Matthew Sweet looks at the career of avant-garde film maker Peter Whitehead as a retrospective of his films opens at the National Film Theatre. Whitehead is known as a maverick of the 1960s and for his work with bands from the Libertines to the Rolling Stones. Plus a look at a radical new adaptation of Ibsen's Peer Gynt from the National Theatre of Iceland.
Playlist
Matthew Sweet talks to Margaret Bradham Thornton who has edited the volumous notebooks left by playwright Tennessee Williams. Deeply personal, though meant for publication, the books are a heady brew of artistic angst and social gossip. Night Waves theatre critic Susannah Clapp also joins the discussion to see if the note books bring fresh insights to the plays as well as the man.
Matthew also talks to the legendary documentary-maker Peter Whitehead as a month long season of his work at the National Film Theatre begins. Whitehead famously documented Swinging London in Tonite Let's All Make Love In London and was a key figure in the bohemian 60s, but soon disappeared from view. He ended up as a falconer for the Saudi Arabian royal family, but has now returned to his film roots with a new documentary about Pete Doherty.
The cricket World Cup begins around the islands of the West Indies next month. And the world's focus may not entirely be about sport. On the island of Trinidad there has been a dramatic rise in violence, with the increasingly influential Asian community under attack. In 2003 there were 229 murders and 235 reported kidnappings. Those figures rose to 368 murders and 245 kidnappings last year. Night Waves has asked the poet Anthony Joseph to reflect on the growing violence on his traditionally laid back native island.
Plus, as the National Theatre of Iceland bring their revisionary production of Peer Gynt to the Barbican we interview director Baltasar Kormakur.
The Peter Whitehead season will be showing at the National Film Theatre 1st March - 11th March. For more information contact: www.peterwhitehead.net
Peer Gynt will be playing at the Barbican Centre from 28th February-10th March. For more information contact www.barbican.org.uk
