Gabriel Gbadamosi and guests review Days of Significance, playwright Roy Williams's response to Much Ado About Nothing, which is set in market-town England and the deserts of Iraq.
Playlist
Days of Significance is a new play by the Royal Shakespeare Company which takes as its inspiration Much Ado About Nothing. Gabriel Gbadamosi is joined by theatre critic Susannah Clapp to review the play by Roy Williams which focuses on two young soldiers on a last drunken night before active service in Iraq. He sets out to give a fresh insight on war's impact on the values of ordinary people.
Throughout the week Night Waves looks ahead to some of the big issues of the near future. Gabriel Gbadamosi and guests including Baroness Shirley Williams explore the legacy of the Treaty of Rome, signed 50 years ago this year. It was the founding charter of the European Union, committed to unity, but how well did it serve the EU's conflicting interests? And today does the EU need a new treaty to deal with its 27 members and global issues such as the future of the Middle East and climate change?
Also on the programme, writer Lynsey Hanley talks about her new book "Estates, An Intimate History" charting her personal experience growing up on the Wood estate near Birmingham. Long seen as undesirable places to live, she and Rebecca Tunstall of the London School of Economics talk about how estates - and their image - have changed over the years, and if they have met their original aim to improve living conditions.
And Al Alavarez is the poet, novelist, critic and poker player who introduced many people to the work of Sylvia Plath and Robert Lowell with his anthology The New Poetry in 1961. Alvarez has collected the best of his essays from the last four decades in a new eclectic volume, Risky Business, from a review of Ted Hughes to an analysis of the world's best poker player. He comes into the studio to discuss poetry, criticism, and the adrenaline rush.
For further information on 'Days of Significance' please contact the RSC onwww.rsc.org.uk
'Estates: An Intimate History' is published by Granta Books
