08/12/2010

This week Libby Purves is joined by Klaus Kruse, Bryn Terfel, Sir Patrick Stewart and Becky Unthank. Klaus Kruse is a German director, scenographer, performer and poet. His research into audience/performance spatial relationships and the effecting potential of space within a theatrical experience led him to co-found 'Living Structures'. 'Cart Macabre' is their newest work and two years in the making, part theatre, part installation, it is on at The Old Vic Tunnels, described as "a nightmare fairground ride through a dreamlike landscape". Bryn Terfel is the Welsh bass-baritone who rose to prominence when he won the Lieder Prize in the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Now considered as one of the world's greatest living opera singers, his new album 'Carols and Christmas Songs' is released on Deutsche Grammophon and the new single 'White Christmas' is hotly tipped as the Christmas No. 1. Sir Patrick Stewart is the acclaimed actor, known for successfully bridging the gap between the theatrical world of the Shakespearean stage and contemporary film and television. He is about to bring 'Macbeth' to BBC 4, recreating the role he originally played when it was staged by the Chichester Festival Theatre, then in the West End and on Broadway, directed by Rupert Goold. Becky is one of the Unthank Sisters; highly acclaimed Northumbrian folk singers and clog dancers and the lead vocalists in "The Unthanks" band. This year they took a journey around England to experience living folk dance traditions in action. Along the way they discovered the most surprising dances, ceremonies and rituals. 'Still Folk Dancing...After All These Years' is on BBC 4.