16 March 2005
Wednesday 16 March 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Programme Details
Two of this country's leading sculptors, Bill Woodrow and Richard Deacon, have again collaborated to create work for a new exhibition. Lead Astray is a group of fourteen new works which combine lead with different materials, mainly wood but also glass and metal. The sculptures, which are to be shown indoors and outside at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, are all named after various islands in Britain and were literally made by the two artists together. In tonight's Night Waves, Paul Allen visits Richard Deacon's studio to talk to both artists about the work and the value of collaboration.
The Middle East remains a region with a troubled past and an uncertain future. Many people have fixed opinions on the area, with their views determined both by prejudice and particular readings of historical facts. Fred Halliday, professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, has written a new book which attempts to put the record straight - One Hundred Myths about The Middle East - which includes such provocative tiles as "The Middle East is a region dominated by hatred and solemnity; its peoples have no sense of humour". Paul Allen discusses some of the myths attached to the Middle East on tonight's Night Waves with Professor Halliday and Nadim Shehadi, the director of the Centre for Lebanese studies in Oxford.
Also on the programme Susannah Clapp reviews a new production of Ibsen's great play about domestic disappointments and violence, Hedda Gabler, which opens tonight at the Almeida Theatre in London directed by the former National Theatre director Richard Eyre and starring Eve Best as Hedda.
And Tim Mackintosh-Smith offers an account of Ibn Battutah - a Moroccan traveller in the 14th Century whose epic journeys and adventures should be as famous as those of Marco Polo.
Night Waves, presented by Paul Allen, 9.30pm
Presenter: Paul Allen
Producer: Anthony Denselow
Additional Information:
1) Lead Astray at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, March 2005. www.ysp.co.uk/
2) One Hundred Myths About the Middle East by Fred Halliday is published by Saqi Books
3) Hedda Gabler at the Almeida Theatre, London until 30th April 2005. www.almeida.co.uk/
