Feature Category: Article

Rehka Shankar is an actress, writer and comedian, whose credits include  Magic for Humans and Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show. She is best known for her work on Dropout. TV Rekha is also a cast member of Dropout’s flagship show,  Dimension20: Never Stop Blowing Up, an action comedy D&D show with strong Last Action Hero meets Jumani vibes. We caught up with Rekha to find out more.

What is the pitch For Never Stop Blowing Up?
If the dumbest action comedy you’ve ever seen became a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, so every character is a loose cannon goofball making goofball choices within the framework of a Jumanji-type campaign.

Your character is a little old lady. Where did the idea for that come from?
So the old lady just came from me, asking myself, “What do I like to play?”

And I love playing kind of hapless, batty, detail-oriented, like detailed characters. They kind of have a heart of gold. And I love old people. I was half-raised by my grandparents. I know how to play an old Indian lady very well. And I had just done DesiQuest, which is an all South Asian Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and played an older lady there who was kind of tough his nails.  Aunty knows best!

I wanted to play something different from that. I wanted to play the kind of old lady who has issues with technology and works in the shop.  She’s been there a long time, and she’s the only one who knows their internal system of bookkeeping, kind of thing. And it’s so sweet, but probably so annoying at the same time.

For my inside-the-videotape character, I just wanted to go with the opposite. What’s the opposite of an old lady who hates technology? A young hacker, and hackers are totally the type of person you see in these action comedy movies.

So I based G13 on a mix of Riley from National Treasure, the guy in the van, and kind of took it to an extreme. I wanted it to be like an insular hacker who has loyalty to nobody, who has connections to nobody except himself. All he cares about is winning. All he cares about is who we can get something from, who we can steal something from.

Playing two characters at once sounds like a challenge, especially as Dimension20 has a very strong improv vibe. How hard was it to do?
It was really hard in the first few episodes. I was having a tough time embodying G13 and Usha at the same time because I could not grasp what she would know that he wouldn’t. And what he would know that she wouldn’t. And how I would marry those because I’m like, if Usha is sitting at the computer in G13’s body, does she know what G13 does? And my mind said, No, I think this woman is Fort Knox when it comes to ingesting new information about technology. She’s like a hacker’s worst nightmare, because she cannot be taught anything. You can’t break through there to the wall. But at the same time, she’s very susceptible. She’s an older lady who’s kind of gullible, so that’s why she ends up getting hacked. So I found it very hard to marry those things. So when in doubt, I kind of just looked into the rear-view mirror of what I established for Usha and for G13, and tried to make a decision from there.

What was your favourite moment in the show?
I loved the grenade-throwing bit. When I threw the grenade, and then immediately regretted it, and then tried to catch it, and then it exploded in Alex’s hands. I thought that was so unbelievably funny. And it was just so like, like, Naked Gun type of comedy, like, so unbelievably stupid.

What’s your favourite action movie?
National Treasure. So I did look up some stuff about the hacker character from there, and I looked up some of the moves that they used in that movie. But in terms of, like, my favourite action movies, I really like, like, stuff with cool choreography.  I thought, when I saw Rush Hour for the first time, I thought, like, Jackie Chan’s just incredible. Every clip I see of him is crazier than the next.

Simpsons or Futurama?
Futurama

Truth or Beauty?
Truth!

You can watch Never Stop Blowing up on Dropout.TV today. And if you have any questions, they’ve produced an FAQ. (We’ve updated this article to let you know that you can also join Dropout as Superfan, details are here.)

Siobhan Thompson is a British-American comedian and script-writer with credits such as Rick and Morty and Adam Ruins Everything.  She is also one of the intrepid heroes on Dropout.TV’s actual play D&D show, Dimension 20. We caught up with her to talk about the Dimension 20 campaign, Fantasy High Junior Year.

How would you pitch Fantasy High Junior Year to an elderly relative who loves Dungeons and Dragons?
First of all, very silly. But I think that a lot of it is about like, the consequences of your actions sort of catching up with you. And also, that moment in school, where you suddenly realise, oh no, I can’t coast anymore, I have to study and do my work. And for each character, that means sort of a different thing. And everybody has a different accent. At the end of the day, it’s full of fun, it’s a show about friends in high school. And that happened to be magical.

This is Season three of Fantasy High? How different is that from the first two?
The first one, we really didn’t know what we were doing, in a good way I think.  It’s always fun to go in not knowing anything, and so you can break rules that you don’t know exist. And then second season, because it was all live and we were shooting it week to week, it felt like we could tell a story in a way that is little different. Because we could get some kind of audience interaction. We didn’t have any of the minis. The structure of it was very different.

And then going into this third one, we’ve now been doing this show for five years. We’ve shot a lot of episodes of it. I couldn’t tell you how many, I mean, I shot thirty-six Dimension20’s last year. So we’re much more, I think comfortable playing the game, everybody knows the rules of the game, which we certainly didn’t going into freshman year.

We’re in a whole new, big, fancy studio that the air conditioning works properly, and we have crazy monitors and projections and exciting. All of the minis have LEDs in them now, and they’re so beautiful. I mean, they’ve always been beautiful, but they’ve leveled up so much this season. It’s so impressive.

Has the success changed the vibe. Because there was a 3am in the morning, you were in a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, vibe to the earlier shows has, has that success changed it in what way?

I think somehow it has. I think the nice thing about us shooting all of the seasons outside of the public eye is really nice in that we get to present a finished product where we’re not thinking week to week about what the response is going to be, because we’ve already done it. The whole cast work really hard. We’re also all great friends, even if the show has sort of changed our lives a little bit, and it’s a much bigger operation now. We still have that friendship, and that friendship is maintained and deepened over the years, and I think that that’s sort of the core of it, but we also work very hard at making it feel as small as possible when we’re in the dome.

You’re the only British person amongst the Intrepid Heroes, and British geek culture is very different. How often does that come out in the show?

Certainly you’ve been influenced by a lot of that stuff Pratchett especially. Pratchett is so huge all over the UK. He is probably my favorite writer, and I’ve drawn so much from him, especially like his ability to justify the stupidest thing on the planet. It is so delightful to me, like all of the Pratchett footnotes, that energy is something that I always try to bring into my writing. Like what’s the silliest idea? And then how can I justify that, so that it seems like it’s the only idea, or the best idea, or the actually the most sensible idea. And then there’s Lord of the Rings.

Over Christmas I often I re-listen to the BBC dramatization of Lord of the Rings with Ian Holm and Bill Nye, which is so wonderful. I grew up with Radio Four, so when Radio Four archives started coming out, that was also very huge for me. Especially because of The HitchHikers Guide To The Galaxy  which is wonderful. But suddenly, in the early 2000s, you got access to all of this old comedy, as well as the Radiophonic Workshop. Science Fiction that was made for Radio Four and then never rebroadcast or made easily available. Like John Wyndham dramatisations or, you know, Return to Mars.  They were just wonderful.

Doctor Who or Doctor No?
Doctor Who!

Rick or Morty?
Oh, Morty. Rick’s a nightmare.

Truth or Beauty?
At this point in my life, beauty, truth is transient. Beauty is forever.

You can find out more about DIMENSION 20 – Fantasy High Junior Year via Dropout.TV. (We’ve updated this article to let you know that you can also join Dropout as Superfan, details are here.)

Editorial note: This is a previous interview that has had it’s links updated. 

Charlie Tymms is a world-renowned puppet designer and maker who creates wonderful creatures for the theatre. Their work includes Hamlet, Spirited Away, The Wicker Husband, and Watermill Theatre’s production of Lord of the Rings. They also created Marvin the Paranoid Android for the new theatrical version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  We caught up with Charlie to find out more.

How did you end working on Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
A cast of puppets, maybe led by Shelob, recommended me.

What was the appeal of making puppets for this project?
I grew up listening to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and have long followed Douglas Adams. I think, like most fans, Marvin the Paranoid Android had a big emotional connection for me, so I was enchanted by the idea of realising him as a puppet for the stage.

What’s the coolest thing that you know that most people don’t know about puppets?
Puppets can see you.

What was your first introduction to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
A teacher called Haggis introduced the radio series to my brother when I was little. It became a family favourite and to this day we still quote from it, and in particular Marvin.

Do you know where your towel is? What does that turn of phrase mean to you?
The towel is essential to me because I live on a ship and it serves not only multiple water-related purposes but porthole insulation on a cold night, a baffle when he plays the cajón and a robe when fending off a surprise attack from the pirates in the early hours. For the hitchhiker, it is the most important item they will ever carry.

What has been the biggest technical challenge?
The primary function of any puppet is the performance of life, and part of my job is to make an armature that can be expressive according to the actions needed within the script. Technically it was a challenge; we had one puppeteer who needed to have full mobility in all Marvin’s limbs, be able to wheel Marvin across the floor, sit him down and not lose control of his legs in the process. Andy Evans, our puppeteer, was brilliant in getting the right balance to enable all this to happen. Finding Marvin’s character and what he could look like was the hardest challenge due to the sheer weight of my perceived expectations from the fans. Marvin has a very emotional connection to so many people.

How do you describe your job to someone who’s never heard of Douglas Adams?
Zark, that’s a difficult question! Imagine a galaxy governed by alien bureaucrats called the Vogons who destroy our small insignificant planet, with only a ten-minute warning, to make way for their hyperspace express route. With the help of an alien claiming to be your best friend Ford, you are persuaded to hitch a ride on the Vogons’ spaceship where you are very unwelcome. My job is to make a personified robot puppet called Marvin with red eyes to help guide you on this journey through space and time. Douglas Adams was a visionary in imagining Marvin built as one of the many failed attempts at Genuine People Personalities, hence with a brain the size of a planet he suffers from severe depression, boredom and total contempt for most life forms he is bound to serve. At the heart, Douglas Adams was a brilliant, unpredictable, digressive author trying to make sense of all the data out there often by imagining radically different perspectives. He loved gadgets and technology but mercilessly satirised its users.

What’s your favourite thing about the project so far?
I love making puppets and so collaborating with the director, Arvind, on finding Marvin was an extraordinary process and working closely alongside the puppeteer Andy and puppetry director Romina to bring Marvin to life has been very rewarding.

What would your dream project be?
The Jungle Book.

What’s next?
We are in the very early stages of research and development for a puppet theatre production of The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera.

Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet?
Neither. Muppets!

Tea or Coffee?
Coffee.

Truth or Beauty?
That’s a trial I am not willing or qualified to testify at and the courts have found life the guilty party anyway so why are you asking me?

Charlie can be found on Instagram and their own website. You can read our review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy here.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy runs until the 15^th of February 2026 at the Riverside Studios London, you can book here. 

Brigitte Nielsen played the titular superheroine in 1985’s Red Sonja – the sword-and-sorcery epic directed by Richard Fleischer and produced by Dino De Laurentiis that would go on to become a cult classic. With the film celebrating its 4K re-release, STARBURST magazine sat down to chat with its star.

STARBURST: We’re here today to talk about the 4K re-release of Red Sonja. We just revisited the film, and it still holds up as a lot of fun. How do you remember the film?

Brigitte Nielsen: For me, it was an incredible moment in my life. I was taken out of my comfort zone and cast in a big movie. I never thought I was going to be a part of the movie industry at all. Recalling it, a great experience, wonderful people, including Richard Fleischer, and of course Schwarzenegger. I remember Dino [De Laurentiis] and Richard Fleischer telling me “you’re gonna be working alongside Schwarzenegger.” And I was saying “who?” I had no idea.

Have you revisited the film at all since its release?

I have re-watched it. I don’t watch it like you would, as I am emotionally attached in a different way. I think about funny times and tough scenes that took forever. Things that I could have done better. I remember for example, my first day, I started doing the scene without Richard Fleischer saying “action.” “Stop, stop,” he said. “This is how it works.” But it’s nice, because Red Sonja over the years became a cult [classic]. It’s nice that almost 40 years later, there’s a remaster.

What were your first thoughts when you heard that a 4K version of the film was being developed?

I thought, ‘good for them.’ Good for them, and good for all the people that really like it. It’s amazing how you can be doing a thing such a long time ago, and it’s gonna look different [now]. I feel proud and I feel happy that we did a movie back then that is still appreciated by a certain audience today. I wish Richard Fleischer and Dino were around to see this happen.

What was the experience like, Red Sonja being your first acting role?

I don’t think I realised how big of a deal it was. I was sent to London to work with an acting coach. I was studying with a stunt co-ordinator. I was already a very good horseback rider, but I would have to fight on horseback, so they had me immediately go to work. Everything to me was exciting. Both the script and the physical work didn’t frighten me, because I was excited and eager to be a part of it.

Do you have any specific memories from the shoot?

It was freezing. We shot on the outskirts of Rome, and I remember the little mini-skirt, and with the wind and the cold, I was freezing. They would have to wrap my frozen fingers around the sword. But besides that, a fantastic experience. It started a whole new life for me. I was ready to keep studying in Denmark, work in a bakery or library – a very normal life. I was taken out of that, abruptly and nicely.

It was also one of director Richard Fleischer’s last films. How did you find working with him?

He was very kind. I remember seeing him as tiny. He was this tiny, thin little man, and his hands were shaking. I remember thinking how fragile he looked in comparison to all these Viking-sized people that were cast. I had enormous respect for him. He almost had a director’s tone and a father’s tone. Some directors can terrify you; talking and overpowering and intimidating and running the set of their movie. Instead, Richard Fleischer was very quiet and calm and patient.

Arnold Schwarznegger expressed surprise that he was featured so prominently in the film, given he only signed on as a cameo. Did you feel short-changed, in that respect?

I didn’t think like that at all. You don’t have that kind of thinking on your first thing, you’re just happy to be there. We had a lot of fun, there was no competition between the two of us. There was a great friendship there.

It stands out for being a female-led sword and sorcery film in a time when that wasn’t really the norm. Did you feel like the film was ahead of its time, in that respect?

I think it was. You see what’s happening with Marvel today. Features today, they feel like if they don’t have Marvel attached, they’re not gonna go anywhere. I remember back then, filming the fish monster scene, the only thing filming Red Sonja I would have done differently, I would have made it look better than it was back then. However, the strong female opinion and look totally worked then and even better today. They should make a remake and make it beautiful. She’s a great character.

On that note, what would you personally like to see from a potential Red Sonja film?

She’s independent, she’s super strong, she’s funny, she’s wicked, she’s a good friend. I would want to see it become a movie that everybody should go see. It would be a representation of all us women out there. No matter your race, no matter your religion. She can take on anyone or anything, and anyone is allowed to be her in their way.

Were you ever approached about a sequel?

The film, when it came out, didn’t do what it was expected to. Red Sonja became popular with time. I think, back to your earlier question, it was probably not the right time to come out. But we did it, and it’s great that we did it. They just need to make a remake.

Would you hope to appear, to pass the torch, so to speak?

I would be more than happy to hand over the torch. There’s a lot of wonderful female actors. Do I see myself in there? I don’t know. Maybe I can play Red Sonja’s mum. Everything is possible in the film industry. Especially with the way that they take features today. Like what’s happening with Fast and Furious, people keep coming back.

Finally, the movie ends with a playful battle between Sonja and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Kalidor. Who do you think would have won, if they had fought for real?

Red Sonja.

Hands down!

Of course. Please, don’t be blinded by those big – [laughs]. Definitely Red Sonja. Her strength and intimidation!

Brigitte Nielsen, thank you very much!

RED SONJA is out now on DVD, Blu-Ray and 4K UHD from STUDIOCANAL and available to stream on STUDIOCANAL Presents.

Caitlin Anderson is a Scottish theatre actress and dancer. She plays the the character of Tiffani in the new Edinburgh Fringe show, I Was a Teenage She-Devil. We caught up with the to find out more.

How would you pitch I was a Teenage She-Devil to someone who really liked supernatural romance?

Ever wanted to see the story of queer love, so powerful and pure it defeats not only gender norms, societal expectations, and social pressures, but also literally Satan? We’ve got what you’re looking for.

And how would you pitch it to someone who isn’t into teen drama?
Do you like irreverent comedy, a crazy 80’s rock score, and high energy, over the top vocals, hair, and plots? I Was A Teenage She-Devil hits every mark, and still manages to do it with a whole lotta heart.

Why do teens and supernatural stories work so well?
Adolescence is such a crazy time in our lives, we suddenly are handed all of these new responsibilities, are placed on the precipice of beginning our independent lives, but still have so little control over ourselves and our surroundings, all while trying to figure out who we really are, and who we are becoming. In those highs, everything can feel like magic, and in the lows, we really can feel like we’re in our own personal hell – when things get that out of control, it only makes sense to think, what if this actually is all as mad, scary, or dramatic as it feels?

How is this different from your work in Wicked?

There is nothing quite like the excitement of working on a brand new piece of theatre, and being able to put your own mark onto your character. Fringe is such an incredible opportunity to take creative risks, and make really authentic, zany, and downright fun decisions about your work, while being in such close quarters with an audience excited for something new – it’s such a brilliant chance for artist magic to take place.

What’s your favourite moment of the show?
My favourite moments of the show are the ones where you really get to see the heart of this incredible story Sean Matthew Whiteford has created – I just love the vulnerable emotion of the song “All I’ve Ever Wanted”.

Could the show be any more camp? If so, how?
We’ve definitely gone to great lengths to make sure we left no camp stone unturned!

What’s the most exciting moment you’ve had so far in the build up to the show?
The first time we sang through the whole score together – we knew in that moment how much magic this little show really had to give.

Monsters or Mazes?
Will have to be Monsters, I hate getting lost!

Fire or Ice?

Fire – I love to watch it.

Truth or Beauty?
Ever wanted to see the story of queer love, so powerful and pure it defeats not only gender norms, societal expectations, and social pressures, but also literally Satan? We’ve got what you’re looking for.

You can book tickets for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe run here, and find more about future shows here.