Night Waves - Howard Brenton, Perfection, 'Jewish Comedy'

Philip Dodd talks to one of our most prolific and provocative playwrights, Howard Brenton, who has three major productions opening across the country. Brenton discusses his new adaptation of Robert Tressell's novel The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, which premieres at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre this week before going to Chichester. He also talks about updating Georg Buchner's play about the French Revolution, Danton's Death, for the National Theatre and about his new play for the Globe Theatre which dramatises the life of Henry VIII's doomed wife Anne Boleyn, exploring both her passion for the King and her love of dangerous ideas. Also on the programme: Perfection. Our drive for perfection underpins everything we do. In education, art, religion and technology, perfection is held to be the goal that most people strive for. Inventions such as the motorcar, mobile phone and computer have all come from this need to create the perfect life. But should we be suspcious of perfection - can we ever attain it and would we be happy with it if we did? Philip Dodd finds out more with neuroscientist Mark Lythgoe, psychotherapist Susie Orbach and engineer and scientist Mark Miodownik. And Philip is joined by writer and comic David Schneider and the critic Jason Solomons to take the temperature of so-called 'Jewish Comedy' today, and to discuss how it has evolved, as the latest Woody Allen film - starring Larry David - opens nationwide. Producer: Dymphna Flynn.