Kate Ashfield on Sarah Kane's Blasted: 'the whole run was charged with energy'
The role was hard to stomach, there were queues around the block and the critical reaction was beyond extreme … Twenty years after its first performance at the Royal Court, Kate Ashfield remembers starring in Blasted
Zoë Wanamaker: I'd acted before, but not until I got to Stratford in 1978 – a kind of conservatoire where I could learn from the best – did I become brave enough to do it well
Peter Egan: 'John Osborne was like a wounded animal, an exposed nerve'
I knew the Look Back in Anger sequel Déjà Vu wouldn't work, but I couldn't turn it down. I knew John deserved to be presented again – and that it would be his last play, writes Peter Egan
Ian McDiarmid on the Citizens theatre: 'a temple of Dionysian excess'
The Citizens theatre in the 1970s was revolutionary – I was playing Galileo at 27, which is ludicrous. But we were thrown in at the deep end and challenged not to sink, writes Ian McDiarmid
Janet Suzman: how Paul Scofield's genius silenced a rehearsal studio
I was Portia in Stratford one year when Paul walked in, dropped his coat and delivered a speech so masterful I would have played a grain of sand just to be in the same room as him
Linda Bassett: sharing a fenland cottage with Caryl Churchill changed my career
Continuing our series in which actors write about pivotal moments, Linda Bassett explains why a series of workshops in rural Norfolk opened up a new world of theatre for her
