The Exploding Library

Original version

BBC Radio 4 LW

Comedy

A trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books.

A trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text, but blurring the lines between fact and fiction.

In this series, a trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.

As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.

BBC Radio 4 FM

The Exploding Library: Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

BBC Radio 4 - The Exploding Library, Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

Comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean melts into the glorious unreality of Nights at the Circus.

'Am I fact or am I fiction?' Comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean melts into the glorious unreality of Angela Carter's Nights at the Circus. Who is she when the performance ends?

“Am I fact or am I fiction?”

So asks the six-foot-something winged woman, Fevvers, the acclaimed aerialiste at the heart of Angela Carter’s epic, Nights at the Circus. It’s a question that has haunted almost every performer who’s stepped onto a stage and seen their ‘real’ self and ‘stage’ selves blur.  

Yet a woman with wings with the world at her feet is almost run-of-the-mill in this extravaganza. There’s dancing tigers, murderous clowns, shamanic visions in the Siberian wilderness, and the odd pair of stinky tights.

Labels and genres are flung around - gothic, magical realism, fantasy - but the book, like Angela Carter’s writing in general, evades categorisation at every turn. Twist the kaleidoscope and another vision emerges, twist again and the human condition is re-revealed.

Kiri Pritchard Maclean runs off with the circus to consider the performer underneath the greasepaint, and find out what happens when the performance comes to an end. (Plus chickens). 

With contributions from: 
Dr Marie Mulvey Roberts, UWE
Dr Caleb Ferrari, UWE
Dr Becky Munford, Cardiff University 
Emma Rice, Director of Wise Children, 
and Susannah Clapp, Carter's literary executor and author of A Card from Angela Carter

Producer: Leonie Thomas
An Overcoat Media production for BBC Radio 4
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Warped literature series The Exploding Library returns for a new run, as another trio of comedians explode and unravel their most cherished cult books, paying homage to the tone and style of the original text - and blurring and warping the lines between fact and fiction.

As our hosts shine the spotlight on strange, funny and sometimes disturbing novels by Angela Carter, BS Johnson and Octavia Butler, listeners are invited to inhabit their eccentric worlds - gaining a deeper understanding of their workings and the unique literary minds that created them.

Featuring the comedic voices of Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Rob Auton and Desiree Burch, and featuring the work of award-winning producers Leonie Thomas, Benjamin Partridge (Beef and Dairy Network), and Steven Rajam (Tim Key and Gogol’s Overcoat), this is an arts documentary series like no other.

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The Exploding Library

Nights at the Circus, by Angela Carter

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