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Sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events, with Tom Sutcliffe and guests

Presenter Tom Sutcliffe and guests offer sharp, critical discussion of the week's cultural events

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Saturday Review: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The Last Tree, The Dutch House, Mark Leckey, World on Fire

28/09/2019

Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The Last Tree, The Dutch House, Mark Leckey, World on Fire

BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Review, Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp, The Last Tree, The Dutch House, Mark Leckey, World on Fire

Four new short plays by Caryl Churchill reviewed.

Caryl Churchill offers brutal and funny surprises in new work at the Royal Court, Ann Patchett's novel The Dutch House, and Shola Amoo's look at boyhood in his film The Last Tree

Caryl Churchill celebrated her 80th birthday last year.  She's written four new short plays for the Royal Court, the theatre with which she's most closely associated:  Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.  Horror and abuse flash through often very funny scenes played by a cast including Toby Jones and Deborah Findley.  

Shola Amoo's praised second feature The Last Tree is an account of a boy of Nigerian heritage who grows up in foster care in rural Lincolnshire and then goes to live with his mother in South London.  It draws on some of his personal experience.   

Ann Patchett's new novel The Dutch House is a study of what money can do to a family, what motherhood means and the nature of loss - and it includes a character she claims is her first real villain.  

Mark Leckey's exhibition O'Magic Power of Bleakness at Tate Britain re-creates a space under a motorway bridge on the M53 where he used to hang out as a child for an audio-visual journey into memory and the world of spirits.

And World on Fire is a new BBC1 drama for Sunday nights telling the story of the Second World War from both international and personal perspectives, by award-winning writer Peter Bowker.

This week's reviewers are cultural commentator Gaylene Gould, author Catherine O'Flynn and Toby Lichtig, fiction editor of the TLS.


Presenter:  Tom Sutcliffe
Producer:  Sarah Johnson

This week's podcast extra choices are:
Gaylene:  Cleveland Watkiss at the EFG London Jazz Festival  https://efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/events/cleveland-watkiss-60th 
Catherine:  Pushing Paper at the British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/pushing_paper.aspx 
and Hikaru Davis' videos finding out about his dad, David Bowie drummer Dennis Davis:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY2aDqSy2_g6hysuYU7uOPw/featured
Toby:  Brett Anderson of Suede's new memoir Afternoons with the Blinds Drawn
Tom:  Daniel Rachel's book Don't Look Back in Anger

Main Image: Glass. Kill. Bluebeard. Imp.
L-R Toby Jones, Deborah Findlay, Sule Rimi
Photo credit: Johan Persson

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