First Person: Finding Oppenheimer

FIRST PERSON: FINDING OPPENHEIMER The author of the RSC's new play about the creator of atomic bomb seeks an elusive truth

The author of the RSC's new play about the creator of atomic bomb seeks an elusive truth

That the truth will always be so much bigger than we can comprehend is something I had to accept as I started to write Oppenheimer. There are so many sources, so much information, so many hundreds of books, declassified files, interviews and history. One biography of the man took its authors 25 years to write. And there are still the hidden thoughts that were never written down, conversations long forgotten by people now long dead. There have to be so many omissions that it is an impossible task to tell this "truth" over the course of one evening’s entertainment.

First Person: Doing The Walworth Farce

FIRST PERSON: DOING THE WALWORTH FARCE Acclaimed comedy director introduces Enda Walsh's new farce starring three Gleesons

Acclaimed comedy director introduces Enda Walsh's new farce starring three Gleesons

The (pronoun) Walworth (area in South London, near the Elephant and Castle) Farce (a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and improbable: often incomprehensible plot-wise, they are also characterised by physical comedy, the use of deliberate absurdity, and stylised performances).

First Person: The lure of the lost play

FIRST PERSON: THE LURE OF THE LOST PLAY As Rattigan's debut is staged after 80 years, its director ponders the rise of the rediscovery

As Rattigan's debut is staged after 80 years, its director ponders the rise of the rediscovery

About a year ago, Alan Brodie, who is the agent for the estate of Terence Rattigan, sent me a handful of his more obscure plays. I had worked with Alan before on a revival of Graham Greene’s first play, The Living Room, so he knew I had a penchant for what are now termed "rediscoveries". The play that jumped out at me was Rattigan’s theatrical debut: a comedy called First Episode.

Robert Wyatt: Different Every Time

ROBERT WYATT: DIFFERENT EVERY TIME On writing the authorised biography of one of the UK's most respected musicians

On writing the authorised biography of one of the UK's most respected musicians

As the presenter of a regular music podcast for a national newspaper, I used to be in the happy position of interviewing one or two artists of my choice per month, provided they were signed to an independent label. So when Domino released a Robert Wyatt box set in 2008, I spent a glorious afternoon with Robert and his wife and creative partner Alfie, in their Lincolnshire garden. I enjoyed myself so much, in fact, that I set out to find an excuse to do it again.

First Person: From Insolence to Defiance

Lyrical country meets rollicking cowpunk: Paul Simmonds on writing songs for two very different new albums

Not that long ago, certainly when I was old enough to know better, I managed to get myself mugged by a gang of teenage street girls down by Lisbon docks. I had been following a long chain of beer and whisky glasses from the end of one bar to the front of the next and was quite drunk in that careless, carefree, foolhardy way.

First Person: Disabled artists take on the world

FIRST PERSON: DISABLED ARTISTS TAKE ON THE WORLD Introducing Unlimited, Southbank Centre's festival of work by deaf and disabled artists

Introducing Unlimited, the Southbank's festival of work by deaf and disabled artists

The audience comment I most want to hear during next week's Unlimited Festival is: this show has transformed my perception of disability. We got that over and over and over during the first Unlimited Festival, which ran as part of the Cultural Olympiad in 2012. And I want that again. It’s all about making people understand that disability isn’t a negative, awful experience, just a facet of life that can give you as much as it apparently appears to take away. In fact, it just gives you more.

First Person: 'Thomas Bernhard? I love him'

The actor Peter Eyre introduces the German rarity he is bringing to the Edinburgh Festival

Some years ago I read a piece about a novel of Thomas Bernhard, Wittgenstein’s Nephew. Bernhard (1931-1989) was perhaps the most famous Austrian writer of his time, but unknown to me. In this article he was described as intense, manically obsessive, addicted to the unvarnished truth, and innovative in his constructions. I read the novel and was hooked. Bernhard’s novels have no paragraphs, and read like the monologues of a man possessed. You almost need to read them in one sitting.

First Person: Curating Shelagh Wakely

FIRST PERSON: CURATING SHELAGH WAKELY Giving a forgotten artist the recognition she deserves

On mounting a show which gives a forgotten artist the recognition she deserves

I’ve curated nearly 70 exhibitions in my time. The most challenging was Elizabeth Frink’s retrospective at the Royal Academy. Weighing in at several tons, the large bronzes are virtually impossible to shift, so I had no room for manoeuvre. To get the installation right, I placed cardboard miniatures inside a model of the main galleries and prayed they would look good full scale. 

Nightmare in Aix: Sarah Connolly on a shocking first night

NIGHTMARE IN AIX The great mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly on how her Ariodante at the Provençal festival was sabotaged

The great mezzo reports on how her Ariodante at the French festival was sabotaged

I felt so shocked by the events that took place during the premiere of Handel’s Ariodante on 3 July in the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence last week, and so disappointed that our painstaking work with director Richard Jones over the last six weeks had been so comprehensively ruined, that I felt I should document what happened.