Free Thinking - Thames Estuary Festival, Jatinder Verma, Arne Næss

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 14 September 2016

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

From Dickens, through wartime defences to Doctor Who - as a new festival looks at the landscape of the Thames Estuary, Matthew Sweet is joined by the author Rachel Lichtenstein and photographer Chloe Dewe Mathews. Jatinder Verma explains why a novel by Abdul Halim Sharar written in 1899 about the cult of the Assassins is relevant to put on stage now. And as the writings of Arne Næss are republished in English what was the influence of this Norwegian ecologist?

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Rachel Lichtenstein's book is called Estuary: Out from London to the Sea. She is curator of the Shorelines Literature Festival which is part of Estuary 2016. Points of Departure, curated by Gareth Evans and Sue Jones: an exhibition of new and existing work by 28 contemporary artistswhich includes photographs by Chloe Dewe Mathews. On display in the Grade II listed Tilbury Cruise Terminal

Paradise of the Assassins is the opening production at the newly refurbished Tara Arts Theatre in Earlsfield, South London where Jatinder Verma is Artistic Director. It runs from September 15th to October 8th.

The Ecology of Wisdom by Arne Næss is out now.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?
0:23.3	It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.
0:28.8	Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.
0:32.0	Welcome to the Arts and Ideas Download from the free-thinking team at the BBC.
0:37.3	Heart of Darkness is a novella about the Belgian Congo,
0:41.1	about a madman in an outpost of empire, about atrocity.
0:45.1	But it begins in Essex,
0:46.9	or somewhere between Essex and Kent on the Thames estuary,
0:50.9	on a late summer evening like this one.
0:53.3	Joseph Conrad's hero, Marl, sits with his friends on a cruising yawl called Nelly,
0:58.0	watching the light fade and saying aloud, and this too has been one of the dark places of the earth.
1:05.0	On tonight's edition of Freethinking, we'll sink our feet into the Essex silt, scope out the shipwrecks, sea monsters and
1:12.1	the chapels of the peculiar people. We'll venture into the cave of the Hashashin with Jatinda Verma,
1:18.1	artistic director of Tara Arts, and we'll find the Dutch philosopher Spinoza at the top of a
1:23.6	mountain in Norway. And I'm with my guests in the gloom of Studio 50A in Broadcasting House in London,
1:30.3	and this too has been one of the dark places of the earth. This bays tables filthy.
1:36.3	But we could do with a slightly more estuarine atmosphere, I think, so let's fade up the sound effects.
1:49.0	Very good.
1:52.8	Now, I have two mudlarks here, poised to map out this territory.
1:57.8	The first is the author Rachel Lichtenstein, who's explored the far reaches of the Thames for her new book, and also recorded the sound that you're hearing now.
2:01.7	And the photographer Chloe Dew Matthews, she's often to be found in the mud too.
2:06.5	Both are participants in the Estuary Festival, which starts at Tilbury Docks in Essex on Saturday.
	...

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