10 May 2005
Tuesday 10 May 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Kevin Spacey's time in charge of the Old Vic theatre in London has been a mixed bag. Can he pull off his biggest hit yet with a stage version of the 1940 Hollywood classic - The Philadelphia Story ?
Programme Details
Cary Grant made the role very much his own in the Hollywood classic The Philadelphia Story. On stage at the Old Vic theatre in London, Kevin Spacey now steps into Grant's shoes in Philip Barry's 'comedy in three acts' - the fourth production since Spacey took over as artistic director. In this evening's Night Waves Philip Dodd will be getting a live first-night reaction from Susannah Clapp.
Also in the programme, Adrian Brody heads a cast including Keira Knightley, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Daniel Craig in a claustrophobic thriller The Jacket . When a Gulf War veteran receives a gun shot wound to the head, he suffers from amnesia and through a series of events finds himself committed to a mental institution where he undergoes controversial treatment. Brody plays Jack Starks, who finds himself being injected with mind-altering drugs and confined in a straight-jacket and locked in a body drawer in the basement morgue. He forsees his own death and has only four days to try to escape his fate. Tim Robey will be giving his response to The Jacket .
Response to an earlier war feature in a rare book under discussion. Drawing Under Fire: War Diary of a Young Vietnamese Artist is a unique diary of words, drawings and paintings of Pham Thanh Tam, a young Viet Minh soldier fighting the French in the first Vietnam war which started 50 years ago. It is the first Viet Minh eyewitness account, written on the battlefield, to be published in English. Philip Dodd talks to Sherry Buchanan, the woman behind the project.
The words of the book were translated from Vietnamese into English, enabling us to gain an insight into the life of a footsoldier in that war. But this just one example of the work of translators, who since the earliest days of language have opened up worlds which would otherwise remain closed. The Man Booker International committee have just announced a prize for translation to be awarded next month. But what is the state of translation in literature at the moment? And are translators the great unsung heroes of international literature? The widely-translated poet and novelist Michele Roberts is joined by writer and translator and chair of the Association of Translators, Josephine Balmer.
And there will be an interview with the Jamaican-born writer Patrick Wilmot, who spent 18 years in Nigeria before being abducted by the Nigerian security police in 1988 and forcibly 'retired' to London. His new novel Seeing Double is a fierce satire on Nigeria - or Niagra, as it is in his novel - with targets ranging from dictatorship to greed, Donald Rumsfeld, corruption and international bullying. 'Do not pretend you have not been warned' concludes the health warning at the beginning of the book.
Join Philip Dodd for Night Waves at 9.30pm.
Presenter: Philip Dodd
Producer: Jerome Weatherald
Additional Details:
The Philadelphia Story is at the Old Vic, London. Booking until 6th Aug.
http://www.oldvictheatre.com/index2.htm
The Jacket goes on national release on Friday, cert 15
Drawing Under Fire: War Diary of a Young Vietnamese Artist by Pham Thanh Tam is published by Asia Ink
Details of the Man Booker International Prize for Translation can be found at
http://www.manbookerinternational.com/
Patrick Wilmot's novel Seeing Double is published by Jonathan Cape.
