08/10/2011

Tom Sutcliffe and his guests - novelist Michael Arditti and writers Natalie Haynes and Kevin Jackson - review the week's cultural highlights including The Marriage of Figaro.

Fiona Shaw directs the English National Opera production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. Iain Paterson sings the part of Figaro - a servant whose forthcoming wedding to his sweetheart Susanna (Devon Guthrie) is overshadowed by the fact that his master - Count Almaviva (Roland Wood) - wants to exercise his droit de seigneur.

Paddy Considine is best known as an actor, but he has turned his hand to writing and directing for the film Tyrannosaur. Set on a council estate in Leeds, Peter Mullan plays Joseph - an uncontrollably violent man - who meets Christian charity shop worker Hannah (Olivia Colman) who is, herself, married to a violent and abusive man. Dog lovers - look away now.

Stephen Mitchell adds his name to an illustrious list of translators who have rendered Homer's epic poem the Iliad into English ove