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The Tempest Reimagined, with Margaret Atwood and Harriet Walter

Andrew Marr discusses Shakespeare and Caravaggio with the writer Margaret Atwood, actor Harriet Walter, curator Letizia Treves and biographer Richard Holmes.

On Start the Week Andrew Marr talks to the writer Margaret Atwood and the actor Harriet Walter about updating Shakespeare's The Tempest. Revenge is served cold in a men's prison for the former, while the latter reveals how she takes on the great Shakespearean roles in the setting of a women's prison. While Shakespeare was being performed in sixteenth century England, the artist Caravaggio was revolutionising painting on the Continent. The curator Letizia Treves explains how his intense naturalism and dramatic lighting influenced his contemporaries. Whilst little detail is known about Shakespeare's life, Caravaggio's colourful behaviour is writ large: the writer Richard Holmes reflects on the role of the biographer and asks whether a controversial reputation overshadows the art.
Producer: Katy Hickman.

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43 minutes

Last on

Mon 10 Oct 2016 21:30
91热爆 Radio 4

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Harriet Walter

is an actor.

The Shakespeare Trilogy (Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest) is on at the Donmar Warehouse at the King鈥檚 Cross Theatre in London until 17 December.

Brutus and Other Heroines is published by Nick Hern Books.

Margaret Atwood

is an author.

Hag-Seed: The Tempest Retold is published by Hogarth Shakespeare.

Letizia Treves

Letizia Treves is Curator of Late Italian, Spanish and French Seventeenth-Century Paintings at the National Gallery, London.

Beyond Caravaggio opens at the National Gallery on Wednesday 12 October.

Richard Holmes

is an author.

This Long Pursuit: Reflections of a Romantic Biographer is published by William Collins.

Credits

Presenter Andrew Marr
Interviewed Guest Margaret Atwood
Interviewed Guest Harriet Walter
Interviewed Guest Richard Holmes
Interviewed Guest Letizia Treves
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 10 Oct 2016 09:00
    91热爆 Radio 4
  • Mon 10 Oct 2016 21:30
    91热爆 Radio 4

Podcast

  • Start the Week

    Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday