Drama @50

Award-winning actress Tamsin Greig was among many alumni wishing the Drama and Theatre Arts (DTA) department a very happy 50th birthday this May.

Students, graduates, alumni, and friends gathered at mac Birmingham to celebrate 50 years of dramatic achievement at the University of Birmingham.

This year the department topped the Guardian’s ranking league table for dance and drama. The celebrations were marked by performances by students including original pieces and works byJonathan Lloyd, Martin Crimp, and Birmingham alumna Sarah Kane.

KILN theatre group, associate of The Birmingham  REP and formed by Birmingham DTA graduates in 2005, also performed ‘A Journey Round My Skull’, inspired by Frigyes Karinthy’s auditory hallucinations under experimental brain surgery in the early twentieth century, as documented in his 1938 medical memoir.

We asked our alumni to take part in the 50 Talking Heads project and send in videos which recalled memories of their time at Birmingham. Tamsin Greig, known best for roles such as Channel 4’s ‘Friday Night Dinner’, and the 2015 British Comedy film ‘The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’, congratulated the department on  five very successful decades and looked back on her favourite memory - performing David Hirst’s five person adaptation of ‘The Tempest’ in Italy.

You can see some of the memories here