Playlist

Sir Richard Eyre , Corin Redgrave and Henry Goodman on the challenges of playing Lear , and the residual power of Thoreau 's Walden in its 150 th year. 

King Lear is a role that is often regarded as the greatest challenge in an actor's career. But what are the particular challenges that Shakespeare asks of the performer when he comes to tell the story of the elderly King dividing his kingdom? Actors Henry Goodman and Corin Redgrave - currently taking on the role at Stratford - and Sir Richard Eyre examine the problems of acting Lear.

Carols Acosta is one the finest dancers of his generation. Cuban born, he has taken the vibrancy of his homeland to stages across the world with a unique blend of athleticism and technical virtuosity. Tonight he returns to the stage of Sadler's Wells in performances of Tocororo - A Cuban Tale, but he also brings with him Jose Oduardo Perez who will be dancing the central role for 5 performances. Hand picked by Acosta, he is one of the most exciting young talents in dance today. On Night Waves tonight we talk to both Acosta and Perez about their working relationship, how it feels to be a protege and when is the right time to step into - and out of - the leading roles in this most physically and emotionally demaning of art forms.

Also on Night Waves tonight we review an exhibition to mark the centenary of the death of one of the most singular and enigmatic figures in Victorian Art. G F Watts, painter sculptor and political radical was one of the finest portrait painters this country has produced. Yet his work has often fallen out of favour with critics both in his own lifetime and beyond. The centenary exhibition, at the house he built for himself late in life at Compton , near Guildford , offers a perfect opportunity for re-assessment.

And at the 150 th anniversary of its publication Night Waves will be looking at Walden , Thoreau's great work of utopian desire and philosophical insight. Still a standard text in American schools, we trace its influence in American culture.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 

King Lear is a the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon until September 29 th .

Tocororo - A Cuban Tale is at the Sadler's Wells Theatre in London until July 24 th and then at the Birmingham Hippodrome from the 27 th to the 31 st July.

The G F Watts Centenary Exhibition is at the Watts Gallery, Compton , Guildford from the 2 nd July to the 31 st October.

Walden: 150 th Anniversary Edition is published by Princeton University Press.