Date/Time: Tuesday 30 April 2024, 5.30pm

Venue: Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building, Newcastle University

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All our events remain free and open to all, but pre-booking is required. Bookings for this lecture will open at 10.00am on 23 April. To reserve your place click the booking link below or telephone our booking voicemail line 0191 208 6136.

Chaired by Professor Jo Robinson, Head of the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics

Drawing on 60 years of reviewing and broadcasting, most prominently as drama critic of the Guardian from 1971 to 2019, the biographer of Harold Pinter, Alan Ayckbourn, and Tom Stoppard will discuss the state of the British stage, in conversation with Jo Robinson, Professor of Theatre and Performance at Newcastle University.

Biography

Michael Billington trained as a journalist with the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, before reviewing plays, films, and television for The Times between 1965 and 1971. He has served as London Arts Correspondent for the New York Times, and has presented television profiles of Peggy Ashcroft and Peter Hall, as well as contributed to many radio and television arts programmes including Kaleidoscope, Critics’ Forum, The Book Programme, and Arena, as well as the Billington Interview and Theatre Call for the BBC. He has been drama critic of Country Life since 1987.