Front Row Folgen

Sierra Leone’s best-known journalist, Sorious Samura, discusses his documentary, Sing, Freetown. After growing tired of hearing only negative stories from Africa, the film follows Sorious and playwright Charlie Haffner’s journey to create a play that shows the true Sierra Leone. The entire Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest festival of contemporary art, has now opened, almost a year after it was due to because of the pandemic. Art critic Louisa Buck gives her response to the 11th Biennial and what it has to offer.As the Scottish Government discusses reducing social distancing requirements, where does that leave this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe? Kirsty Lang talks to Shona McCarthy, the Fringe's Chief Executive, about the situation and options that might allow 50,000 performances of over 3,500 shows in over 300 venues – the figures for 2019 – to go on.As part of our series featuring the authors shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, there’s another chance to hear Susanna Clarke, best known for Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, talk about her second novel, Piranesi. It’s set in the House, an endless sprawl of halls lined with statues, but it is falling apart, flooded by tides and populated at first by just the eponymous narrator and someone he knows only as The Other. Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Jerome Weatherald

Es Devlin, who designed sets for Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch and Stormzy at the Britz, has created something more quietly contemplative as artistic director of the London Design Biennale, filling the courtyard of Somerset House in London with trees. She tells Elle Osili-Wood about how forests in literature are places of transformation and how she created her Forest for Change, with a clearing at its heart where we are invited to consider the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development.The artist Phoebe Boswell’s new exhibition Here at New Art Exchange in Nottingham features many life-size, detailed, figurative drawings, as well as large-scale video and animations which reflect her exploration of marginalisation, freedom and the idea of home. She discusses her work and how it echoes her own experience as a Kenyan-born British artist.On May 18 the DCMS amended guidance issued on the 17th May prohibiting non professional singers from meeting indoors in groups larger than 6 which effectively prohibited most planned choral activities for the 2.2 million singers in over 40,000 choirs across the country. Front Row hears from Richard Reeves, General Manager of the Royal Choral Society who staged the Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall last Sunday and Paul Parker, lawyer and part-time tenor about the ongoing issues the new guidance has raised.Presenter: Elle Osili-Wood Producer: Julian May Studio Manager: John BolandMain image: The Global Goals Pavilion: Forest for Change at the London Design Biennale Image credit: Ed Reeve

Briony Hanson joins Tom to review two extremely different films starring animals as their central characters. First Cow - directed by Kelly Reichardt - is set in Oregon in the 1820s, in which two protagonists use stolen milk to survive in a harsh environment. Gunda – executive-produced by Joaquin Phoenix - is a 90 minute black and white, which follows a sow with her litter, some cows and a one-legged cockerel in a fascinating but unsentimental look at animals and farming.Amy Trigg is currently making her debut as a playwright with her award-winning one-woman play, Reasons You Should(nt) Love Me, about a young woman with spina bifida coming to terms with life and love. She talks to Tom about creating the characters she wants to see on stage.Books journalist Neill Denny talks us through the ongoing bookselling dispute between Penguin Random House and Waterstones. He explains what it means for the industry and which party has most to lose.Composer and sound designer Dan Jones talks to Tom Sutcliffe about his epic mass participation sound composition Coventry Moves Together – the finale to a day of events marking Coventry’s year as UK City of Culture.Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Hilary Dunn