Cultural Life: Jez Butterworth, playwright
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Your support makes all the difference.Theatre: Having been in New York, I just saw Punchdrunk's 'Sleep No More', an adaptation of 'Macbeth', where the set is an entire building in NYC's Chelsea district. With six floors, it's fantastically designed so you can walk around freely putting together the pieces of the play yourself; it's the most amazing, fully-immersive experience. In London, I saw 'Chekhov in Hell' at the Soho Theatre. Simon Scardifield really stood out.
Film: I recently watched Ingmar Bergman's 'Through a Glass Darkly', and the rest of the trilogy back to back. I also enjoy watching 'Toy Story' and 'Madagascar' with my kids. My eldest watches all the 'Toy Story' movies over and over, and I think it's great; I learnt how to structure stories from watching things repeatedly, so I think it's great she's following suit.
Visual Arts: 'The Mexican Suitcase' exhibition at the International Centre of Photography in New York is one of the most exciting exhibitions I have ever attended, with thousands of negatives documenting the Spanish Civil War by the photojournalist Robert Capa.
Music: P J Harvey's latest album, 'Let England Shake', is incredibly exciting, visceral and layered with a whole cascade of different ideas. Like browsing Capa's stills, listening to it is like watching her approach her favourite shot. It gives me goose bumps, which is what I want from an artwork.
Television: I love Stewart Lee's 'Comedy Vehicle' on BBC2. The guy is a genius. I remember seeing him live in Edinburgh; he was amazing then and is amazing now. I love the way he has taken his stand-up and stretched it into new areas, he's right up there with Lenny Bruce as far as I'm concerned.
Jez Butterworth will be speaking at the HowTheLightGetsIn festival at The Globe Hall, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3, (01497 821762) 3 June
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