Ben Esdale and Adeyinka Akinrinade - Rep: Radical Classical Interview

Repertoire theatre is making a fierce comeback at West London’s iconic Riverside Studios. To mark half a century of the legendary venue, Flywheel is launching Radical Classical—an ambitious season of five comedies and tragedies brought to life by a single core ensemble of five actors. Drawing inspiration from 50 years of Riverside history and artistic giants ranging from Samuel Beckett and Complicité to Helen Mirren and Brian Cox, this whirlwind season reimagines timeless classics to interrogate modern judgement, power, and division.

The season includes The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, The School for Wives by Molière, Phaedra by Jean Racine, Measure For Measure by William Shakespeare and The Virtuous Burglar by Dario Fo (translation by Joe Farrell). 

We sat down with Artistic Director Ben Esdale and Producer Adeyinka Akinrinade to discuss the intense pace of traditional Rep, honouring a venue’s history, and what it takes to breathe radical new life into classic theatre.

Riverside Studios has a monumental 50-year legacy featuring icons like Samuel Beckett, Helen Mirren and Peter Gill. How does it feel to step into that history, and how did you select the five plays to represent this half-century milestone?

Ben: Riverside’s history book reads like a roll-call of some of the most amazing writers and companies from the last 50 years. We were lucky enough to be able to go through the archives at the theatre, and it was humbling to imagine ourselves as part of an ongoing story that might last another 50 years or more. The plays we chose each represent a different but important aspect of the theatre’s history, and help celebrate all aspects of theatre-making, not just writing and acting, but experimental design, and the importance of collaboration.

Coming back to Riverside for this project is a huge personal moment, it’s the perfect combination of our company’s ambition, and Riverside’s commitment to producing and supporting new writers and artists, it feels like we’re at the forefront of an exciting new wave.

You're referencing legendary influences like Cheek by Jowl, Complicité and The Wooster Group. How do those physical, ensemble-driven methodologies manifest in the staging of these classics?

Ben: Rep is inherently ensemble-based, you can’t escape it, and there’s a humbleness to the work. Each actor goes through a fantastic journey. One week you’re on stage for an hour and half straight, spilling your heart out in a tragedy, the next you’re in a couple of short scenes playing a talking lamp (not this season). It teaches you the importance of every role, and every part of the team. The companies that have inspired us were built on similar tenets, and on ambition; they weren’t afraid to believe that a body could tell a story, that an ensemble could build a world, or that a theatre company could change a life.

Companies are struggling, the finances are tougher than ever, and it’s important to celebrate the successful companies of the past, to inspire those that could be forming today. All it takes is a couple of mates and a dream (and maybe there’s a future world of consistent financial support from the government).

Reclaiming traditional rep theatre in modern London is a bold choice. What made now the right moment to bring this intensive model back to Riverside Studios?
Ben: I grew up on the stories of Rep, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to get into theatre in the first place. I wanted to be in 20 shows a year, I wanted to be in every Shakespeare play, and live my life in a constant state of learning and creating. What a dream to be crushed by the sad disappearance of Rep as a standard model.

There was no precedent, no blueprint, but if you never try, you’ll never know. So we tried, last year at the Old Red Lion, six shows in six weeks. It was a whirlwind, and a success, so we’re scaling up, from a 50-seater to a 150-seater. More ambition, more intensity, more excitement.

A few years ago nobody was really talking about it, but things have changed in the last six months. More and more actors and creatives are coming out in support of Rep as a concept. We’re just happy to be part of that revival.

Directing five distinct productions in five weeks is an absolute pressure cooker. What is your directorial strategy for giving each play its own distinct identity without burning out your team?

Ben: One of the best lessons learned from last year’s season was in how I think of myself as a director, as a theatre-maker, and as a team-member. The secret (and obvious) trick for making any successful show is getting the right people together in the room. Our cast are incredible, our creative team is an absolute powerhouse. Everyone working on this season is giving their all, because they believe in what we’re trying to do. Everyone is pushing themselves, for the love of the challenge, and embracing the system.

And at the end of the day, we care. As simple as it sounds, we care about each other as people, as human beings with real lives that go on outside the rehearsal room whether you like it or not. We are a company of artists, and accepting that the work is difficult, and looking after our cast and crew, is paramount, not just for keeping a moral backbone, but to produce good work.

With all that good energy in the room, my job becomes extremely fun. Bring in a plan, allow it to change. Suggest, accept, adapt. Know when to listen, when to allow room to be silly and chaotic. Know when to fix, how to construct. And I try to remember that, at the end of the day, I’m not the one going out there in front of the audience, that’s important.

How did you approach selecting the plays to feature in the season?
Ben: When we first sat down with Riverside they suggested a play from each of the last five decades, and we had the idea of a season that would reflect the many facets of the theatre’s history. The archives are detailed, so we made a list.

A long, long list of every production from the last 50 years, which is hundreds of shows. So, then you look for obvious contenders… The first show, directed by the first Artistic Director, that’s got to be in there, so we’re starting with The Cherry Orchard, just like Riverside did. Then, 2026 marks the 100th centenary of Dario Fo’s birth, and he was widely associated with the theatre as his London base. He’s in. A play to represent the experimental companies that have passed through: The Wooster Group’s version of Phaedra, perhaps?

Of course, they also have to be good ensemble pieces, and they have to be adaptable to our method, which involves cutting down the bigger classics, or picking contemporary work which can feasibly be made in a week.

Ben Esdale.

As Producer, balancing the logistics, budgets and scheduling of five rolling shows with one core company sounds like a high-wire act. What has been the biggest producing challenge so far?

Adeyinka: It’s a high-wire act just putting on one show, imagine doing 5 shows and then doing them back to back…I’m sure you can imagine the challenges we’re up against, but I can say in all honesty the biggest producing challenge has been thinking about five productions not as five separate shows, but as one large piece of machinery. Every decision has a knock-on effect somewhere else, a change to one rehearsal schedule can affect another show, a costume requirement can affect a quick change in another production, and a technical decision can impact the whole week. So we’ve really pushed the idea that we’re looking at each show collectively. It’s actually made logistics easier, when you essentially look at it as a whole, instead of individually.

Rep creates a specific kind of electric, fast-paced energy. How does that intensity bleed onto the stage and change the audience's experience compared to a standard single-play run?

Ben: There is a certain unique rawness and freshness that the actors thrive in, and the audience love. We really focus on engaging the audience throughout the process, and with the system itself. The best way to experience the Rep is by coming to multiple shows, that’s why we do deals for multi-bookings, we want people to come again and again and again!

When we did last year’s season we were diving in the deep end; a grand experiment. For me, the moment that I knew it was a success was when I overheard an audience member discussing the cast before one of the shows. This was a complete stranger, not a friend or family member, genuinely excited by the idea of watching the system work. They couldn’t believe that the same actor they had just days ago seen as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet was about to be on stage as part of a Greek chorus, and then would next be playing Colonel Pickering in Pygmalion the week after. They were, then and there, booking their tickets for the last show, Doctor Faustus. It’s enrapturing. It’s intense. It’s exciting. It goes wrong. It goes right. It is unmistakably live.

You're working with a core ensemble of just five actors taking on every role across the season. What were you looking for during casting to ensure you found actors with that level of stamina and adaptability?

Ben: You’re absolutely right in highlighting two of the most important skills that an actor needs to take part in a season like this. Being a flexible performer is part of most actors’ toolkits, and a job like this is exciting for actors because of that opportunity to play multiple roles, and roles they may not have thought they were right for. We don’t cast the parts, we cast the ensemble, and then we cast within that ensemble. So at the audition stage we might have an idea of certain roles that need filling, but we don’t think that way. We think about who is going to be great in the room, who is going to bring energy every day, and show up when the going gets tough. Perhaps the most important skill we look out for: being a good person, which isn’t as easy as it sounds, but we’re about to spend eight intense weeks together, and one of the main puzzles is finding a group who will gel, and who we think will groove together on stage, and in the rehearsal room.

We have to get our auditionees in the room, we have to see how they interact with other actors. We do improvisation games and group exercise, and then we discuss the best balance of voices and presences. There are pros to being a front-footed go-getter, but we also value those who listen, and are patient with themselves and others.

Producing an intense 5-week season means looking after the well-being of your company. How do you cultivate a healthy, supportive backstage environment when the pressure is at a maximum?

Adeyinka: The well-being of the whole cast and creative team is extremely important. Everyone knows and understands what we’re doing is ambitious and we’re all excited by that, but we’re very aware it’s fundamental that everyone is looked after. We’ve put certain measures in place to ensure the company feels supported and safe. That's why we’re working with ZooCo and have put a plan together to have a supportive environment in rehearsals, during production and everything in between.

We’ve established from the get go that welfare in this particular season is crucial. We’re tracking hours, ensuring people are rested - we’re checking in regularly, encouraging the company to be honest and open about how it’s going - we’re adjusting schedules to work around the company, and that’s just to name a few. We want this to be exciting, but safe. We want the team to do their best work.

Adeyinka Akinrinade

The season focuses on themes of judgment, division, and power imbalances. How do these classic plays act as a mirror to today's socio-political climate?

Ben: We live in divided times, perhaps more so than ever, and there is a societal urgency that rewards snap decisions and hasty judgments. However, we’d be fools to think the arguments we encounter are totally unique to today. What constitutes a crime? How are societies managed? How does gender influence personal politics? Looking through the classics reveals a catalogue of these same questions hidden in pain sight. All five plays, tragedy and comedy alike, look at different aspects of the balance of power, how we make decisions, and the human repercussions of our actions.

It’s important for us to study not just what happens, but why it happens. Rooted in the heart of these plays is a discussion, a writer trying to communicate through characters. I think that special combination of emotional energy and social discussion is what makes theatre the best medium for engaging with life and the world around you. There’s also a lot of fun in taking a classic story and twisting it slightly, shifting time and place, rearranging, morphing, and giving our audiences a special experience.

For audiences considering coming to multiple shows, or all five, what makes experiencing the ensemble evolve across the whole season so special?

Ben: It’s the personal element that makes Rep like this so brilliant, and rewarding. There’s a sort of flowchart you can build from Writer to Audience which passes through directors and designers and actors and venues and bar staff and traffic jams. It can create a bit of a cacophony, when all that’s really happening is a bunch of (brilliantly talented) people are telling a story, because they want you to laugh, cry, and learn.

Seeing the same actors in different roles not only humanises the performers, it helps the audience immerse in the bigger questions being asked, and gives them the confidence to know that they are part of this process. The whole season is like one big live conversation between cast, crew, and audience. 

There’s no hierarchy here, everyone’s invited to share.

Aside from that, it’s just really very impressive. These actors are brilliant, truly, and watching them work is a joy, and a lesson. We want to inspire other creatives to stretch what’s possible, and this ensemble will inspire you.

With five shows back-to-back, how do you handle the rehearsal process? Are you rehearsing one play while another is running, or diving into all five simultaneously?

Ben: Yes we are. What’s known as ‘Weekly’ Rep. Rehearse Show A for a week, perform Show A for a week, while you rehearse Show B, perform Show B for a week, and so on. It is quite probably the most intense format of theatre-making possible, rehearsing in the day while performing at night, and it’s a huge task in energy management, and taking care of ourselves.

Last season we went straight into the weekly system, and we found ourselves slightly on the back foot at points, so for this season we’ve added two weeks of rehearsal at the start, as an opportunity to give ourselves an exploration buffer: time to relax into the work, workshop some outlandish ideas, and allow for creative freedom before diving into the intensity of the Weekly work.

The key is a healthy combination of planning and flexibility. We have to bring a lot of ideas into the room, because we don’t have time to build everything from scratch, but we also need to be elastic enough to allow for things to change, and adapt to each week, day, and night as it comes.

If someone could only describe the experience of REP: RADICAL CLASSICAL in three words, what would you want those words to be?

Ben: Fearless, Ambitious, Electric.

What do you hope a visit to one (or multiple) of the plays inspires in an audience?

Ben: Basically, we want people to have a great night. The plays are funny, sad, confusing, enraging, strange, and a hundred other brilliant things. What we really want, though, is for people to head into October with a sense of hope, and inspiration for creating a better world. It sounds like a lofty ambition, but that is the point. Theatre can change minds, it can inspire goodness, and greatness. Sharing stories is one of the most human of pastimes, and is still one of the best ways to feel and learn.

The uniqueness of engaging with a season like this is that it brings people together like only live-art can, and coming back into the room, week after week, meeting the same actors, recognising audiences from other shows, talking to the cast and crew before and after the show, it makes the experience highly-communal, and that’s what putting on plays is really about.

Rep: Radical Classical runs at The Riverside Studios in London from Tuesday 8th September until Saturday 10th October 2026. For individual play dates, more information and tickets, visit https://riversidestudios.co.uk/whats-on/uqe-rep-radical-classical/

Cast: (from left to right): Jessica Temple, Conor Dumbrell, Rachel-Leah Hosker, Jaemon Anthony Crosby, Cash Holland. Photo by Miranda Mazzarella.