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Last broadcast on Mon, 8 Feb 2010, 21:30 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Andrew Marr discusses the need for radical reform of the markets with former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz, and finds out why the financial crisis has been a boon for artists with Enron playwright Lucy Prebble. Peter Brook explores the question of violence and tolerance in his latest play, 11 and 12, and the theologian Robert Beckford takes a new look at the Book of Revelation.
JOSEPH STIGLITZ
At the 2007 world economic forum at Davos, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz was in an “uncomfortable position”. He had been predicting serious problems with the financial system for years, yet the global economy was still booming. Twelve months later the financial crisis hit, shaking assumptions about the infallibility of capitalism. In his latest book, Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy, Joseph Stiglitz outlines the systemic failures that led to the crash. He explains how the current crisis presents an opportunity to create a better model, if the courage is there to grasp it.
Freefall: Free Markets and the Sinking of the Global Economy is published by Allen Lane.
LUCY PREBBLE
“The only difference between me and the people judging me is they weren’t smart enough to do what we did.” The words of Enron President Jeff Skilling in Lucy Prebble’s play, Enron, which deals with the spectacular rise and catastrophic fall of the US energy giant. By turns humorous and hubristic, it explores the roots of the biggest corporate fraud in the history of Wall Street and reveals the greed and corruption at the heart of Enron. Lucy Prebble talks about whether the world of big business and the drama of the financial crisis make great material for playwrights.
Enron is on at the Noel Coward Theatre in London until 8 May.
PETER BROOK
Peter Brook’s play, 11 and 12, centres on a theological dispute over how many times to say a particular prayer, and the violence that follows. It’s the true story of the life of the Sufi master, Tierno Bokar, in Mali at the beginning of the twentieth century. “There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the Truth,” says Bokar. In depicting his search for the Truth, Peter Brook pits tolerance and integrity against prejudice and colonial interference.
11 and 12 is on at the Barbican Theatre until 27 February.
ROBERT BECKFORD
The psychoanalyst Carl Jung described it as a “veritable orgy of hatred, wrath, vindictiveness and blind destructive fury”. The Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible, has always provoked strong emotions, with its nightmare visions, the seven-headed Beast, marked by the number 666, and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Literal readers of the text view it as a timeline for the end of the world, but the theologian Robert Beckford explores how some believers have used the Book as a call to arms in the fight against oppression and tyranny.
The Bible: A History is on Channel 4 on Sundays at 7.00pm and The Book of Revelation will be broadcast in March.
Chapters
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Chapter 1
Andrew Marr discusses the need for radical reform of the markets with former World Bank economist Joseph Stiglitz.
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Chapter 2
Lucy Prebble talks about why the world of big business and the drama of the financial crisis make great material for playwrights.
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Chapter 3
The director talks about his new work 11 and 12, which explores tolerance and integrity against prejudice and colonial interference.
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Chapter 4
Theologian Robert Beckford explores how some believers have used the Book of Revelation.
Broadcasts
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Mon 8 Feb 201009:00
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Mon 8 Feb 201021:30
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