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Good Grief, Shalom Auslander, National Galleries

Review of Good Grief starring Sian Clifford and Nikesh Patel, Shalom Auslander's darkly comic novel Mother to Dinner, and the National Galleries look to a post-pandemic future.

In 2006 a friend of the actor and writer Lorien Haynes died. Haynes's grief has found unusual expression - in a romantic comedy starring Sian Clifford and Nikesh Patel. In Good Grief the central character is dead. Director Natalie Abrahami has created an unusual hybrid of film and theatre, shot in what looks like a rehearsal studio, with a set of cardboard boxes - one marked 'cupboard'. Between scenes we see the crew setting lights and microphones. The critic Alice Saville reviews.

Comic novelist Shalom Auslander talks to Tom about his latest novel, Mother for Dinner. Seventh Seltzer is a Cannibal-American who has done everything he can to break from his past, but in his overbearing, narcissistic mother's last moments he is drawn back into the life he left behind. At her deathbed, she whispers in his ear the two words he always knew she would: Eat me. The book explores ideas of legacy, assimilation, the things we owe our families, and the things we owe ourselves.

As the National Gallery in London announces plans for its 200th anniversary in 2024, we discuss how museums and galleries might be different in a post pandemic future. With National Gallery Director Gabriele Finaldi and David Anderson, Director of the National Museums of Wales.

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Timothy Prosser

Available now

29 minutes

Shalom Auslander

Shalom Auslander's novel Mother for Dinner is available now

Good Grief

Good Grief is available until 15 April

Main image: Sian Clifford and Nikesh Patel
Photo credit: Platform Presents & Finite Films

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  • Tue 16 Feb 2021 19:15

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