Standing Room Only for Sunday 3 April 2022

12:16  Cath Newhook revives treasured stringed instruments

A treasured violin run over by a car is one of the most extreme repairs carried out by The Stringed Instrument Company in Auckland.

Our occasional series of interviews with repairers continues with a chat to Cath Newhook, who took over the company from her mentor, luthier Peter Madill.

For many years Cath has trained new generations of specialist repairers, and she and her team have saved many valuable violins, violas and double basses across five decades.

Cath explains to Lynn Freeman how she came to repair stringed instruments.
 

12:40  The Going West Festival takes some new directions

Going West, Aotearoa's oldest indy LitFest, used to be all about the bringing together of writers and readers in a room, even on a train, to chat about books.

But that was then.  After two disrupted years,  Going West 2022 is embracing the new opportunities offered by going online. These include commissioning new work showcasing storytellers.

The Festival is also about to launch two new art-house documentary shorts - one on the poet Nathan Joe and Kathleen Winter's film about the poet Freya Daly Sadgrove. 

Lynn Freeman chats with Kathleen and Nathan.   First though, Going West's Director James Littlewood explains why - rather than relying on Zoom like some literary festivals - they've gone in a different direction:
 

1:10 At The Movies

Simon Morris reviews Drive My Car, Nowhere Special and NZ/Canadian co-production Night Raiders.

 

1:31  The first NZ Scandinavian Film Festival

Every year it seems there are new regional film festivals, often hugely popular with Kiwi audiences.   The big surprise about the latest one - the first Scandinavian Film Festival -  is surely why has it taken so long?  

Scandinavia is regularly the New Big Thing, going right back to the dark dramas of Sweden's Ingmar Bergman, the warm-hearted Dogme comedy-dramas of Denmark, and trendy Scandi-noir like The Killing, The Bridge and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.    Not forgetting this year's Oscar-nominated The worst person in the world from Norway.   

Simon Morris talks with Scandinavian Film Festival Director Fergus Grady about a surprisingly light-hearted selection.

 

1:46   Illustrators' contribution to children's books

An exhibition to celebrate those who put pictures to words for one of our leading children's book publishers, is about to open in Whanganui.

It's two years since the Lockett Gallery, an arm of Paige's Book Gallery, opened as the country's only gallery for illustrators.

For its next show Lockett is teaming up with Gecko Press, a Wellington based publisher of international children's books, to highlight the work of the illustrators.  

Lynn Freeman talks to the joint curators of Gecko Press the Exhibition, Lesley Stead from Paige's Book Gallery and Rachel Lawson from Gecko Press.

Gecko Press the exhibition is on this month at Whanganui's Lockett Gallery.

 

2:06 The Laugh Track - Neill Rea

 

When The Brokenwood Mysteries was launched on Prime TV in 2014 it was expected to do well enough.  

It was obviously inspired by similar cosy British whodunnits, though with a quirky Kiwi flavour.   

But nobody expected it to do as well as it did, not just here but everywhere - from France to Bulgaria, Finland to the US.

Now in its 8th series, on TV1 these days, much of its success rests on the charm of its star detective Mike Shepherd, played with rumpled Kiwiness by Neill Rea.

And Neill is about to be on the receiving end of crime for a change - as the victim in the stage version of the Steven King shocker Misery at Palmerston North's Centrepoint Theatre.next month.

Lynn Freeman talks Brokenwood and comedy with Neill Rea.   

Neill's picks include the Topp Twins, The Muppets, Clarke and Dawe, Billy Connolly and David Lange.

 

 

2:26  Violinist Rakuto Kurano's residency at a Wanaka retirement village

 

Violinist Rakuto Kurano has big ambitions for his time as the first Artist in Residence at a Wanaka retirement complex. 

He's just completing the first of three week-long stints at The Aspiring Lifestyle Village, where he's taken lessons, given several performances and also visited local schools to talk about a musician's life.

Rakuto has now returned to the University of Canterbury to work on his Master of Music thesis, and he'll return to the village later in the year, to work on some of his other projects. 

These include forming a local string quartet and recording a solo violin piece around  Wanaka's Ruby Island.

Lynn Freeman asked Rakuto how the unusual opportunity came up.

Included in the interview is an excerpt of his recording "Fugue from Concerto Grosso", that's just been released on Spotify.

 

2:36  Michele Beevors knits skeletons of endangered animals

Stuffed animals used to be a fixture of Victorian houses and museums, though for modern eyes they elicit complicated responses.  They're certainly striking - often magnificent - examples of the taxidermist's skill.  But they're also tragic, particularly when the animals are endangered, or even extinct.

Now a modern exhibition offers life-sized skeletons of endangered animals, made not from bone but from knitting.

Sculptor Michele Beevors believes the sense of loss to those looking at them, will be just as profound.

From tiny frogs to a towering giraffe, she's knitted their skeletons as part of a two-decade-long project, and many have been included in exhibitions about the country.  This selection from the Anatomy Lessons menagerie is about to open in Otago Museum's animal attic

Michele's twelve chosen creatures will sit alongside some of the museum's historic skin and fur taxidermied exhibits.

Michele is principal lecturer in sculpture at the Dunedin School of Art at Otago Polytechnic.  She tells Lynn Freeman that, for her, these frozen-in-time creatures have held a sad fascination for her since she moved to Ōtepoti Dunedin 20 years ago.

Michele Beevors: Anatomy Lessons opens at Otago Museum on the 9th of April. 

 

2:47   Auckland Theatre Company reaches out to youth

Young aspiring actors, directors, designers, writers, and theatre artists are being invited to apply for a new Youth Theatre company in Tamakai Makarau.

It's for 16-25 year olds, and it's the initiative of the Auckland Theatre Company.  The aim is to give our next generation of theatre makers a head start in their careers, and the year-long programme is free.

Ahead of auditions that will be held once Auckland moves to orange, Lynn Freeman spoke to two of the four artists leading The Youth Company programme -  Keagan Carr Fransch, and from ATC, Sam Phillips.

She asked Sam what will differentiate this initiative from other youth theatre groups, notably long-time Auckland company, Massive?

 

3:06 Drama at 3 - The Redhead gets the gig Part 2, by Linn Lorkin

Today's Classic Drama is Part Two of veteran entertainer Linn Lorkin's autobiography The Redhead Gets the Gig.

Linn is a woman of many talents.  She's probably best known as a singer and pianist, but as you will hear she's had a very colourful life that has taken her around the globe.

The Redhead Gets the Gig is written and performed by Linn Lorken, and adapted for radio by Duncan Smith for RNZ National. 
 

 

Music played in this show

Artist:  Billy Vaughan & Orchestra
Song: Holiday for strings
Composer: Rose
Album: Wonderland by night
Label: Axis
Played at: 12.16

Artist: Sierra Hull
Song: Bombshell
Composer:  Hull
Album: Daybreak
Label: Rounder
Played at: 12.36

Artist: Ella Fitzgerald
Song: Slap that bass
Composer: Gershwin-Gershwin
Album: George and Ira Gershwin Songbook
Label:  Verve
Played at: 12.58

Artist:  Addictive TV
Song: Sitar hero
Composer:  Daniels-Vidler
Album: Orchestra of samples
Label:  N/A
Played at:  1.07

Artist: Pat Donohue
Song:  Would you like to play the guitar
Composer: Van Heusen-Burke-Donohue
Album: N/A
Label: N/A
Played at: 1.42

Artist:  Florence and the Machine
Song: Cosmic love
Composer:  Summers-Welch
Album: Lungs
Label:  Island
Played at: 1.58

Artist: Bela Fleck
Song: Prelude from Suite for unaccompanied Cello
Composer: Bach
Album: N/A
Label:  Rounder
Played at: 2.05

Artist:  Anton Karas
Song: The Third Man (Harry Lime Theme)
Composer:  Karas
Album: The first man of the zither
Label:  Jasmine
Played at: 2.58

Artist: Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Song: Theme from Shaft
Composer:   Hayes 
Album: Live from London 2
Label: Ukulele
Played at:   3.05

Artist:  Rod Stewart
Song:  Mandolin wind
Composer: Stewart
Album: Some guys have all the luck
Label:  Warner
Played at: 3.58