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Adrian Dunbar on Samuel Beckett, Degas exhibitions, Chigozie Obioma

Adrian Dunbar on curating a Samuel Beckett festival in Liverpool, Degas exhibitions discussed, and Chigozie Obioma on his new novel set on the front lines of the Biafran War.

Adrian Dunbar is co-curator of the Beckett Unbound Festival that takes place in various venues across Liverpool this weekend and sees him directing Beckett's radio play All That Fall in a disused reservoir in total darkness. He explains why he thinks Samuel Beckett is an incomparable writer whose appeal never fades.

As two new exhibitions about Edgar Degas open at different ends of the UK, Nick looks at the importance and impact of this French Impressionist artist with Pippa Stephenson-Sit, the curator of Discovering Degas on now at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and with Anne Robbins, the curator of Discover Degas & Miss La La, which opens at the National Gallery in London on June 6th. Anne is now curator of paintings at the Musée d’Orsay.

The Biafran war, 1967 - 1970, was the first major conflict in post-colonial Africa, and when images of starving Biafran children with distended bellies began to be seen in the West, the modern humanitarian aid industry was launched. Award-winning novelist Chigozie Obioma has turned to the Biafran War for his new novel, The Road To The Country, which takes the reader to the front lines of the ferocious military confrontation.

Presenter: Nick Ahad
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

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42 minutes

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  • Wed 29 May 2024 19:15

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