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Front Row: James Shapiro, BEKA, Molly Bloomsday

James Shapiro, BEKA, Molly Bloomsday

BBC Radio 4 - Front Row, James Shapiro, BEKA, Molly Bloomsday

Groundbreaking 1930s US theatre, live music from BEKA, and an all-women festival.

Groundbreaking 1930s US theatre including an all-Black production of Macbeth, live music from singer-songwriter BEKA, and an all-women multi-arts festival.

Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro has turned his attention to the incredible story behind the Federal Theatre in 1930s America in his new study “The Playbook: A Story of Theatre, Democracy and the Making of A Culture War”. He discusses the groundbreaking performances staged by its 12,000 employees, including Orson Welles’ all-Black production of Macbeth, and the extraordinary woman who ran it, Hallie Flanagan.

BEKA is a singer-songwriter who’s gone from singing backing vocals with Honne to featuring with them as a performer, and supporting Laura Mvula and Griff.  She has cowritten a soundtrack album for the Apple TV series Trying and joins us to play a track and talk about writing for herself and for TV.

The YES Festival which runs from 13th to 16th June in Derry/Londonderry and Donegal focuses on Molly Bloom, the fictional character who appears in James Joyce's novel Ulysses.  This culmination of the two-year-long Ulysses European Odyssey uses Molly as a springboard for a celebration of female power and creativity - the first all-women multi-arts festival on the island of Ireland. 

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Torquil MacLeod

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