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TEST THE NATION: ART
* This weekend BBC1 is broadcasting Test The Nation: an IQ test for the nation. Front Row has set an Artistic Intelligence quiz for our listeners. The questions have been set by distinguished practioners in the various areas of the arts. Answers please by Friday 17 May. £50 book token for the winner.
The questions are:
1. What connects the three Baroque composers Scarlatti, J S Bach and Handel?
2. Which was the first film shown as an in-flight movie?
3. What is the sum of Picasso's wives and Matisse's children?
4. What 'f' word links Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler and Milan Kundera?
5. What number connects Enid Blyton to Brad Pitt and British psychedelic band Hawkwind?
6. Add together James Ellroy's 'Dahlia', a merry operatic star, and The Who's Boris to find a feared predator.
7. How did three out of seven come to go on hands and knees for Tom, Dick and Harry?
8. What elusive plant links John O'Gaunt's dying speech in Richard II, Rupert Brooke's Grantchester and a fatal flight out of Lisbon?
CLICK HERE TO EMAIL YOUR ANSWERS
THURSDAY NIGHT
* The Distance From Here, the new play from American film-maker and dramatist Neil LaBute, has just opened at the Almeida theatre, London. It is set among disaffected working-class kids and their scarcely more mature parents. There is minimal consolation in lives dominated by the flickering TV screen and the monotone soundtrack of the mall. This is as close to love talk as you can get.
The Distance from Here, by Neil Labute is at the Almeida Theatre, London until 22 June.
Listen to the review
* Adam Cooper is a dancer whose torso has shaken up the image of classical ballet. Chosen to leap triumphantly onto stage as the adult Billy Elliott he became the standard-bearer for modern virility in dance. Last night Adam Cooper took another radical step, choreographing and starring in a new production of the Rodgers and Hart 1936 musical On Your Toes. Cooper's rôle is all-singing and all-dancing, so when Front Row spoke to him, we asked if he'd done much singing or acting before.
Adam Cooper's On Your Toes is at the Leicester Haymarket until 25 May.
Listen to the interview
* Europe has dominated the news this week, with assassination and the threat of fascism the predominant stories. Perhaps now is not a good time to create a new image to represent the member nations of the EU. Something less bland than the circle of gold stars on dark blue, clearly. John Wilson went in search of a new flag for Europe.
A new European flag may be appearing on a flag-pole near you soon.
Listen to the feature
* Moby is an artist so successful that his music is heard nightly in houses all over Britain, although you might not know it. All the tracks on his 1999 album Play were used as background music in commercials. Moby's particular recipe is to take original blues phrases and sample them with techno. On a couple of tracks on the new album, he makes use of the power of a gospel choir.
Moby's new album 18 is released by Mute Records on Monday 13 May.
Listen to the review
* A new film Dark Blue World is regarded as a departure for Czech film in both subject and form. Its subject is the contribution that Czechoslovak pilots made to the RAF during the World War II, when 480 members of the Czechoslovak air force were killed. In form Dark Blue World uses the grammar of Hollywood film-making rather than socialist-realism. So how does it relate to previous Czech war movies?
Dark Blue World is released nationwide on Friday 12 May.
Listen to the feature
ON FRIDAY'S PROGRAMME
A preview of Peter Ackroyd's television programme about Dickens. We discuss the legacy of the Australian painter Sidney Nolan and interview the Egyptian writer Nawal El Saadawi.
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RELATED LINKS
The Almeida Theatre
The Leicester Haymarket Theatre
Moby - the official website
Dark Blue World - the official website
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