally listen to...
I radio surf looking for songs that I like.
The TV programme that I never miss is...
Probably an American one – True Detective, Breaking Bad and Arrested Development are a few of the favourites.
My favourite cultural event in Surrey is...
The Trench performing at The Rose Theatre in Kingston later this month.
• Oliver Lansley’s The Trench showed at Kingston’s Rose Theatre in October 2014
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Need to know…
As well as being a published playwright, Oliver Lansley is the founder and artistic director of Reigate-based theatre company Les Enfants Terribles. In their 12-year history, the company has become highly regarded as creators of visually stimulating theatre, all of which is written by Oliver. He also works extensively in television, having co-created/written ITV2’s FM, which was deemed ‘The greatest radio comedy since Frasier’ (Metro), and BBC2s White, which starred Alan Davies. His accolades include a ‘Multi-talented’ award at Channel 4’s 4-Talent Awards and being named a Broadcast Magazine ‘Hotshot’.
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