Standing Room Only for Sunday 6 June 2021

12:15 Surrealism lands at Te Papa 

A massive new exhibition of surrealist art is arriving soon at Te Papa. Works from the 1910s through to the 1960s will span the walls, charting the journey of surrealist art in the 20th century. 

Curators Els Hoek, and Curator Lizzie Bisley join Lynn while they take a break from installing. 

12:30 Peter Ireland on Frances Hodgkins 

Paintings that are based on traditional embroidered samplers featuring quotes from the letters of New Zealand revered painter Frances Hodgkins feature in a new exhibition by Gisborne artist Peter Ireland. He's singled out quotes referring to the obstacles she faced as a working artist last century, then laboriously painted them to look like embroidered stitches over close up images of details from her original paintings. For example, her phrase 'life is full of knocks and blows' has a backdrop of a vase of lillies. Peter Ireland joins Lynn to discuss his obsession with Hodgkins. 

12:45 Assessing the impact of 'P' in Kaikohe 

An art exhibition examining the impact of P in Kaikohe that will be created by offering canvases to a range of locals whose lives have been impacted by the drug, is being planned by a community art gallery in the the Northland town. Te Pu O Te Wheke Community Gallery and Arts Trust is able to go ahead with the idea after receiving funding from the government's 18-million-dollar Creative Spaces Initiative Funding. It will also allow the trust to take arts workshops into isolated parts of the region. 

So far the five year old gallery's the only Northland recipient of money from the Initiative that's being divvied up by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. The manager of the Gallery Sasha Wilson joins Lynn to discuss the mammoth amount of work that has gone into making this happen. 

1:10 At The Movies

Simon Morris talks about the importance of charm in a film – you can’t find an audience if there’s no-one they like in your film.  And he finds three films that all depend on their likeable central characters.

Poppy is a New Zealand feelgood film about a young car mechanic with Down syndrome who’s determined not to let her disability slow her down.   Directed by Linda Niccol (Second hand wedding) and starring Ari Boyland (Shortland Street) and newcomer Libby Hunsdale. Minamata is the true story of a campaign by a Life Magazine photographer against a Japanese toxic-waste scandal in the Seventies. Starring Johnny Depp, Bill Nighy and opera singer Katherine Jenkins. And the villainous fashion designer from the Disney favourite 101 Dalmatians gets her own film – Cruella, starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson.  Directed by Craig Gillespie (I Tonya).

1:33 Scotty Cotter on moving deliberately 

Scotty Cotter is one of the busiest theatre directors in the country at the moment with two premieres opening in the next month. Neke is being performed on stage, while MAURI TAU is going to be an immersive and streamed sound event. Scotty's also a theatre, film and television actor, and a serial collaborator. For his audio play he's working with other actors and sound designers Fran Kora and Matt Eller. He takes a moment to tell Lynn about everything he is up to! 

1:50 Nigel Collins reimagines the requiem 

Think requiem and something like Mozart's unfinished one may well come to mind. But a new spoken word and musical show is reimagining the requiem, both the text and the music. Five Wellington poets have written work based around Epilogue, and a group of musicians is creating scores that relate to each poem. There's also some Old English being thrown in for good measure. 

Nigel Collins is one of the musicians working on Epilogue that will be performed for the first time as part of Wellington's Loemis Festival later this month.

2:06 Are the arts essential? 

What is the role of the arts sector in a pandmeic world? That was the issue at the heart of the discussion at the Are the Arts Essential debate recorded at the Auckland Arts Festival in cooperation with Auckland Live.

Six debaters lined up on the 16th of March at the Civic Club to passionately argue that the arts are, or are not, essential. They discuss what role the arts play in our day-to-day lives, how we would fare without them, and the economic, social and emotional benefit to New Zealand of a flourishing creative sector.

On the affirmative team: Amber Curren, Madeleine Chapman and Eli Matthewson while James Nokise, Alice Canton and Toby Mahnire were on the negative team. Tanea Heke head of Toi Whakaari:New Zealand Drama School was the MC. 

3:06 Drama at 3 - Bread of Heaven

This week our Drama is Bread of Heaven by Vincent O'Sullivan, It's a satire of sorts on capitalism, family, history and angelic intervention.