Prospect recommends six things to do this month film Videocracy dir Erik Gandini. On general release from 4th June Videocracy, by the Swedish-Italian director Erik Gandini, doesn’t give you many details about Silvio Berlusconi and his media empire (read Alexander Stille’s 2006 book The Sack of Rome for that). But it does tell you a lot about the atmosphere that the Italian prime minister helped to create, and the people around him. The opening shots are from Berlusconi’s first notorious television game shows of the early 1980s, in which housewives take off an article of clothing every time a contestant gets the answer to a (simple) question right. This is as good a metaphor as any for someone who, in Berlusconi’s own words, believes that everyone can make it if they get the chance to appear on TV.

Berlusconi’s hangers-on include Fabrizio Corona, who blackmailed celebrities by threatening to publish embarrassing pictures of them—he describes himself as “a Robin Hood who steals from the rich and gives to himself.” The film was made before last year’s sex scandals about Berlusconi and presciently shows the degrading atmosphere in which he operates.

Much of the comment on the film within Italy has been rightly anguished— of the “it’s not him, it’s us” kind. How can this modern, well-off liberal democracy continue to tolerate someone who indulges in such lies, shameless self-promotion and even more shameless legislative self protection? Many Italians have complained there is nothing new in this film: yes, indeed. The point is to change it. John Lloyd is a Financial Times columnist classical music St Magnus Festival Orkney Islands, 18th-23rd June, Tel: 01856 871 445 There may be starrier and more prestigious music festivals in Britain than the St Magnus Festival in Orkney. But none save the Aldeburgh Festival can boast such an

The Italian Chapel: a venue for the St Magnus Festival on the Orkney Islands intimate connection between the spirit of the festival and that of its locale. This is an event that takes place in a rough-hewn but magical cathedral, in community halls and little windswept churches within sight of an unruly sea. Another similarity with Aldeburgh is the feeling that the founder’s influence lingers on. But whereas Benjamin Britten is only present in spirit at the Aldeburgh Festival, Peter Maxwell Davies is very much a living presence in Orkney—and once again he has written a new piece for this year’s festival.

he community spirit Maxwell Davies is so keen to foster is still there in the event known as a “Foy,” an amalgam of stories, dance, music and song performed by locals. There is also high-quality chamber music from visiting artists, including the Hebrides Ensemble, the Royal String Quartet and violinist Nicola Benedetti among others. And running through this year’s programme is a Polish theme, with fresh takes on Chopin from pianist Ewa Kupiec and jazz pianist Leszek Mozdzer. Ivan Hewett is the Telegraph’s music critic

The National Theatre’s Welcome to Thebes is a modern take on Greek mythology fiction The Ask by Sam Lipsyte (Old Street Publishing, £12.99) Milo Burke, the corpulent 40-year-old narrator of Sam Lipsyte’s extremely funny novel The Ask, is an overeducated slacker in the tradition of Oblomov and Ignatius Reilly. Once a promising artist, he now works at a third-rate New York university, persuading rich people to donate to its arts programmes. But his job is on the line after he unwisely took out his frustration on the daughter of one of the college’s major donors. And to compound his woes, he is in the process of discovering that his “touched out” wife, Maura, is being touched up by one of her colleagues.

he novel tracks Milo’s desperate efforts to salvage his job by extracting a large donation from a mega-rich old friend. He encounters a succession of amusing characters, including a jargonspouting pre-school teacher and a pornviewing lesbian grandmother. Much of the novel’s humour stems from the contrast between a culture that fetishises wealth and achievement and the humdrum realities—death, physical limitations—that attend all human life. This theme is well served by Lipsyte’s prose, which specialises in giving novel expression to feelings of disappointment. Sample sentence: “Later, in bed, Maura and I cuddled in the way of a couple about to not have sex.” William Skidelsky is books editor of the Observer theatre Welcome to Thebes by Moira Buffini, dir Richard

Eyre. National Theatre,

15th June-18th August, Tel: 020 7452 3000 In Greek mythology, Theseus,

the founder-king of Athens, was driven from the city and died on the island of Skyros. But in Moira Buffini’s new play, set in the present day, he’s back in charge

8 · prospect · june 2010