Radio with pictures... and arts, theatre, film, comedy, books, dance, entertainment and music.

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This week's stories Screen Gems - the great music documentaries Irene Gardiner talks to Lynn Freeman about some of the great documentaries about rock and roll - including ones about Fleetwood Mac, Split Enz, Nick Cave, the Flying Nun label, and a new one about outrageous Wellington rockers Head Like A Hole. Sep 03, 2017 02:45 pm One dark night outside Masterton... A man in a flash car stops to offer a drenched young woman a lift in the dark, on the outskirts of Masterton, and Tess, though wary, takes up the offer. But her decision has consequences - for herself, for the driver and for his disfunctional family. Tess is the first novel by Wellington short-story writer Kirsten McDougall. She talks to Lynn Freeman about how her own disquieting experiences were woven into the book. Tess is published by Victoria University Press. Sep 03, 2017 02:25 pm Relocating Katya to post-war America - it works! Setting the classic Russian opera Kátya Kabanová in 1950s America is a risk - but one its star says works like crazy. Russian-American soprano Dina Kuznetsova is performing here for the first time, but she's played the role several times - including in the Seattle premiere of this interpretation of Janácek's opera earlier this year. Kátya Kabanová tells of a passionate young woman stifled by a conservative society. Lynn Freeman asks Dina what updating operas in this way adds to them. The New Zealand Opera production of Kátya Kabanová opens in Auckland on the 16th of September before heading to Wellington. Sep 03, 2017 01:45 pm Alice Canton asks "What is being Chinese?" Members of Auckland's New Zealand Chinese community are being invited up onto Q Theatre's stage to tell their personal stories. They range from high school students to grandparents... performers through to a women's refuge worker. Alice Canton wants her new documentary theatre piece OTHER (chinese) to ask some big questions - What is Chinese? What is being Chinese? What is not Chinese? It follows a solo play she performed last year WHITE/OTHER, that also looked hard at Chinese identity in New Zealand. This time, Alice tells Lynn Freeman, she's encouraging others to share their experiences and stories directly to the audience. Sep 03, 2017 01:30 pm The murder that stunned Hamilton 25 years ago the murder of visiting English tourist Margery Hopegood in Hamilton, stunned the city and the country. She'd only been back in the country of her birth for just four days. The murder was huge news and the people of Hamilton turned out in their hundreds to a memorial service for a woman none of them know. But behind the headlines was the real story - the subject of Nicola Pauling's new play She Danced On A Friday, which premieres at Hamilton's Meteor Theatre this week. Wellington playwright and actor Nicola tells Lynn Freeman she already knew more than most about Margery, because of a strong family connection. Sep 03, 2017 12:45 pm Audio taonga comes to light 80 years on The oldest recorded Maori broadcast - dating back to March 1938 at Turangawaewae marae, in Ngaruawahia - is one of the prize recordings in the first of four on-line exhibitions by Nga Taonga Sound & Vision. The archive wants to highlight its Nga Taonga Korero collection of recordings of tupuna made between the 1930s and the 1980s. Lynn Freeman talks to Honiana Love and Lawrence Wharerau from Nga Taonga Sound and Vision about how the original recordings came about. Sep 03, 2017 12:25 pm The Art of Rod Emmerson In the past few weeks New Zealand Herald Editorial Cartoonist Rod Emmerson has been racing to keep up with the rapidly changing pre-election political scene. While coming up with a cartoon portrayal of new Labour leader Jacinda Ardern and setting aside former Greens co-leader Metiria Turei, Rod's also been working on his first art exhibition in 17 years. His background was fine arts, but a cartoonist's punishing daily deadlines haven't left him much time or energy to paint for pleasure. Rod talks to Lynn Freeman about his exhibition at Railway St Studio in Newmarket - including watercolour sketches, a large painting and a series of caricatures including some of his favourite singers. Sep 03, 2017 12:16 pm At The Movies for 30 August 2017 Simon Morris is reminded of the limitations of "based on real life" by three fact-based movies: American Made, In Between and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power. Aug 30, 2017 07:30 pm Fashion's front-row dramas Murray Bevan, founder of fashion PR agency Showroom 22, on what happens when the claws come out at New Zealand Fashion Week, working with Karen Walker and facing a female-dominated industry 15 years ago. Aug 29, 2017 09:00 am Older stories Sculpting the future of mining Jazz on a winter's weekend The viola gets a rare moment in the spotlight British artist John Stezaker and the art of collage Getting indigenous - and important - stories on stage The Talented Mr Bungay One Hundred Small Objects Not all audio is available due to copyright restrictions