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Arts & Ideas

Playing God

Arts & Ideas

BBC

Society & Culture

4.2599 Ratings

🗓️ 23 October 2018

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you put the Bible on stage or make a modern medieval mystery play? Shahidha Bari talks to the National Theatre of Brent's Patrick Barlow as his play The Messiah starts at UK tour. New Generation Thinker Daisy Black watches a new medieval mystery play in Stoke. Plus the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms exhibition at the British Library sees a giant Northumbrian Bible returned to Britain for the first time in 1300 years. And historian Iona Hine discusses her research into how we understand biblical stories and what difference translation makes.

The Messiah by Patrick Barlow, with additional material by John Ramm, Jude Kelly and Julian Hough opens at Birmingham Repertory Theatre 18 Oct 2018 - 27 Oct 18 starring Hugh Dennis, Lesley Garrett and John Marquez. It tours to Cardiff, Sheffield and Chichester and then goes to the London West End.

Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War runs at the British Library from Fri 19 Oct 2018 - Tue 19 Feb 2019 covering 600 years and featuring 180 treasures including the Codex Amiatinus, a giant Northumbrian Bible taken to Italy in 716

The Mysteries - newly created dramas by Sam Pritchard and Chris Thorpe have been performed in five different venues across the North of England exploring the impact of different landscapes on communities. All of them can be seen at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester from 25 October–11 November 2018.

Iona Hine researches at the University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hine/ Her thesis was called Englishing the Bible in Early Modern Europe.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

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.

0:33.3

BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.

0:37.8

Hello, you. Yes, you with the inquiring mind and the artistic hair. Thank you for downloading

0:44.6

this podcast. We promise to keep you company as you trek the lonely path to work, laugh with you

0:50.8

as you loll in the bath and whisper sweet somethings into your ear as you drift into sleep.

0:56.6

I'm Shahidavari and I think you and the Arts and Ideas podcast from BBC Radio 3 are just meant to be together.

1:04.8

Think of it as a love letter heading straight to your brain, delivered to you in just a moment after this.

1:11.6

Did you know that Mozart was so infuriating he was called a clown and a knave and given a kick-up

1:17.5

the behind by the Archbishop of Salzburg's steward, or that Chikovsky's family censored

1:22.7

his diaries to hide the fact he was gay? Ever hear of J.S. Bach, the street brawler?

1:29.4

The Composer of the Week podcast introduces you to the human side of the men and women

1:33.6

who created our greatest classical music.

1:36.6

Subscribe to Composer of the Week with me, Donald Peklaude, wherever you get your podcasts.

1:41.8

There's a treasure trove of music and stories waiting for you to explore

1:45.3

and a new composer to discover, well, every week.

1:49.3

Hello, were you a shepherd, a donkey or a star?

1:52.7

Or did you land the big ticket?

1:54.8

Were you a Mary or a Joseph in your school nativity?

1:57.7

Tweet us your picks.

1:59.1

Patrick Farlow never got over his school nativity and he's been

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