Radio Plays XXVII
Radio Plays XXVII
Dickens' Women
******From Kate Nickleby to Little Nell - Miriam Margolyes entertains an audience
with her celebration of the author's characters.
Bloody Stefi by Robin Brooks and Richard Heacock:
******In 1907, the young Hungarian violinist Stefi Geyer was at the height of her fame,
enchanting audiences as much with her physical beauty as with her playing. That
summer, two men fell seriously under her spell. Both were composers and both were
besotted with her. Otherwise, they could not have been more different: the intense,
fiercely intellectual and pathologically shy Hungarian, Bela Bartok; and the dashing,
hell-raising Swiss Lothario, Othmar Schoeck. Each rival sought to immortalise his
new-found muse by writing her a violin concerto.
Custom of the Country 1.3 by Edith Wharton
Custom of the Country 2.3
Custom of the Country 3.3
******First published in 1913, Edith Wharton's The Custom Of The Country is a scathing novel
of ambition featuring one of the most ruthless heroines in literature. Undine Spragg is as
unscrupulous as she is magnetically beautiful. Her rise to the top of New York's high society
from the nouveau riche provides a provocative commentary on the upwardly mobile and the
aspirations that eventually cause their ruin. One of Wharton's most acclaimed works,
The Custom Of The Country is a stunning indictment of materialism and misplaced values
that is as powerful today for its astute observations about greed and power as when
it was written nearly a century ago.
Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris
******A dysfunctional company of misfits in an advertising agency try to come to terms
with the effects of the downturn, as boom turns to bust and the lay-offs begin.
'How we hated our coffee mugs! Our mouse pads, our desk clocks, our daily calendars,
all the contents of our desk drawers. Even the photos of our loved ones taped to our
computer monitors for uplift and support turned to cloying reminders of time served ..
.'. Welcome to the world of Joshua Ferris's dazzlingly acute, brilliantly original,
agonizingly funny novel. The dotcom bubble has just burst on an advertising agency
on Chicago's Magnificent Mile. Employees shuffle slowly up the steps towards the
revolving doors, afraid of what is waiting to greet them inside their cubicles ..."Then
We Came to the End" is about how we spend our days and too many of our nights.
It is about being away from friends and family, about sharing a stretch of stained
carpet with a group of strangers we call colleagues. It is about sitting all morning
next to someone you deliberately cross the road to avoid at lunchtime.
Joshua Ferris's fabulous novel is the story of your life, and mine.
It is the story of our times.
En Passant by David Benedictus
******
Six Suspects 1.10 by Vikas Swarup
Six Suspects 2.10
Six Suspects 3.10
Six Suspects 4.10
Six Suspects 5.10
Six Suspects 6.10
Six Suspects 7.10
Six Suspects 8.10
Six Suspects 9.10
Six Suspects 10.10
******There's a caste system even in murder. Seven years ago, Vivek 'Vicky' Rai,
the playboy son of the Home Minister of Uttar Pradesh, murdered Ruby Gill at a
trendy restaurant in New Delhi simply because she refused to serve him a drink.
Now Vicky Rai is dead, killed at his farmhouse at a party he had thrown to celebrate
his acquittal. The police search each and every guest. Six of them are discovered with
guns in their possession. In this elaborate murder mystery we join Arun Advani, India's
best-known investigative journalist, as the lives of these six suspects unravel before our eyes:
a corrupt bureaucrat; an American tourist; a stone-age tribesman; a Bollywood sex symbol;
a mobile phone thief; and an ambitious politician. Each is equally likely to have pulled the trigger.
Inspired by actual events, Vikas Swarup's eagerly awaited second novel is both a riveting page turner
and an insightful peek into the heart and soul of contemporary India.
The Bagman or The Impromptu Of Muswell Hill by John Arden
******modern version of Moliere's Versailles Impromptu
The Holy Fool by Peter Roberts
******The story of William the Marshall, most chivalrous knight in England,
as told by his disillusioned squire, Jean D’Erlee.
The Holly And The Ivy by Wynyard Browne
******It is Christmas Eve 1947 and the family are gathering to celebrate at Reverend Martin Gregory’s
East Anglian vicarage. A soldier son destined for Oxbridge, two elderly aunts with a passion for chatter,
a cousin with a military background and daughter hiding a series of secrets join the vicar and his dutiful
daughter plan Christmas together.
But family tensions come to the fore as the daughter, Jenny, fears she will have to call off her secret engagement
to David to allow her to look after her Dad.
The Contingency Plan by Steve Waters (2 hours)
******A powerful new version of the play originally staged at The Bush Theatre
in London, addressing the subject of climate change. As Britain faces
unprecedented and catastrophic floods, government and scientists argue over
what action to take. A young glaciologist arrives in Whitehall determined to
convince the powers that be of the importance of immediate action. But he is also bent
on avenging his father, a scientist whose views were discredited a generation ago.
Silas Marner 1.2 by George Eliot
Silas Marner 2.2
******George Eliot's own favourite novel centres on Silas Marner, the linen weaver of
Raveloe, a village on the brink of industrialization. Once he was a respected member
of a narrow congregation, but the events that took place during one of his cataleptic
foots led to the loss of everything that he valued. Now he lives a withdrawn half-life
and is an object of suspicion to his new neighbours; he exists only for his work and
his golden guineas. But when his precious money is stolen and, shortly after, seemingly
and mysteriously replaced by the child Eppie, Silas is awakened to life by the redemptive
power of love.
George Eliot's affectionate but unsentimental portrait of rural life combines irony, humour and
sharp social comment. Above all, she demonstrates a profound and enduring knowledge
of the human mind and heart.
Little Dorrit 1.5 by Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit 2.5
Little Dorrit 3.5
Little Dorrit 4.5
Little Dorrit 5.5
******When Arthur Clennam returns to England after many years abroad, he takes
a kindly interest in Amy Dorrit, his mother's seamstress, and in the affairs of Amy's
father, William Dorrit, a man of shabby grandeur, long imprisoned for debt in the
Marshalsea. As Arthur soon discovers, the dark shadow of the prison stretches far
beyond its walls to affect the lives of many, from the kindly Mr Panks, the reluctant
rent-collector of Bleeding Heart Yard, and the tipsily garrulous Flora Finching,
to Merdle, an unscrupulous financier, and the bureaucratic Barnacles in the
Circumlocution Office. A masterly evocation of the state and psychology of imprisonment,
Little Dorrit is one of the supreme works of Dickens's maturity.
The Silver Fox 1.2 by Somerville and Ross
The Silver Fox 2.2
******Captain Hugh French, newly married and recently returned from India,
has reopened his ancestral pile in West Cork
Brief Encounter by Noel Coward
******Laura Jesson, a suburban housewife, tells her story in the first person while at home
with her husband, imagining that she is confessing her affair to him.
The Assassins 1.3 by David Pownall - Virgin Knife
The Assassins 2.3 - A Mere 5,000 Pounds
The Assassins 3.3 - Sic Semper Tyrannis
The Small Back Room by Nigel Balchin
******Tense Second World War thriller.
Sammy Rice is called in to try and solve the mystery of a series of unexploded bombs
that are being scattered after German air raids. They lie dormant
and then inexplicably explode on human contact
Moby Dick 1.3 by Herman Melville (2009)
Moby Dick 2.3
Moby Dick 3.3
******An epic tale of the conflict between man and his fate. Captain Ahab's obsessive
quest to destroy the great white whale that tore off his leg leads the "Pequod" and
its crew to disaster.
The Pitmen Painters by William Feaver
******about a group of British miners who become artists
The Decameron 1.3 by Giovanni Boccaccio
The Decameron 2.3
The Decameron 3.3
******a medieval allegorical work best known for its bawdy tales
of love, appearing in all its possibilities from the erotic to the
tragic. Some believe many parts of the tales are indebted to the
influence of The Book of Good Love. Many notable writers such
as Chaucer are said to have drawn inspiration from The Decameron
The Ring and The Book 1.2 by Robert Browning
The Ring and The Book 2.2
******The book tells the story of a murder trial in Rome in 1698, whereby an
impoverished nobleman, Count Guido Franceschini, is found guilty of the
murders of his young wife Pompilia Comparini and her parents, having
suspected his wife was having an affair with a young cleric, Giuseppe
Caponsacchi. Having been found guilty despite his protests and
sentenced to death, Franceschini then appeals - unsuccessfully -
to Pope Innocent XII to overturn the conviction. The poem comprises
twelve books, each a dramatic monologue spoken by a different narrator
involved in the case, usually giving a different account of the same events.
To Throw Down God by Mike Walker
******A sheep stealer is convicted of a crime. Can James Boswell get him reprieved?
Raven Black by Anne Cleeves
******It is a cold January morning and Shetland lies buried beneath a deep layer of snow.
Trudging home, Fran Hunters eye is drawn to a vivid splash of colour on the white ground,
ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbour Catherine Ross.
As Fran opens her mouth to scream, the ravens continue their deadly dance. The locals
on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one manloner and simpleton
Magnus Tait. But when police insist on opening the investigation a veil of suspicion and
fear is thrown over the entire community. For the first time in years, Catherine's neighbours
nervously lock their doors, whilst a killer lives on in their midst. Raven Black is a haunting,
beautifully crafted crime story, and establishes Ann Cleeves as
a rising talent in psychological crime writing.
Bluethroat Morning by Tony Ramsay
******100 years ago on the Norfolk marshes, the Rev Marchant arrives seeking a bluethroat bird for his collection,
at any cost.
Turkey Time by Ben Travers
****** In this comedy, two good friends spend Christmas at the home of one of their fiancees.
While there, her beloved falls in love with another woman. His buddy falls for the newcomer too
and romantic mayhem ensues. Fortunately things are set to right by the story's end and romantic bliss ensues.
Down and Out In Paris and London 1.2 by George Orwell
Down and Out In Paris and London 2.2
******This is Orwell's record of a period in the late 1920s when he lived among
the tramps of London and Paris. He exposes a shocking, previously hidden
world to readers and gives poverty a human face.
The book attempts to offer insights, rather than solutions.
Bora Bora by Lynne Truss
******When a biographer joins a painting holiday organised by art historian Alec,
his arrival disturbs the calm. Alec must face a terrible truth about his life.
The Holiday by Susan Smith
******
The Chimes by Charles Dickens
******The second of Charles Dickens's Christmas books is both a topical satire
and a plea for human charity.
One New Year's Eve, the humble Trotty Veck learns the importance of
love and hope - in an extraordinary way.
An Informer's Duty 1.2 by Greg Cullen
An Informer's Duty 2.2
*******In fear for his life under Stalins terror, Dimitri Shostakovich
withdraws his Fourth Symphony from production. However, others inspire
him to dare to write the Fifth.
The Lodger by Marie Belloc Lownde
******It concerns the hunt for a "Jack the Ripper" type serial killer in London.
The wrong man is accused of the crime and is forced to try to prove his innocence.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
******A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K., an ordinary man
who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit,
a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released,
but must report to court on a regular basis--an event that proves maddening,
as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate,
his personal life--including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady
and a young woman who lives next door--becomes increasingly unpredictable.
As K. tries to gain control, he succeeds
only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.
A Dry White Season by Andre Brink
******Ben Du Toit is an ordinary, decent, harmless man whose sense of justice is
outraged by the death at the hands of the police of a man he knew. As Ben
investigates, he finds that his curiosity becomes labelled as rebellion.
The author has won South Africa's CNA award for both Afrikaans and English work.
LA Theater Works - The Tale of the Allergist's Wife 1.2 by Charles Busch
LA Theater Works - The Tale of the Allergist's Wife 2.2
******Raucous comedy from one of America's most outrageous playwrights! New York
dilettante Marjorie Taub, a middle-aged doctor's wife, is hooked on culture - mornings
at the Whitney, afternoons at MOMA, evenings at BAM. Plunged into a mid-life crisis of
Medea-like proportions, she's shaken out of her lethargy by the reappearance of a
fascinating childhood friend.
The New York Times says, "The Allergist's Wife earns its wall-to-wall laughs."
Starring Richard Kind, Jobeth Williams, Amy Aquino, Estelle Harris, and Dileep Rao
LA Theater Works - Relativity 1.2 by Cassandra Medley
LA Theater Works - Relativity 2.2
******Enter the brave new world of genetic mapping and profiling, and the controversy
that arises when it is applied to issues of race. Kalima, a brilliant young African-
American biogeneticist, finds her cutting-edge research bringing her into ideological
conflict with her mother, Claire, who runs a foundation dedicated to “melanin science”.
Claire fervently believes that the pigment melanin makes African-Americans genetically
superior. The stage is set for a fascinating exploration of the divide between the
methodologies of Western science and more faith-based analyses of our biological
blueprints. L.A. Theatre Works produced RELATIVITY for its Relativity Series of science-
themed plays, funded in part by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance public
understanding of science and technology. Includes an interview with Dr.Stanley Nelson,
Professor of Human Genetics and Psychiatry at the David Geffen
School of Medicine at UCLA.
LA Theater Works - Marvin's Room 1.2 by Scott McPherson
LA Theater Works - Marvin's Room 2.2
****** Good-hearted Bessie has been taking care of their ailing father for 20 years,
but now she’s the one who’s sick, and she must reconcile with her estranged sister, Lee.
A remarkably humorous and tender play, this critically acclaimed family drama was
dubbed by The New York Times as “...one of the funniest plays of the year as well as
one of the wisest and most moving.”
Starring Mary Steenburgen, Steven Weber, Roxanne Hart and Jason Ritter.
Road To Sunset by Lewis Grassic Gibbon
******Drama following Lewis Grassic Gibbon from his humble beginnings in rural
North East Scotland to his struggle to become the writer he always dreamed of being.
Primal Scene, As it Were by Henry Reed
******said to be the last in the series about Herbert Reeve's encounters
with the relatives and friends of the late Richard Shewin.
Deep Cut by Philip Ralph
******about the four deaths at Deepcut army barracks and the subsequent
judicial review in 2006.
The play draws on public documents and verbatim records. The words and
memories of the parents of one of the recruits, Private Cheryl Jones, and
those associated with her, are interwoven with those of Nicholas Blake QC,
who led the review, and some of the people
who independently investigated Cheryl's death.
The Caretaker by Harold Pinter
******This three-act play involves interactions between a mentally-challenged man, Aston;
a tramp, Davies, whom Aston brings home to his attic room,; and Aston's younger brother
(Mick), who appears responsible for the house.This play was first performed in 1960.
Harold Pinter specializes in the tragicomedy of the breakdown of communication,
broadly in the tradition of the theatre of the absurd and this is demonstrated here.
The Kingfisher by William Douglas Home
******Evelyn, just returned from her husband's funeral, is wary of the impetuous Cecil. Over the course
of an afternoon and a libation-fueled evening, they talk and reminisce. But is Cecil 50 years too late?
A Daring Venture by Brian Thompson
******
A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
******Written one year after The Pillars of Society, the play was the first of Ibsen's to create
a sensation and is now perhaps his most famous play, and required reading in many secondary
schools and universities. The play was controversial when first published, as it is sharply critical
of 19th century marriage norms. It follows the formula of well-made play up until the final act,
when it breaks convention by ending with a discussion, not an unravelling.
It is often called the first true feminist play.
A Game of Golf by Alan Ayckbourn
******Two couple's marital problems come to a head on the golf course.
A Game of Marbles by Stephen Wyatt
******a comedy about the Elgin Marbles broadcast to coincide with the Athens Olympics
Amazonia by by Garry Lyons
******Years before he found fame with Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome was swept up
in the dramatic events of the Russian Revolution, living a dangerous double life as a journalist
and agent for both the Bolsheviks and the Foreign Office. War, revolution, espionage and
romance feature in this biographical portrait of one of our best-loved children's authors.
Antigua, Penny, Puce by Robert Graves & Barbara Bray
******
Buffet by Rhys Adrian
******City worker Freddie stops at the station for drinks - and to see his mistress.
Evelyn by Rhys Adrian
******The struggles of a man in the thick of an extra-marital affair.
On Trial For Life by Ferdinand Woodward
******The trial of Fray Luis de Leon reconstructed from the inquisitorial archive.
Fray Luis de Leon (1527-1591) was a humanist poet and thinker who taught at the University of Salamanca.
He was denounced to the Spanish Inquisition and spent several years in detention and on trial.
Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiong'o
******The puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the
scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya.
A deceptively simple tale, Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation
of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya. Yet as the intertwined stories of the
four suspects unfold, a devastating picture emerges of a modern third-world nation whose
frustrated people feel their leaders have failed them time after time. First published in 1977,
this novel was so explosive that its author was imprisoned without charges by the Kenyan
government. His incarceration was so shocking that newspapers around the world called
attention to the case, and protests were raised by human- rights groups, scholars,
and writers, including
James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Donald Barthelme, Harold Pinter, and Margaret Drabble.
The Prison Graduates by Efo Kodjo Mawugbe
******This is the second of our two prize-winning plays from the BBC World Service and
British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition 2009.
The Prison Graduates won the English as a second language category.
Efo Kodjo Mawugbe’s play was described by the judges as “imaginative”, “muscular” and “hysterically funny”.
The play sees four men try to make their way in the world after being released from prison in Ghana.
They explore their many options, only to choose the one that might have surprised them all.
The Drover's Path by Vanessa Rosenthal
******Set in 1890, this chilling ghost story is set on a remote YORKshire sheep farm, and is based
on real life family history.
Bird of Paradise by Lee Pressman
******a new take on the crippin story
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
******First published in 1911, a satiric look at undergraduate life at Oxford recounts
the humorous impact of a visit by Zuleika, a beautiful young woman, during Eights Week.
Moonlite's Boy by Kathryn Heyman
******
Just Between Ourselves by Alan Ayckbourn
******Dennis is in his garage trying to mend a kettle; the garage being the place where
Dennis appears to spend much of his life rather than with his wife, Vera, or his mother,
Marjorie, who lodges with them. Dennis’s passion is for DIY, although he has no talent
for it and he puts far more energy into this than his wife who constantly strives to get
his attention. Unfortunately, when she does get it, it is as the brunt of his jokes
demonstrated when she brings in Neil, who is interested in buying Dennis's car as a
birthday present for his wife, Pam. Having ridiculed Vera for her clumsiness - which he
dismisses as just a joke - he sings the praises of his mother who also seems determined
to belittle Vera as much as possible
implying Vera is not up to the task of caring for her son.
Meeting of Minds by Virginia Gilbert
******Frustrated Martin is offered an amazing opportunity - but is he brave enough to take it?
Sitting Duck by Bloke Modisane
******
Cast in Order of Disappearance 1.4 by Simon Brett
Cast in Order of Disappearance 2.4
Cast in Order of Disappearance 3.4
Cast in Order of Disappearance 4.4
******Who killed Marius Steen, the theatrical tycoon with a fortune to leave his young
mistress Jacqui? And who killed Bill Sweet, the shady blackmailer with a supply of
compromising photographs? Charles Paris, a middle-aged actor who keeps going
on booze and women, takes to detection in Cast, In Order of Disappearance, by
assuming a variety of roles, among them that of a Scotland Yard Detective-Sergeant,
and the results are both comic and dramatic. As the mythical McWhirter of the Yard,
he actually precipitates the crime; as one of the blackmailer's victims, he finds himself
in bed with the blackmailer's wife; as a small-part player in a horror film (The Zombie Walks),
he gets shot at by a murderer. And he arrives at the solution by way of the petrol crisis and
an abortive attack of the German measles. It's a light-hearted frolic that is, at the same time,
a beautifully ingenious puzzle, and it fizzes with fun and wit.
Trafalgar by Lisa Osborne
******The anniversary of the Battle of Traflagar is marked by this gripping
docu-drama based on eye-witness accounts of the action from a range
of perspectives.
Supper with Satan by Michael Payne
******A haunted house thriller.
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd
******The Spanish Tragedie was probably written in the mid to late 1580s. The earliest surviving edition was
printed in 1592. It was arguably the most popular play of the "Age of Shakespeare" and set new standards
in effective plot construction and character development. In 1602 a version of the play with "additions"
was published.
Fairy Story by Dan Hollis
******
Mathry Beacon by Giles Cooper
******An amazing play about a small military detachment of men and women, still guarding an anti-aircraft
weapon in the Welsh mountains years after the war has ended.
Mary Barnes by David Edgar
******A woman struggles with her own madness until she meets
a pioneering psychiatrist.
Towards Zero 1.4 by Agatha Christie
Towards Zero 2.4
Towards Zero 3.4
Towards Zero 4.4
******A crime expert plays with the rules of murder mystery, only to write himself
out of the story. Mr. Treves, a famous criminologist, loves murder mysteries--
except for the fact that they all begin with murder. But his desire to move
the fatal moment to the end just might be the death of him.
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