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Front Row: Sorious Samura, Susanna Clarke, Edinburgh Fringe, Liverpool Biennial

03/06/2021

Sorious Samura, Susanna Clarke, Edinburgh Fringe, Liverpool Biennial

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Sorious Samura, Susanna Clarke, Edinburgh Fringe, Liverpool Biennial

Sierra Leonean journalist Sorious Samura on his documentary, Sing, Freetown

New documentary, Sing, Freetown; Susanna Clarke on her Women's Prize-nominated novel, Piranesi; Edinburgh Fringe in peril; The Liverpool Biennial

Sierra Leone’s best-known journalist, Sorious Samura, discusses his documentary, Sing, Freetown. After growing tired of hearing only negative stories from Africa, the film follows Sorious and playwright Charlie Haffner’s journey to create a play that shows the true Sierra Leone. 

The entire Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest festival of contemporary art, has now opened, almost a year after it was due to because of the pandemic. Art critic Louisa Buck gives her response to the 11th Biennial and what it has to offer.

As the Scottish Government discusses reducing social distancing requirements, where does that leave this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe? Kirsty Lang talks to Shona McCarthy, the Fringe's Chief Executive, about the situation and options that might allow 50,000 performances of over 3,500 shows in over 300 venues – the figures for 2019 – to go on.

As part of our series featuring the authors shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, there’s another chance to hear Susanna Clarke, best known for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, talk about her second novel, Piranesi. It’s set in the House, an endless sprawl of halls lined with statues, but it is falling apart, flooded by tides and populated at first by just the eponymous narrator and someone he knows only as The Other. 

Presenter: Kirsty Lang
Producer: Jerome Weatherald

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