27 September 2007
Thursday 27 September 2007 21:45-22:30 (Radio 3)
Eugene Ionesco's absurdist play Rhinoceros was first performed in Britain at the Royal Court Theatre in 1960, in a famous production directed by Orson Welles and starring Laurence Olivier. Ahead of its return to the Royal Court for the first time, Matthew Sweet finds out if the new version is as powerful as the original. Also featuring an interview with the Booker Prize-winning Canadian novelist Michael Ondaatje.
Playlist
Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje discusses his latest novel, Divisadero, which begins on a farm in northern California, where a violent incident shatters a family. In Ondaatje's distinctive non-linear style, the book follows the lives of the characters, tracing the connections between them.
Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje is published in hardback by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Is there a Shakespeare industry?
As a new MA course in Shakespeare Authorship Studies begins at Brunel University, William Leahy discusses the question with the Shakespeare scholar, Stanley Wells. They look at the Shakespeare industry: more books about Shakespeare's life and times appear every year, but evidence relating to the Bard's life does not. Leahy argues this is a vast cultural edifice beset with serious questions about authority and authenticity.
Shakespeare & Co by Stanley Wells is published in paperback by Penguin Books Ltd.
Rhinoceros
When Eugene Ionescu's play Rhinoceros opened at the Royal Court in London in 1960 it was greeted with great enthusiasm. As a new version opens in the same theatre, Alan Strachan, who saw Orson Welles' and Laurence Olivier's original, compares it with the present production. Forty-seven years later, does Ionescu's Rhinoceros still have legs?
Rhinoceros runs in repertoire at the Royal Court Theatre until 15 December.
