Orlando Figes, Julie Taymor
Wednesday 26 September 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Philip Dodd is joined by historian Orlando Figes and innovative film-maker Julie Taymor. Figes's new book, The Whisperers, examines life for ordinary people under Stalin's dictatorship, and asks whether it was possible to preserve a sense of private identity within a totalitarian state. Julie Taymor, best known for turning The Lion King into a West End hit, discusses her new film Across the Universe, which explores Sixties radical protest and mind exploration.
Playlist
Julie Taymor
Philip Dodd talks to the innovative film-maker Julie Taymor, perhaps best-known for her extraordinary reworking of Disney's movie The Lion King into a huge theatrical hit - using Balinese puppetry.
Now she tells Philip why, for her new film, she has made a similarly surprising set of connections.
Across the Universe explores Sixties radical protest and "mind exploration" - but the screenplay is by the writers of sitcoms like The Likely Lads and Porridge, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. Not only that - it's a musical, structured around and developed out of 33 Beatles songs.
Across The Universe opens nationwide on 28 September, certificate 12A.
Philip Roth
With the publication of Philip Roth's new novel, the eighth featuring the rather Roth-esque protagonist Nathan Zuckerman, Night Waves explores the uses and limitations of alter egos - central characters in novels and films who bear a striking resemblance to the works' authors.
Are such other selves the essence of character in the novel? Are they simply a short-cut? Or is there really no such thing? And how does all this work in film?
To discuss this, Philip is joined by the novelist Howard Jacobson and the critic Adam Mars-Jones.
Exit Ghost by Philip Rothis published by Jonathan Cape on 4 October
Orlando Figes
The acclaimed historian Orlando Figes will be discussing his new history of the nature of private life in Stalin's Russia.
The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia by Orlando Figes is published by Allen Lane on 4 October.
Don Quixote
And Paul Allen reviews Colin Teevan's new version of Don Quixote.
Don Quixote - 22 September 2007 to 20 October 2007 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
