15 March 2005
Tuesday 15 March 2005 21:30-22:15 (Radio 3)
Edward Bond's Lear is staged for the first time in Britain for decades - Isabel Hilton talks to its director - and the themes of sex, death and growing older are explored in new works by poet Mark Doty and French film maker Francoise Ozon - all on Night Waves.
Programme Details
In tonight's Night Waves Isabel Hilton talks to theatre director Jonathan Kent about his production of Edward Bond's Lear at the Crucible in Sheffield, starring Ian McDiarmid in the title role. Edward Bond made his name in the 1960s with "Saved" - a play which was banned until 1969 for its violent depiction of the stoning to death of a baby on stage. The plays that followed - Early Morning, Road to the Deep North, The Sea, and Lear - continued to court controversy for their depiction of violence and moral depravity. Whilst Edward Bond is the most performed playwright in France after Moliere, this is the first production of a major Bond play that the author has allowed to be performed in Britain for decades.
Also in the programme, award winning American Poet Mark Doty talks about his new collection of poems, --School of the Arts- a meditation on the nature of art itself, exploring the themes of ageing, death and desire.
French film maker Francoise Ozon - best known for Swimming Pool, starring Charlotte Rampling - also explores desire and loss in his latest film, Five Times Two, which looks at the breakdown of a marriage, starting with the divorce and working backwards.
And Niklaus Pevsner's revised and expanded guide to East London is considered as a chronicle, not just of the changing architecture of the area, but of the social upheaval that has accompanied it. Isabel Hilton discusses the new edition with Patrick Wright and Paul Barker.
That's all in Night Waves with Isabel Hilton 9.30pm.
Presenter: Isabel Hilton
Producer: Hilary Dunn
Additional Information
1) Lear by Edward Bond, starring Ian McDiarmid and directed by Jonathan Kent continues at the Crucible in Sheffield until 2nd April 2005
2) The Buildings of England London 5: East by Bridget Cherry, Charles O'Brien and Nikolaus Pevsner is published by Yale University Press
3) School of the Arts by Mark Doty is published by Cape Poetry
4) Five Times Two (15) by Francoise Ozon is on release on Friday March 18
