Show Notes
In the first of our special programmes from the Edinburgh Festivals, actress Stockard Channing - star of Grease, Six Degrees of Separation and Practical Magic - joins us alongside her friend, actor David Westhead, to discuss their production of Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, in which a cynical and disillusioned older man reflects on his early life as an ambitious and idealistic writer. Jeff Whitty, Tony Award winning creator of the hit musical Avenue Q, which is currently running until 2027 in London's West End, tells us about Midsummer!, his new production inspired by Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's dream, set in the Gilded Age and performed in a contemporary verse translation. We have a live performance from siblings Maddie and Marcus Rice from their show with songs Goodbye Dandelion, an exploration of an unlikely friendship between an 87 year old and their much younger friend, which is the recipient of the inaugural Underbelly Futures Fund Award. And we hear how deaf actors and artists are taking centre stage at this year's Festival, with Stijn Van Opstal, the director of the acclaimed production [seagull], performed in Flemish sign language by Belgian company Olympique Dramatique - and with director Cora Bissett and deaf performer Jamie Rea, whose gig theatre production The Singer, centres on Joe, a deaf artist who 'sings' with his hands, and Andy, a washed-up musician seeking a comeback, and features music by KT Tunstall. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
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Reviewers Alexander Larman and Bidisha consider two films: Fatherland, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, starring Sandra Huller, it tells the story of novelist Thomas Mann's tour of war-ravaged Germany in 1949. And Korean family drama Possible Love, directed by Lee Chang-dong, which delicately and incisively explores the tensions of power and wealth in two couples from different strata of society. Also... the return of Martin Guerre, the musical. From the team behind Les Misérables and Miss Saigon, it debuted in 1996, and over the following three decades it has had many rewrites and reimaginings. Now it's back for a very short run. And with a much shorter duration. Have they found the formula to make it a critical and popular success this time around? Today the shortlist was announced for the UK City of Culture 2029. Four places are now in the running and the £10 million prize. They are Blackpool, Milton Keynes, Sheffield and Wrexham. These four locations were recommended by the UK City of Culture expert advisory panel, chaired by Sir Phil Redmond who tells us more about the shortlist and what it means to win the title. Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Director Sofia Coppola on completing her mother Eleanor’s documentary about the making of Sofia’s feature Marie Antoinette, following her death. The film goes behind the scenes of the lavish 2006 biopic starring Kirsten Dunst - in spectacular locations such as Versailles - and is in cinemas around the UK from this Friday. Can prescribing culture - such as choirs, art classes and poetry workshops - improve young people's mental health? As the Southbank Centre in London launches Ombri, a new referral platform prescribing access to arts for young people, we're joined by the centre's Artistic Director, Mark Ball, and by GP and broadcaster Margaret McCartney, to discuss the practicalities of prescribing culture, how to ensure young people from disadvantaged communities are reached, and how the success of a scheme such as this can be measured. Pulitzer Prize-winning Argentinian-American writer Hernan Diaz has mined history as inspiration for his previous novels, but in his latest, Ply, he looks to a dystopian future, and a city, resembling a decaying New York, in which his central character, a "pincher" steals electricity from the grid to power a underground music scene, but risks the wrath of the authorities, He tells us about moving into the realm of speculative fiction and about how he was inspired by everything from ancient Greek philosophy to 21st century particle accelerators. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan
As A A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, one of the most loved bears in children's literature reaches 100, Jane Riordan, author of the new Pooh books, and Hollie Piff, EH Shepard archivist at the University of Surrey discuss the appeal of the 'bear of very little brain'. Poet and writer Luke Kennard on his Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted novel, Black Bag. Following thee announcement of the death of Douglas Dunn, poet Don Paterson pays tribute to the man he describes as 'the finest Scottish poet of the post-war period'. Renoir and Love is the new show at the National Gallery in London. Catherine Ostler, author of The Renoir Girls: A Hidden History of Art, War & Betrayal, has been to see it and explains why this artist who came to the fore in the 19th century has so much to say to a 21st century audience. Presenter Kate Molleson Producer: Ekene Akalawu
Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi on his screen adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun, in which 'artificial friends' have been created to provide companionship for lonely teenagers in a near-future dystopian world. Theatre critic Susannah Clapp discusses Caryl Churchill's 15 minute play Triumph and what these short performances can do for the theatre experience. Of the 123 people who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature, 14 of them have been published by the small American publishing house New Directions. Its Vice President and Senior Editor Declan Spring shares the secret of their success. Tony award-winning actor Jonathan Groff is starring in a new production of As You Like it at the RSC in Stratford. He tells Samira about immersing himself in Shakespeare for the frist time. Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Andrea Kidd
Critic David Benedict and journalist Muriel Zagha discuss Kristin Scott Thomas in Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard, adapted by award winning playwright Conor McPherson. They also discuss survival thriller Whalefall, in which a diver is swallowed by a whale. Plus they'll be giving their verdict on Elif Shafak's novel In One Brief Moment All Eternity, which tells the story of Madame Bovary author Gustave Flaubert through fictional and real women. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Claire Bartleet