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Re: Lit on Radio Wildfire

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Listen to Radio Wildfire's re:Lit here

Radio Wildfire, 3 September 2012
 
Radio Wildfire is a wonderful radio station, especially for lovers of the spoken word. Its monthly shows feature a pot-pourri of interviews, comments, poetry-readings, extracts from fictional works and drama, performed by a variety of artists from all over Britain and elsewhere. Although based in Birmingham, its scope is potentially limitless. The whole mix is linked by Dave Reeves, a presenter whose enthusiasm communicates itself throughout the whole two-hour long programme.
 
This month's edition featured readings from Kenton Field, Gail Ashton, Bryant O'Hara and Madison Shadwell (amongst others), a short play from the Bunbury Banter Theatre Company entitled Happiness by Jack Williams, plus an interview with poet Simon Fletcher, who had been to the Oslo Festival in the wake of the Anders Behring Breivik tragedy. The interview offered a fascinating insight into Breivik's mind, as well as offering the kind of first-hand reminiscence of how a city adjusts to a tragedy of such magnitude that is often painfully absent from most news reports.
 
I really liked the short play Happiness - set in a dystopian world of the London suburbs, it contrasted a government-sponsored campaign to spread Happiness throughout the country with the immediate feelings of a male protagonist trying to make sense of a difficult relationship. Although only twelve minutes long, it packed an emotional punch often absent from many lengthier works.
 
re: Lit has something for just about everyone interested in the spoken word. I recommend listening to it - the next episode is broadcast in the first week of October 2012.