Front Row - Billie Eilish reviewed, Sir James MacMillan on the First Night of the Proms, Kwame Kwei-Armah, Edinburgh Art Festival
Ben Okri's new play Changing Destiny is an adaptation of one of the world's oldest known stories, the ancient Egyptian Tale of Sinuhe. Tonight marks not only its opening night at London's Young Vic theatre, but the first time the venue has opened its doors since last year. Artistic director Kwame Kwei-Armah, who directs the play, talks to Tom live from the Young Vic just a few minutes before the curtain goes up.
This evening, Sir James MacMillan has a new piece being premiered at the First Night of the Proms, alongside Vaughan Williams's Serenade to Music. He tells Tom why it will be such a special occasion, and the pressure of writing a piece to accompany a masterwork.
"Paint me, Joan," the children of the tenements of Townhead in Glasgow used to say to Joan Eardley. And she did. The people of Townhead and scenes of the fishing village of Catterline in northeast Scotland became the focus of her art. This is celebrated in her centenary year with two exhibitions in Edinburgh, where the Art Festival opened yesterday. Glasgow-based artist Hannah Tuulikki and Adam Benmakhlouf, art editor of The Skinny magazine, review the Joan Eardley shows, as well as Tak' Tent O' Time Ere Time Be Tint, a new installation and film by Sean Lynch, responding to the statues and public monuments of Edinburgh.
Laura Snapes joins us to review Billie Eilish's eagerly awaited new album Happier Than Ever. And as ITV announces it has axed The X Factor, she discusses its legacy and why Simon Cowell is now choosing to distance himself from the programme.
Published on Friday, 30th July 2021.
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