Front Row

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Front Row: Two debuts: novelist Cecilia Rabess, film director Dionne Edwards; the cost of maintaining arts organisations' buildings

Two debuts: novelist Cecilia Rabess, film director Dionne Edwards; the cost of maintaining arts organisations' buildings

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, Two debuts: novelist Cecilia Rabess, film director Dionne Edwards; the cost of maintaining arts organisations' buildings

Novelist Cecilia Rabess, director Dionne Edwards; maintaining arts groups' buildings

Two debuts: Cecilia Rabess' novel, Everything's Fine; Dionne Edwards' film, Pretty Red Dress. The struggle arts organisations housed in heritage buildings have with their upkeep.

Author and former data scientist, Cecilia Rabess joins Samira Ahmed to discuss her debut novel, Everything’s Fine, which explores the unlikely and complicated relationship between a liberal black woman working in the world of investment banking and her conservative white male colleague, during the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 

Following yesterday’s announcement that the Epstein Theatre in Liverpool is to close by the end of the month, Front Row takes a close look at the cost for arts organisations of maintaining infrastructure and cultural heritage sites across the UK. Joining Samira to discuss this are: architecture correspondent for The Times, Jonathan Morrison; Gillian Miller, CEO of Liverpool’s Royal Court, who reflects on the challenges of maintaining and modernising that grade II listed art deco theatre; and CEO of the Southbank Centre in London, Elaine Bedell, who thinks it’s time for new era of regeneration of the arts.  

Pretty Red Dress, which captured a lot of attention when first shown at the BFI London Film Festival last year, is the debut feature film of screenwriter and director Dionne Edwards. She joins Front Row to talk about how the eponymous red dress becomes a way for the black family members, at the heart of the film, to define and redefine themselves.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Oliver Jones

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Two debuts: novelist Cecilia Rabess, film director Dionne Edwards; the cost of maintaining arts organisations' buildings

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