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Teenage Dick, Traces review, Olga Neuwirth, Nobel Prize for Literature controversy

A darkly comic take on Richard III with Teenage Dick, and we review Val McDermid's new TV show, Traces.

Controversy surrounds this year's Nobel Prize for Literature; unusually there are two winners, Polish Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian Peter Handke. Handke has been vocally supportive of the Serbs during the 1990s Yugoslav war including accusing the Bosnian Muslims of staging attacks. Jonas Eklöf, Editor in Chief of Swedish literary magazine Vi Läser, reports on the presentation ceremony in Stockholm today.

Traces is a forensic crime thriller set in Dundee based on an idea by Val McDermid and written by Amelia Bullmore. Molly Windsor (who starred in Three Girls) heads the cast as a technician in a forensic laboratory who is still coming to terms with a traumatic event in her past. Critic Stephanie Merritt reviews the six-part UKTV drama series.

Mike Lew’s darkly comic take on Shakespeare’s Richard III - “Teenage Dick” - has its UK debut at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Samira talks to Michael Longhurst about his vision for the theatre after becoming Artistic Director earlier this year and to actor Daniel Monks about playing this canonical disabled character.

After a century and a half the Vienna State Opera has this week staged its first work by a female composer. Olga Neuwirth's opera, Orlando, is based on Virginia Woolf’s novel about an Elizabethan poet who lives for centuries, never ages and switches gender. The director, the librettist and the costume designer are also all women and the star is a queer cabaret artist. Olga Neuwirth talks to Samira Ahmed about her opera, and its wider cultural significance.

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Hannah Robins

Available now

29 minutes

Teenage Dick

Teenage Dick

, directed by Michael Longhurst, is at the Donmar Warehouse, London until 01 February 2020.

Images:

Main image above:Ěý Daniel Monks as Richard in Teenage Dick

Image to the left: Daniel Monks as Richard (Left)Ěýand Callum Adams as Eddie Ivy in Teenage Dick

Images credit: Marc Brenner

Traces

Traces

The six-part series is on Alibi, on Mondays from 09 December 2019.

Image: from left: Jennifer Spencer, Laura Fraser, Molly Windsor and Martin Compston in Traces

Image credit: Red Productions/Alibi/UKTV

Olga Neuwirth

Olga Neuwirth

by Olga Neuwirth is at the Wien Staatsoper in Vienna, Austria until 20 February 2020.

Image: Kate Lindsey as Orlando in Orlando

Image credit: Staatsoper/ Michael PÓ§hn

Ěý

Marie Fredriksson remembered

Marie Fredriksson remembered
Image: Marie Fredriksson of the band Roxette performing at the ±«Óătv in 1989.

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  • Tue 10 Dec 2019 19:15

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Inspire

Inspire

A season discovering where artists find inspiration and helping listeners get creative.

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