10 February 2006
Friday 10 February 2006 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Matthew Sweet talks to writer Lee Hall about his new version of Beaumarchais' Barber of Seville, now playing in Bristol. And Stephen Woolley, producer of The Company of Wolves, discusses the Gothic in film.
Programme Details
Matthew Sweet meets prolific playwright, Lee Hall - whose previous successes include Spoonface Steinberg, Cooking with Elvis and Billy Elliot the Musical.
His latest play, about to open in Bristol , is based loosely on Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville. Hall sets his story around a swimming pool in modern day Costa Brava , playground for the British! On tonight's programme he talks about what makes for a successful play, his regard for the classics as source material and about the craft of the playwright.
Matthew Sweet also goes walkabout - in response to the latest novel from Tim Parks. Parks describes how a frantic London journalist flees to the Alps to "get above the noise line". Night Waves explores how the male mid life crisis prompts such stories and impulsive disappearances.
Also on the programme; as a major new exhibition of Gothic art opens in Britain , film Producer Stephen Wooley describes cinema's relationship to the Gothic.
And Historian Joanna Bourke reviews the latest novel by the bestselling author Sarah Waters which is set in post World War 2 London.
Additional Information:
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters is out now published by Virago.
Lee Hall's new version of The Barber of Seville is on at the Bristol Old Vic theatre from 10 Feb to 11 March.
Tim Park's latest novel Cleaver is published by Harvill Secker.
