Playwright Naomi Sheldon chats to Rosemary Waugh about her pandemic pregnancy, sex, and channelling emotional turbulence into action.
Rosemary Waugh

Articles by Rosemary Waugh
25 February 2021
Features • Q&A and Interviews
Natalie Ibu: “I think the sector has been too seduced by the idea of new and young and sexy”
By Rosemary Waugh
The new artistic director of Northern Stage talks doomscrolling, digital theatre, and fighting to bring back the artists that theatre’s lost.
15 February 2021
Reviews
Review: May Contain Food by Protein (online)
By Rosemary Waugh
Good enough to eat: Rosemary Waugh cooks along with a show that explores our relationship with food.
15 December 2020
Features
Bryony Shanahan: “We need to laugh together and cry together to try to figure this thing out.”
By Rosemary Waugh
Rosemary Waugh interviews the co-artistic director of Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre about her tumultuous first year in the job.
10 December 2020
Reviews
Review: The Dumb Waiter at Hampstead Theatre
By Rosemary Waugh
Low-growling discord: Rosemary Waugh reviews a tense 60th anniversary revival of Harold Pinter’s play.
8 October 2020
Features
Debbie Hannan: “I’m stepping onto the ship at the exact moment it’s hitting the iceberg!”
By Rosemary Waugh
Traverse Theatre’s incoming co-artistic director Debbie Hannan talks class, the fringe, and rethinking theatre’s power structures.
28 September 2020
Reviews
Review: Squad Goals, Dagenham and Redbridge FC
By Rosemary Waugh
Star Players: Rosemary Waugh writes on a site-specific show celebrating the ‘mud-splattered-flood-lit revolution’ that is women’s football.
21 August 2020
Reviews • Opera
Review: Opera Helps by Joshua Sofaer
By Rosemary Waugh
Friendly overtures: Rosemary Waugh writes on her confidence-boosting one-to-one therapy session from an opera singer.
18 February 2020
Features
Tim Cowbury and Mark Maughan: “It’s a completely fucked system”
By Rosemary Waugh
The Claim is a Kafka-esque dive into the UK’s asylum system. Here, its creators talk bureaucracy, funding, and making political theatre without the capital ‘P’.
17 February 2020
Reviews • West End & Central
Review: The Visit at National Theatre
By Rosemary Waugh
Elegantly wasted: Rosemary Waugh writes on Tony Kushner’s elaborate, infuriating rewrite of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play.
21 October 2019
Reviews • West End & Central
Review: Lungs at the Old Vic
By Rosemary Waugh
“We’re good people right?” – Rosemary Waugh writes on the normal people of Duncan Macmillan’s climate change play.
7 September 2019
Reviews • West End & Central
Review: A Very Expensive Poison at Old Vic
By Rosemary Waugh
Unreliable narratives: Rosemary Waugh writes on Lucy Prebble’s metatheatrical story of Litvinenko’s poisoning.
1 September 2019
Reviews
Review: Bartholomew Fair at Shakespeare’s Globe
By Rosemary Waugh
Freaky fairground mirrors: Rosemary Waugh writes on a playful take on Ben Jonson’s challenging play.
19 August 2019
Reviews • Edinburgh Fringe 2019
Edinburgh fringe review: The Chosen by Company Chordelia
By Rosemary Waugh
“This hyper-awareness of impending death”: Rosemary Waugh writes on Kally Lloyd-Jones’ dance piece about mortality.
18 August 2019
Reviews • Edinburgh Fringe 2019
Edinburgh fringe review: Before by Pat Kinevane
By Rosemary Waugh
Awkward notes: Rosemary Waugh writes on Pat Kinevane’s musical meander through the life of a man who’s lost custody of his daughter.