06/08/2011

Bidisha and her guests the writers Lisa Appignanesi, Ekow Eshun and Misha Glenny review the week's cultural highlights including A Midsummer Night's Dream at the RSC. Nancy Meckler's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon is set in the 1960s and has comedian Marc Wooton playing the role of Bottom. Imaginative lighting effects and choreography are used to conjure up a suitably otherworldly backdrop for the supernatural events that play out in a forest outside Athens. Queenie Dove is the narrator of Jill Dawson's novel Lucky Bunny. She grows up in the East End of London during the 1930s and 40s, learning to use her talent for deception to her best advantage. After the war she finds herself rubbing shoulders with recognisable characters from London's demi-monde as she carves out a shadowy but independent life for herself. French director Julie Bertuccelli's film The Tree stars Charlotte Gainsbourg as a widowed mother bringing up her four children in rural Queensland. Her daughter Simone is convinced that her late father has taken up residence in the huge fig tree that looms over the house, a conviction that grows stronger as the tree itself begins to endanger the family. Channel 4's new late night arts season Street Summer is a celebration of street culture and includes films about graffiti, hip hop and streetdance. Bidisha and her guests have watched two programmes from the season: Concrete Circus which features four street athletes who have become YouTube legends and One Man Walking - a piece of contemporary urban choreography. The exhibition Joffe et Pye is an attempt by the artists Jasper Joffe and Harry Pye to revive salon culture in East London. Held in Joffe's studio-cum-home it features paintings by both artists which celebrate friends and family... and Snoopy. Producer: Torquil MacLeod.