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Front Row: Juliet Stevenson on stage; Tony Christie interviewed

Juliet Stevenson on stage; Tony Christie interviewed

11/02/2011

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Juliet Stevenson on stage; Tony Christie interviewed

Juliet Stevenson in Richard Bean's new climate change play; singer Tony Christie.

With Kirsty Lang. Juliet Stevenson in Richard Bean's new play The Heretic; singer Tony Christie; novelist Hisham Matar; British plays performed at the Pentagon's request.

With Kirsty Lang.

Two new plays, Greenland and The Heretic, both focus on climate change. Greenland is a documentary-drama created by four playwrights - Moira Buffini, Matt Charman, Penelope Skinner and Jack Thorne - and weaves together various storylines and theatrical styles. The Heretic is a black comedy by Richard Bean, starring Juliet Stevenson as an Earth Sciences academic who's at odds with the orthodoxy regarding climate change. Kirsty and critic David Benedict consider the differing ways theatre can tackle difficult currrent concerns.

It's now 40 years since Tony Christie arrived in the British charts with hits including Is This the Way to Amarillo. He discusses being rediscovered in the UK, and reconnecting with the next generation of Sheffield pop stars, including Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley. 

American military and policy makers in Washington saw six plays about Afghanistan this week, at the invitation of the Pentagon. They came from the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London, as part of their series The Great Game. The Tricycle's Artistic Director Nicholas Kent reports back on the US reaction to the plays. 

Hisham Matar's first novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and he's now published a second, Anatomy of a Disappearance. The story follows a boy who, already coping with life after his mother's death, finds that his world is turned upside down once again when his father is kidnapped. Hisham's own father, a Libyan dissident, was kidnapped over 20 years ago and is still being held in detention somewhere in Libya. 

Producer Philippa Ritchie.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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