The Rainbow Tribe is a short BBC Radio 4 documentary about Josephine Baker and her family of 12 adopted children.
We hear a few old audio clips of Baker. We also hear from some of the children willing to speak in recent recordings made at a family reunion.
Baker adopts the children because she has reached a certain age and cannot produce her own. We don't really go into why it had to be so many and how is it possible to provide a quality family environment for so many. Wouldn't it have been easier on everyone had it just been 3 or 6 children rather than the 12? I think they are mostly boys too. The motivation of Baker seems to have been some sort of idealism, that she would build this merry Rainbow Tribe with all these children. It is the idea of the artist, the dreamer. Is the artist/dreamer a good candidate for motherhood, or is she just living out her ideal in spite of the effect that the process might have on others? Is it that she does it in such a grand way because she feels the power of her celebrity situation moving through her, controlling her decisions?
There are other mothers like this. There is Mia Farrow. I quick look at her Wikipedia page list 14 children with a mix of her own as birth mother and adopted. Is there something here beyond just a big heart? Is there something in the personalities of Farrow and Baker that make them alike in this way?
The Rainbow Tribe describes how Baker got herself in rather deeply, how she had to tour relentlessly to maintain The Rainbow Tribe and the castle where they all lived. We hear how she resisted the natural rebellion of the adolescent children and her desire to hide and deign the more sexually alluring aspects of her early career from them. We hear some of the boys, now men, speak. We are told that others do not want to speak. There are disgruntled, distant members in a lot of families. And these are exactly the ones who I want to hear from.
The program is available to Listen Again through Tuesday Nov 20. 2007 here:
The Rainbow Tribe
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon
The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon , OH My! What can I say about The Dusty Show?
It is a little odd.
There is a host (Clay Pigeon?).
The host does a good deal of talking.
He sounds like he is phoned in or has phone sounding compression on his voice. This gives the production an on-location sort of feel. He talks to some just folks types somewhere in America about their feelings about various things. He is a rather good interviewer of these just folks. Sometimes he plays music. The music is not phoned in. It is put together in some sort of studio. It is an easy but highly produced hour that often does a rather good job at providing interesting entertainment.
The show comes out of the long time "Free Form" New Jersey radio station WFMU. It is extensively archived on the page: The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon.
It is a little odd.
There is a host (Clay Pigeon?).
The host does a good deal of talking.
He sounds like he is phoned in or has phone sounding compression on his voice. This gives the production an on-location sort of feel. He talks to some just folks types somewhere in America about their feelings about various things. He is a rather good interviewer of these just folks. Sometimes he plays music. The music is not phoned in. It is put together in some sort of studio. It is an easy but highly produced hour that often does a rather good job at providing interesting entertainment.
The show comes out of the long time "Free Form" New Jersey radio station WFMU. It is extensively archived on the page: The Dusty Show with Clay Pigeon.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Adrift
This is a free download from Theater of The Mindless.
Adrift is about 15 minutes long. It was recorded before a live audience. It is a recording of a live performance. There are several groups that present audio drama as live stage shows. I have never seen an audio drama performed so I don't understand the joys of this mode of entertainment. I understand that there are people who like to attend these things. There is money to be made by doing live performance. There is also the fact that it can be a useful promotional tool for the production company. For these reasons I am all for it. But I still have no interest in seeing an audio drama preformed. I just want it to go on in my mind. If I go to the theater I want to see people moving about and interacting with their bodies.
Anyway, Adrift is a document of a live performance. It almost also works as an audio drama. It might have worked if not for an actor who was clearly playing to the present house. I don't blame her. There they were in front of her. And when one performs on stage one projects so the audience can hear. So that is what this role of Doctor is like and since she is the first voice we hear and has such a critical role, it makes the whole production sound like it was poorly acted. Yet is wasn't or isn't. Others in the cast do a decent job of being audio drama actors stuck on stage. It's just that one inappropriate apple can spoil the bunch. If only the director had given her an opportunity to fix her performance later in the studio.
The play is from an old comic book story. I'm wondering if perhaps accident man was speaking a little too distinctly throughout. Anyway. it's a very Quiet Please sort of thing and I like that genre so I would suggest this one is worth a listen. Besides, it's only 15 minutes. Here: Adrift
Adrift is about 15 minutes long. It was recorded before a live audience. It is a recording of a live performance. There are several groups that present audio drama as live stage shows. I have never seen an audio drama performed so I don't understand the joys of this mode of entertainment. I understand that there are people who like to attend these things. There is money to be made by doing live performance. There is also the fact that it can be a useful promotional tool for the production company. For these reasons I am all for it. But I still have no interest in seeing an audio drama preformed. I just want it to go on in my mind. If I go to the theater I want to see people moving about and interacting with their bodies.
Anyway, Adrift is a document of a live performance. It almost also works as an audio drama. It might have worked if not for an actor who was clearly playing to the present house. I don't blame her. There they were in front of her. And when one performs on stage one projects so the audience can hear. So that is what this role of Doctor is like and since she is the first voice we hear and has such a critical role, it makes the whole production sound like it was poorly acted. Yet is wasn't or isn't. Others in the cast do a decent job of being audio drama actors stuck on stage. It's just that one inappropriate apple can spoil the bunch. If only the director had given her an opportunity to fix her performance later in the studio.
The play is from an old comic book story. I'm wondering if perhaps accident man was speaking a little too distinctly throughout. Anyway. it's a very Quiet Please sort of thing and I like that genre so I would suggest this one is worth a listen. Besides, it's only 15 minutes. Here: Adrift
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Murder Unprompted
Here we have an actor who is also a sleuth. And why not, there are all kinds of detective shows. There is even one where the detective is Holistic.
But this Charles Paris thing is quite good. It really took off for me in the most recent, third episode of the four. This episode was very compressed, filled with good jokes, some drama, and even some sex. It was beautifully written and produced. A pleasure.
The show is very good with both mystery and comedy. I certainly don't know who killed the actor on-stage, but then again I'm not that much a fan of the genre and not that good at cracking the case. We will find out next week.
Murder Unprompted.
As for the Holistic one. It is sort of fun and is getting better but I prefer the Paris.
But this Charles Paris thing is quite good. It really took off for me in the most recent, third episode of the four. This episode was very compressed, filled with good jokes, some drama, and even some sex. It was beautifully written and produced. A pleasure.
The show is very good with both mystery and comedy. I certainly don't know who killed the actor on-stage, but then again I'm not that much a fan of the genre and not that good at cracking the case. We will find out next week.
Murder Unprompted.
As for the Holistic one. It is sort of fun and is getting better but I prefer the Paris.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Solo Behind the Iron Curtain
I watched The Man From Uncle and enjoyed it. But what did I know? I was a kid and on later viewing the show doesn't hold up so well.
Anyway this play has little to do with the show other than the fact that Robert Vaughn was the star of it at around the same time.
What we have here is the story of the production of the film The Bridge at Remagen in 1968. While on location in Czechoslovakia the film company found themselves witnessing the clamp down by the Soviets. Elements in the Czechoslovakian government thought they would change some things, open things up a bit, but the Soviet Union would have none of it, and stopped it.
The play is narrated by Robert Vaughn. He tells his own story. The play was written by Tracy Spottiswoode we can assume from the story Vaughn told her. It is an interesting story, and the narration does a pretty good job of setting the stage for the political stuff. The production then serves as a sort of political docu-drama about the unique position of being an American actor on a Soviet Block country at the time when the hammer comes down. Long time political activist Vaughn is not an ordinary movie/TV actor. He's a smart, informed man and his view of this episode in well worth a listen.
The play is far from a riveting drama, but quite good at what it sets out to do which is basically provide an interesting and somewhat vital history lesson of an important event.
It's too bad that they didn't get Bradford Dillman & Ben Gazzara to play themselves in the drama. That would have been even more fun.
There is some cool music.
The play can be heard at The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 page. It is available via the Monday button until Sunday Nov. 11, 2007.
Anyway this play has little to do with the show other than the fact that Robert Vaughn was the star of it at around the same time.
What we have here is the story of the production of the film The Bridge at Remagen in 1968. While on location in Czechoslovakia the film company found themselves witnessing the clamp down by the Soviets. Elements in the Czechoslovakian government thought they would change some things, open things up a bit, but the Soviet Union would have none of it, and stopped it.
The play is narrated by Robert Vaughn. He tells his own story. The play was written by Tracy Spottiswoode we can assume from the story Vaughn told her. It is an interesting story, and the narration does a pretty good job of setting the stage for the political stuff. The production then serves as a sort of political docu-drama about the unique position of being an American actor on a Soviet Block country at the time when the hammer comes down. Long time political activist Vaughn is not an ordinary movie/TV actor. He's a smart, informed man and his view of this episode in well worth a listen.
The play is far from a riveting drama, but quite good at what it sets out to do which is basically provide an interesting and somewhat vital history lesson of an important event.
It's too bad that they didn't get Bradford Dillman & Ben Gazzara to play themselves in the drama. That would have been even more fun.
There is some cool music.
The play can be heard at The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 page. It is available via the Monday button until Sunday Nov. 11, 2007.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
The Woman from the North
Bernard MacLaverty's play takes us to a place and puts us in a position where we don't want to be. It this a horror tale, a suspense? Perhaps it has elements of both. Yet it is about something as common as growing old. In this, it is growing old and powerless. It is confronting a powerlessness when Cassie still feels that she has power, and deserves autonomy. She is sharp and observant. It's just that she forgets things. She only wants to live in her own home with her own things rather than this or another institution. But really she is one of the fortunate ones. Her son has a good job in computers and always a new car so he can probably put her somewhere nice if that is what needs to happen after this evaluation at this place where the doors are never locked and anyone can come in. Yes it will be a nice place if necessary, but does that lessen the horror of it all? I think not.
This play is quite, and rather interior, very effective and sad. I enjoy plays that face up to the issues of the elderly head on. And whatever will happen to me. . .?
The Woman from the North can be found on The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 page and is available through Wednesday Nov. 7, 2007. On the The Afternoon Play page click on the Thursday button.
This play is quite, and rather interior, very effective and sad. I enjoy plays that face up to the issues of the elderly head on. And whatever will happen to me. . .?
The Woman from the North can be found on The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 page and is available through Wednesday Nov. 7, 2007. On the The Afternoon Play page click on the Thursday button.
Fame and Fortune
Well, I listened to the first hour of this production. I never saw, " the television classic The Glittering Prizes" so I'm not revisiting my old friends from that show and didn't care about them enough when I met them while listening to Fame and Fortune.
I tried to care. I wanted to care. After all BBC Radio 4 is filling 12 hours of radio drama time and their two most interesting slots that often are occupied with adventurous drama, with this behemoth. I'm mostly a fan of anthology over serials so it makes me sad that we lose two very good anthology slots to this soap opera. It also causes concern about what the BBC has planned for the future of these two drama slots. Hopefully they will return to normal after this is over. I hope someone gets some joy out of all the time and effort put into producing Fame and Fortune. It's just not for me.
Apparently I'm not the only one in distress. Read the thread on the BBC Radio Four Message Board. There are several flames on Fame.
The Saturday Play
Fortunately I found alternative amusement watching The Who Amazing Journey movie last night on TV. It is worth a look for anyone remotely interested in that sort of thing.
I tried to care. I wanted to care. After all BBC Radio 4 is filling 12 hours of radio drama time and their two most interesting slots that often are occupied with adventurous drama, with this behemoth. I'm mostly a fan of anthology over serials so it makes me sad that we lose two very good anthology slots to this soap opera. It also causes concern about what the BBC has planned for the future of these two drama slots. Hopefully they will return to normal after this is over. I hope someone gets some joy out of all the time and effort put into producing Fame and Fortune. It's just not for me.
Apparently I'm not the only one in distress. Read the thread on the BBC Radio Four Message Board. There are several flames on Fame.
The Saturday Play
Fortunately I found alternative amusement watching The Who Amazing Journey movie last night on TV. It is worth a look for anyone remotely interested in that sort of thing.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Forty-Three Fifty-Nine
This play by Radio 4 drama regular scribe Mike Walker and John Dryden somewhat recalls the case of Alexander Litvinenko last year in London.
In the play the same sort of thing happens in a sped up timeline which is the real-time of the radio play.
What we have here is a tense suspense drama of fine craftsmanship, in writing, performance, and production. Most of the drama is heard via mobile phone conversations. At one beautifully executed moment we hear two mobile conversations going on at the same time.
The emotional drive of the play has to do with a once swaggering care free adventurous covert operator who has found himself transformed through love. His primary concern now is for the welfare of his daughter.
But I'll stop now and say no more other that to suggest that you do not miss this one. It can be found on The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 page and is through Thursday Nov. 1, 2007. On the The Afternoon Play page click on the Friday button.
In the play the same sort of thing happens in a sped up timeline which is the real-time of the radio play.
What we have here is a tense suspense drama of fine craftsmanship, in writing, performance, and production. Most of the drama is heard via mobile phone conversations. At one beautifully executed moment we hear two mobile conversations going on at the same time.
The emotional drive of the play has to do with a once swaggering care free adventurous covert operator who has found himself transformed through love. His primary concern now is for the welfare of his daughter.
But I'll stop now and say no more other that to suggest that you do not miss this one. It can be found on The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 page and is through Thursday Nov. 1, 2007. On the The Afternoon Play page click on the Friday button.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The Tank Man
This play by Julia Stoneham and produced by Viv Beeby has a great story to tell. It is about Exercise Tiger, a preparation for the D-Day invasion during WW II that goes very badly with a heavy body count from friendly fire. It wasn't a battle at all but a rehearsal for one in England, South Devon.
It is also about Ken Small who years later uncovers what happened there and also discovers
a tank left behind and buried in the water offshore.
All this makes the play well worth listening to since it is a great documentary history lesson.
Unfortunately I think the production is not as good as it might have been given a larger budget and a slightly longer time slot. This is a complex story and script. Many of the actor s are asked to do double, triple, (quadruple?) roles, several of which are in yankee american accents. Some of this does not at all sound authentic or convincing and that gives the whole production a kind of pro-am feel. Shaun Prendergast as Small is definitely the pro end with a fine reading of his role.
Anyway, it's a good story about a horrible incident and the remarkable and driven man, Mr. Small, who is obsessed with it all.
The Afternoon Play The play can be heard through Oct. 30, 2007 by clicking on the Wednesday button.
It is also about Ken Small who years later uncovers what happened there and also discovers
a tank left behind and buried in the water offshore.
All this makes the play well worth listening to since it is a great documentary history lesson.
Unfortunately I think the production is not as good as it might have been given a larger budget and a slightly longer time slot. This is a complex story and script. Many of the actor s are asked to do double, triple, (quadruple?) roles, several of which are in yankee american accents. Some of this does not at all sound authentic or convincing and that gives the whole production a kind of pro-am feel. Shaun Prendergast as Small is definitely the pro end with a fine reading of his role.
Anyway, it's a good story about a horrible incident and the remarkable and driven man, Mr. Small, who is obsessed with it all.
The Afternoon Play The play can be heard through Oct. 30, 2007 by clicking on the Wednesday button.
An Interlude of Men
An Interlude of Men by Lesley Bruce is a bitter-sweet drama of two women of a certain age. Maybe it is two women in transition. Maybe they are embracing and then resisting transition.
This was played before a year or so ago on BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play. I liked it better this time. Perhaps I was in a more receptive mood. But I still don't know how old these women are. I would suppose somewhere in their 50s. This can be a confusing age. Does one carry on or begin moving into retreat? This is Bren's dilemma. Hilly wants her to move to the country, out there with her from London.
The play also contrasts the difference between the urban and rural life, and what each has to offer. This is shown in the types of media devices Hilly has out there in the sticks. She has no TV, or sound system, well, she does have a record player. Bren is a bit shocked at all this. Yet there are, of course, natural attractions to moving out of the city.
But this is mostly about the relationship. A friendship once close, and now not so close. When all the information is not revealed, there is some jealousy.
The play has an 'On Location" feel about the recording. This works nicely except in the scene in the bathroom which had, maybe, too much reverb off the walls. It made the dialogue a little hard to hear, but this could have also been a problem with the compression in the file I heard which was recorded from the BBC Radio 4 Real Player and then re-compressed into an mp3 for a DAP.
Very good performances by Deborah Findlay and Barbara Flynn who carry this two character play. The Afternoon Play The play can be heard through Monday Oct. 29, 2007 by clicking or the Tuesday button.
This was played before a year or so ago on BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play. I liked it better this time. Perhaps I was in a more receptive mood. But I still don't know how old these women are. I would suppose somewhere in their 50s. This can be a confusing age. Does one carry on or begin moving into retreat? This is Bren's dilemma. Hilly wants her to move to the country, out there with her from London.
The play also contrasts the difference between the urban and rural life, and what each has to offer. This is shown in the types of media devices Hilly has out there in the sticks. She has no TV, or sound system, well, she does have a record player. Bren is a bit shocked at all this. Yet there are, of course, natural attractions to moving out of the city.
But this is mostly about the relationship. A friendship once close, and now not so close. When all the information is not revealed, there is some jealousy.
The play has an 'On Location" feel about the recording. This works nicely except in the scene in the bathroom which had, maybe, too much reverb off the walls. It made the dialogue a little hard to hear, but this could have also been a problem with the compression in the file I heard which was recorded from the BBC Radio 4 Real Player and then re-compressed into an mp3 for a DAP.
Very good performances by Deborah Findlay and Barbara Flynn who carry this two character play. The Afternoon Play The play can be heard through Monday Oct. 29, 2007 by clicking or the Tuesday button.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Annapurna
BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play It can be heard by hitting the Friday button through October 25, 2007
Annapurna By Jod Mitchell is a little three character suspense melodrama set somewhere in the wilds of Nepal.
Tim has just joined Emma from their native England. She has been there for awhile doing research or some such, I don't remember exactly why she is there but it's not that important.
The play gets it drama and tension from the fear of the other, the foreign. Actually it is about the conflict of the dualistic attraction and revulsion of The Other. It explores the emotional power of putting oneself in a foreign land, particularly a poorer one. This is an intriguing jumping off point for the drama.
This listener is well in touch with that sort of fear, therefore I rarely go traveling, and when I do I tend to want to stay in the place for an extended period, live there so I can get more than a surface impression of what is going on there. Who wants to appear as the rich American white boy tourist? Not me.
In the play, Emma has been there awhile, can speak the language, sort of, and has had a taste of local culture.
Somehow this play kind of reminded me of the movie version of Deliverance. That was Americans in a foreign part of their own country. But I would imagine that it is a common experience in our modern times of rather inexpensive jet travel and such. The global village that really is not one, especially when one gets away from the cities.
The sound design of the play is rather attractive. The play is worth a listen and rather entertaining.
Annapurna By Jod Mitchell is a little three character suspense melodrama set somewhere in the wilds of Nepal.
Tim has just joined Emma from their native England. She has been there for awhile doing research or some such, I don't remember exactly why she is there but it's not that important.
The play gets it drama and tension from the fear of the other, the foreign. Actually it is about the conflict of the dualistic attraction and revulsion of The Other. It explores the emotional power of putting oneself in a foreign land, particularly a poorer one. This is an intriguing jumping off point for the drama.
This listener is well in touch with that sort of fear, therefore I rarely go traveling, and when I do I tend to want to stay in the place for an extended period, live there so I can get more than a surface impression of what is going on there. Who wants to appear as the rich American white boy tourist? Not me.
In the play, Emma has been there awhile, can speak the language, sort of, and has had a taste of local culture.
Somehow this play kind of reminded me of the movie version of Deliverance. That was Americans in a foreign part of their own country. But I would imagine that it is a common experience in our modern times of rather inexpensive jet travel and such. The global village that really is not one, especially when one gets away from the cities.
The sound design of the play is rather attractive. The play is worth a listen and rather entertaining.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Belongings
BBC Radio 4 Description:
Two brothers breaking and entering face an awkward dilemma when they find the wife of their intended victim dead, with a suicide note by her side.
Michael ...... Conleth Hill
Gerry ...... Nick Danan
Audrey ...... Cathy Belton
Carl ...... Mark Lambert
Director Eoin O'Callaghan.
--------------
I first heard Belongings by Dominique Moloney in the summer of 2006. It's funny, I can remember where I was when I heard it. In an automobile in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. It was a beautiful day but the road we wanted to take was closed due to recent heavy rains and flooding. We eventually got to the scenic waterfall, our destination. There were tubs carved out of the solid rock for bathing in the whirlpools and great fun to be had.
Maybe that is why I have a particular fondness for this play. I listened to it again this week in an entirely different setting. It's really a rather silly play. So silly that at any moment it could have converted into a comedy. But for all the silliness of the twist and turns of the plot, the writing is clever the dialog utterly entertaining , and the performances convincing and engaging. I think it is the relationship of the characters that make the thing work so well for me. Dominique Moloney did an excellent job on this one. I'd like to hear more of her work. It's funny, before looking her up just now, all this time I had assumed that play was written by a man, but come to think if it, of course it wasn't.
We have the breaking-in brothers, the poisoned and seductive Audrey, and the fit to be tied, it doesn't work out so well for the husband, Carl.
The acting and direction is very good. I particularly loved Cathy Belton as Audrey, one broad not to be fooled with.
In the end, after a couple of goes, I can't fully tell you what it was all about, what happened, but that's all part of the fun of this very entertaining silly crime noir piece.
BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play The play is only available through Sunday Oct. 21, 2007.
Two brothers breaking and entering face an awkward dilemma when they find the wife of their intended victim dead, with a suicide note by her side.
Michael ...... Conleth Hill
Gerry ...... Nick Danan
Audrey ...... Cathy Belton
Carl ...... Mark Lambert
Director Eoin O'Callaghan.
--------------
I first heard Belongings by Dominique Moloney in the summer of 2006. It's funny, I can remember where I was when I heard it. In an automobile in the Catskill Mountains in New York State. It was a beautiful day but the road we wanted to take was closed due to recent heavy rains and flooding. We eventually got to the scenic waterfall, our destination. There were tubs carved out of the solid rock for bathing in the whirlpools and great fun to be had.
Maybe that is why I have a particular fondness for this play. I listened to it again this week in an entirely different setting. It's really a rather silly play. So silly that at any moment it could have converted into a comedy. But for all the silliness of the twist and turns of the plot, the writing is clever the dialog utterly entertaining , and the performances convincing and engaging. I think it is the relationship of the characters that make the thing work so well for me. Dominique Moloney did an excellent job on this one. I'd like to hear more of her work. It's funny, before looking her up just now, all this time I had assumed that play was written by a man, but come to think if it, of course it wasn't.
We have the breaking-in brothers, the poisoned and seductive Audrey, and the fit to be tied, it doesn't work out so well for the husband, Carl.
The acting and direction is very good. I particularly loved Cathy Belton as Audrey, one broad not to be fooled with.
In the end, after a couple of goes, I can't fully tell you what it was all about, what happened, but that's all part of the fun of this very entertaining silly crime noir piece.
BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play The play is only available through Sunday Oct. 21, 2007.
Friday, October 19, 2007
House Rules
BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play Oct 10, 2007
This play involves tough guy card gambling stuff. I don't know why card playing is a concern of tough guys. It's not like it is at all active, manly, but is people sitting around a table for hours looking at numbers and pictures on little cards.
There is money involved and we know that tough guys are always interested in money. Why is that? Maybe tough guys are really scared little boys worried about their personal security.
That said, I didn't find this play very interesting at all. It could have been that the tough guys were too tough, and not at all interesting enough for me. One of the guys has a wife and they have a couple of scenes but they are of low emotional content. Mostly just disapproving wife stuff that didn't add much conflict, or doubtful self-searching, to the proceedings.
I guess the only thing I like about manly gambling stories is when they are really addiction stories. This isn't that.
If one is really interested in the game itself there in no satisfaction here since the play skips the game entirely.
It's really a father-son story.
There are Joe Strummer tunes, and he was pretty great.
This play involves tough guy card gambling stuff. I don't know why card playing is a concern of tough guys. It's not like it is at all active, manly, but is people sitting around a table for hours looking at numbers and pictures on little cards.
There is money involved and we know that tough guys are always interested in money. Why is that? Maybe tough guys are really scared little boys worried about their personal security.
That said, I didn't find this play very interesting at all. It could have been that the tough guys were too tough, and not at all interesting enough for me. One of the guys has a wife and they have a couple of scenes but they are of low emotional content. Mostly just disapproving wife stuff that didn't add much conflict, or doubtful self-searching, to the proceedings.
I guess the only thing I like about manly gambling stories is when they are really addiction stories. This isn't that.
If one is really interested in the game itself there in no satisfaction here since the play skips the game entirely.
It's really a father-son story.
There are Joe Strummer tunes, and he was pretty great.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Solomon
This Solomon is arrogant in her power to make ethical decisions. It is what she does for a living, she is a pro at telling people what is the right, ethical, thing to do. She has no trouble with it, not a sense of doubt as we hear her working in a very flip and easy way as a commentator on a modern, speedy, crass, radio phone-in chat show. In the first scene she is presented as a bit of a know-it-all, on top of the world and her field, with a perfect life. But soon we see that all is not well. Her aging father is failing, his mind is going, and she is being harassed by someone unknown through disturbing emails and phone messages. She is also to become the first "ethicist" to testify in the British court. She is preparing to be an expert witness in a Terri Schiavo sort of life-or-death court case.
There is a lot going on in this tidy, brisk, little melodrama. It is chock full of socially and politically relevant issues. But Peter G. Morgan manages to squeeze it all in. The only bump I felt was early on with the introduction of the husband of the hospitalized woman. He seems to switch tones all too abruptly from a position of the need to let his dying, or dead wife go to someone who wants to keep her living. Clearly the character would have such a conflict but as it unfolded I was so taken aback I wondered if I was listening to someone altogether different talking, but this could also be the fault of the choices that the actor took in his reading of that section.
The questions of ethics, death, and torture really hit home for our Solomon as we hear her change, and become less know-it-all and brash by the ending.
The Friday Play BBC Radio 4
On Listen Again Oct 12 through Oct 18, 2007
There is a lot going on in this tidy, brisk, little melodrama. It is chock full of socially and politically relevant issues. But Peter G. Morgan manages to squeeze it all in. The only bump I felt was early on with the introduction of the husband of the hospitalized woman. He seems to switch tones all too abruptly from a position of the need to let his dying, or dead wife go to someone who wants to keep her living. Clearly the character would have such a conflict but as it unfolded I was so taken aback I wondered if I was listening to someone altogether different talking, but this could also be the fault of the choices that the actor took in his reading of that section.
The questions of ethics, death, and torture really hit home for our Solomon as we hear her change, and become less know-it-all and brash by the ending.
The Friday Play BBC Radio 4
On Listen Again Oct 12 through Oct 18, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Sex After Death
In Sex After Death, Mark Lawson has fertilized what could have been a routine sentimental daddy's-dead-but-life-goes-on plot with unexpected twists that make the whole thing a tight and very enjoyable 45 minutes of compelling entertainment. He takes us into the ethical issues of concern in the use of the dead man's sperm and has several characters attempting to act on what "feels right" to them.
The listener might wonder at the general morality and selfishness involved in extensive medical intervention to produce a child in the couple that is for one reason or another unable to conceive. Where are we at now, 4, 6 billion? How hard should we work to produce more? Or is it all about personal desire? Is that what is right, what is important? Does that 'Feels Right"? But here we are in the 21st Century and we need to make the decisions on the fly, without the benefit of longstanding human tradition. In olden times, supposedly, the folk acted as they always had within the culture of the tribe. No more.
The play doesn't really offer the answers but presents the questions. The listener is free to mull them over on his or her own after hearing a few sides of the debate presented in the course of the drama. Or not worry the issues at all and just enjoy the well written, acted, and produced drama. I think it will take you where you don't expect to go. The ending, the final line in the play, is very satisfying.
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 Sex After Death is available to "Listen Again" through Wednesday Oct 17, 2007.
The listener might wonder at the general morality and selfishness involved in extensive medical intervention to produce a child in the couple that is for one reason or another unable to conceive. Where are we at now, 4, 6 billion? How hard should we work to produce more? Or is it all about personal desire? Is that what is right, what is important? Does that 'Feels Right"? But here we are in the 21st Century and we need to make the decisions on the fly, without the benefit of longstanding human tradition. In olden times, supposedly, the folk acted as they always had within the culture of the tribe. No more.
The play doesn't really offer the answers but presents the questions. The listener is free to mull them over on his or her own after hearing a few sides of the debate presented in the course of the drama. Or not worry the issues at all and just enjoy the well written, acted, and produced drama. I think it will take you where you don't expect to go. The ending, the final line in the play, is very satisfying.
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 Sex After Death is available to "Listen Again" through Wednesday Oct 17, 2007.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Man of Steel
In Canton, Ohio when they didn't need us in the steel mills any longer, we were "Laid Off".
In Sheffield, we were the victims of "Redundancy".
Which sounds more harsh? "Laid Off" somehow sounds a little softer to me. "Redundancy" sounds more personal, more final. "You are redundant." Sounds like the end of ones working life, or life, period. "Laid Off" somehow has the glimmer of hope that one could actually be brought back to the job when times get better. It's as if it is only temporary.
My father worked in a steel mill in Canton, Ohio in the 1950s and 60s. I remember him being laid off temporarily and then brought back to the same job a few weeks later. Perhaps that is why I didn't see it as something final. There was just a temporary slow down in the industry. Maybe people were not buying so many cars that year or something. He left before the bottom eventually fell out of the steel industry in Ohio, in the USA. He left before those laid off were not brought back again. This, the final lay off, was probably about the same time as the time-set of the recent The Afternoon Play production of Frances Byrnes's play Man of Steel.
Man of Steel, as the BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play page description reads, is,
"Set in Sheffield in 1982, the drama is based on the author’s own experience and that of her father and many of his friends as their lives are wrecked by redundancy." The play is the view of the teenaged daughter as she sees her father struggle as his life's labor is taken from him. It is a job he needs to help sustain the family and, maybe most importantly to the emotional environment of the story, his self esteem within it. Byrnes also pulls out wider to show the situation politically and culturally of the time setting. Producer/Director Kate McAll uses pop tunes of the day to provide a sense of atmosphere. This is done in BBC Radio 4 productions so much that it is perhaps wearisome at times. The play felt a little too short with a very strange ending that serves to demonstrate how cold the culture can be to the ones made redundant.
It is a good clear picture of what happens to the workers and their families when an industry has moved on.
In Sheffield, we were the victims of "Redundancy".
Which sounds more harsh? "Laid Off" somehow sounds a little softer to me. "Redundancy" sounds more personal, more final. "You are redundant." Sounds like the end of ones working life, or life, period. "Laid Off" somehow has the glimmer of hope that one could actually be brought back to the job when times get better. It's as if it is only temporary.
My father worked in a steel mill in Canton, Ohio in the 1950s and 60s. I remember him being laid off temporarily and then brought back to the same job a few weeks later. Perhaps that is why I didn't see it as something final. There was just a temporary slow down in the industry. Maybe people were not buying so many cars that year or something. He left before the bottom eventually fell out of the steel industry in Ohio, in the USA. He left before those laid off were not brought back again. This, the final lay off, was probably about the same time as the time-set of the recent The Afternoon Play production of Frances Byrnes's play Man of Steel.
Man of Steel, as the BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play page description reads, is,
"Set in Sheffield in 1982, the drama is based on the author’s own experience and that of her father and many of his friends as their lives are wrecked by redundancy." The play is the view of the teenaged daughter as she sees her father struggle as his life's labor is taken from him. It is a job he needs to help sustain the family and, maybe most importantly to the emotional environment of the story, his self esteem within it. Byrnes also pulls out wider to show the situation politically and culturally of the time setting. Producer/Director Kate McAll uses pop tunes of the day to provide a sense of atmosphere. This is done in BBC Radio 4 productions so much that it is perhaps wearisome at times. The play felt a little too short with a very strange ending that serves to demonstrate how cold the culture can be to the ones made redundant.
It is a good clear picture of what happens to the workers and their families when an industry has moved on.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Talkin' 'Bout My Remuneration
Sometimes it seems that the music documentaries on BBC Radio 2 are kind of patched together bits of old interviews about old pop stars. Sometimes that can be quite interesting and I have heard a few that I enjoyed such as the story of Lionel Bart's life and some of the Glen Campbell multi-parter.
But here is one that is quite unusual.
Talkin' 'Bout My Remuneration discusses the economics of being a musician working in the genres of popular music. It might serve as an eye opener for those who believe that there is any sort of money to be made in this field because, well, there basically isn't. There is for the very few. If you can find your way in life to being involved in one of these nostalgia bands (Police, Stones) that tours the world on the strength of the memories of the teens of forty years ago and who are now rather aged and somehow silly enough to cough up $200 a pop to see that band live playing that lovely tune from their golden youth, well, there is of course big money in that.
Frankly I think the concept of making it as a working musician is a pretty amazing distortion of human reality. Yet another strange feature of mass, centralized, post industrial culture. After all for all the history of mankind up until the last couple hundred years or so music was made by the people. By Farmer Joe who also played the fiddle at the Saturday night hoedown. Then there was the golden period of vaudeville where many entertainers were employed touring the country going theater to theater doing the same shining 15 minute act. Now most entertainment comes via the mass media, the locals have found their gigs outsourced to centrality via recording technology.
But in a way, if one wants to make music one is still mostly a folk artist. I'm not talking about "Folk Music" as a genre, but people who make all types of music, electronica, whatever, and support themselves by other means. This is folk art.This is what humans have always done and still do even with all the noise from above.
Anyway, Talkin' 'Bout My Remuneration is a fascinating hour that I would think would be of interest to musicians, and those who enjoy them and find them and their business interesting. The program will be available to listen to via RealAudio player through May 28, 2007.
But here is one that is quite unusual.
Talkin' 'Bout My Remuneration discusses the economics of being a musician working in the genres of popular music. It might serve as an eye opener for those who believe that there is any sort of money to be made in this field because, well, there basically isn't. There is for the very few. If you can find your way in life to being involved in one of these nostalgia bands (Police, Stones) that tours the world on the strength of the memories of the teens of forty years ago and who are now rather aged and somehow silly enough to cough up $200 a pop to see that band live playing that lovely tune from their golden youth, well, there is of course big money in that.
Frankly I think the concept of making it as a working musician is a pretty amazing distortion of human reality. Yet another strange feature of mass, centralized, post industrial culture. After all for all the history of mankind up until the last couple hundred years or so music was made by the people. By Farmer Joe who also played the fiddle at the Saturday night hoedown. Then there was the golden period of vaudeville where many entertainers were employed touring the country going theater to theater doing the same shining 15 minute act. Now most entertainment comes via the mass media, the locals have found their gigs outsourced to centrality via recording technology.
But in a way, if one wants to make music one is still mostly a folk artist. I'm not talking about "Folk Music" as a genre, but people who make all types of music, electronica, whatever, and support themselves by other means. This is folk art.This is what humans have always done and still do even with all the noise from above.
Anyway, Talkin' 'Bout My Remuneration is a fascinating hour that I would think would be of interest to musicians, and those who enjoy them and find them and their business interesting. The program will be available to listen to via RealAudio player through May 28, 2007.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Quite Time
Earstory has been a bit quite recently. The reason for this is the production of the Tickled to Death product line has picked up. There is new music and a video in production, and all this takes time. So stay tuned.
Meanwhile there are a few thing that I would like to direct you to The OTR Podcast. There are a few interesting episodes of the CBS Radio Workshop available there. Of particular note is a two part production of Brave New World. This is introduced by Aldous Huxley himself. Also a play by Huxley and Christopher Isherwood called Jacob's Hands. Also John Cheever's story The Enormous Radio is pretty amazing in that is really reflects the hazardous media environment in which we find ourselves. All these things are from 1956 and well worth listening to. Oh and The Ex-Urbanites is also interesting.
Meanwhile there are a few thing that I would like to direct you to The OTR Podcast. There are a few interesting episodes of the CBS Radio Workshop available there. Of particular note is a two part production of Brave New World. This is introduced by Aldous Huxley himself. Also a play by Huxley and Christopher Isherwood called Jacob's Hands. Also John Cheever's story The Enormous Radio is pretty amazing in that is really reflects the hazardous media environment in which we find ourselves. All these things are from 1956 and well worth listening to. Oh and The Ex-Urbanites is also interesting.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
The Radetzky March
Drama on 3 BBC Radio 3
A radio play adapted Mike Walker from Michael Hofmann's English translation of the novel by Joseph Roth.
We are three degrees separate from the original material here. I have never read Joseph Roth's novel and the only thing I know about it, other than the radio play, is this essay by Michael Hofmann and a brief scan of the customer reviews of Hofmann's translation of it on Amazon.. So I can only really write about what I heard.
This is a fast paced two hour historical radio drama that sweeps through some 40 or so years at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That might not seem all that inviting, but it is a rather entertaining listen. We are involved mostly with the Trotta family, three generations of them. Actually it's the men of the family. This is a very male story. Woman pop up briefly now and then, but we never enter into their lives as we do the Trotta men. The first Trotta is a soldier who saves the life of the emperor on the battlefield. The bulk of the play concerns his son and grandson. The son of the hero is a commissioner of some sort involved in the government. The grandson becomes a soldier and his father grooms him on how to be a gentleman soldier which involves buying six suits, and a nice cigarette case. The grandson is told he should smoke cigarettes and drink Hennessy so he won't stand out and will be one of the good ole gentlemen. The grandson becomes quite good at some of this, or at least involved.
This is really about a time of transition from the Dual Monarchy as we move into the violence of the 20th Century and the old order crumbles away. It does a good job of showing some of those changes and how change itself sweeps us all out of the was eventually. The play has a nice balance between sentimentalism for the past and cynicism about what humans do to one another in general. I believe I know a little more about the time and place after the experience of the play. We hear the tides of change as the grandson is called upon to deal with labor unrest. It's a well done scene showing the human blunders of the agents of authority. It's cop work , not gentlemen soldier work.
A character of Joseph Roth appears in scenes in a cafe writing the very novel we are listening to. It's a useful dramatic devise that helps make the piece clearer and more accessible.
Once again the BBC presents us with a well crafted production with many of the actors undetectably doubling, even tripling in their roles. I was completely convinced of the time and place by the soundscape atmosphere. The play was directed by Tim Dee. It is well worth a listen.
It can be heard here: Drama on 3 through Saturday April 28, 2007
A radio play adapted Mike Walker from Michael Hofmann's English translation of the novel by Joseph Roth.
We are three degrees separate from the original material here. I have never read Joseph Roth's novel and the only thing I know about it, other than the radio play, is this essay by Michael Hofmann and a brief scan of the customer reviews of Hofmann's translation of it on Amazon.. So I can only really write about what I heard.
This is a fast paced two hour historical radio drama that sweeps through some 40 or so years at the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That might not seem all that inviting, but it is a rather entertaining listen. We are involved mostly with the Trotta family, three generations of them. Actually it's the men of the family. This is a very male story. Woman pop up briefly now and then, but we never enter into their lives as we do the Trotta men. The first Trotta is a soldier who saves the life of the emperor on the battlefield. The bulk of the play concerns his son and grandson. The son of the hero is a commissioner of some sort involved in the government. The grandson becomes a soldier and his father grooms him on how to be a gentleman soldier which involves buying six suits, and a nice cigarette case. The grandson is told he should smoke cigarettes and drink Hennessy so he won't stand out and will be one of the good ole gentlemen. The grandson becomes quite good at some of this, or at least involved.
This is really about a time of transition from the Dual Monarchy as we move into the violence of the 20th Century and the old order crumbles away. It does a good job of showing some of those changes and how change itself sweeps us all out of the was eventually. The play has a nice balance between sentimentalism for the past and cynicism about what humans do to one another in general. I believe I know a little more about the time and place after the experience of the play. We hear the tides of change as the grandson is called upon to deal with labor unrest. It's a well done scene showing the human blunders of the agents of authority. It's cop work , not gentlemen soldier work.
A character of Joseph Roth appears in scenes in a cafe writing the very novel we are listening to. It's a useful dramatic devise that helps make the piece clearer and more accessible.
Once again the BBC presents us with a well crafted production with many of the actors undetectably doubling, even tripling in their roles. I was completely convinced of the time and place by the soundscape atmosphere. The play was directed by Tim Dee. It is well worth a listen.
It can be heard here: Drama on 3 through Saturday April 28, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
12 Shares
A radio play by Dennis Kelly
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
Here is an example of a rather obvious, simple conception. It's the sort of thing that seems obvious after it is heard. One can imagine writers of radio plays around the world striking themselves on the forehead, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Dennis Kelly is the one who thought of it and produced a brilliant script.
Oh, yes, the concept. The play is made up of exactly what the title says it is. The story is told through the course of 12 Shares at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. The form of an AA meeting hardly ever varies. It involves someone speaking first, telling their story, and followed by an open time where others in attendance speak about what they are going through. This is the brilliance of the concept of the play. It is a story told completely naturally in the course of a series of AA meetings. Dennis Kelly does not need to resort to the sometimes awkward template of narration to illuminate the radio play. The shares tell the story.
In the play we hear Kate thank the unheard speaker by name and then set into the latest events in her own story. It is a moving story of personal and family struggle with substance abuse. For the most part she speaks openly of her hopes, fears, and emotional insecurities. Most of the issues involve relationship with others, the interface with the outside world.
The believability of the play is enhanced by Sophie Stanton's measured, emotionally full, yet nuanced performance as Kate. She hits just the right pitch in a role that all to easily could have veered toward the melodramatic.
The play is directed by Pam Marshall. One gets the feel of the room in what is basically a one woman show.
A special note on the music by Nina Perry. In the theme she loops and digitally distorts the voice of Kate along with a gentle yet insistent beat, and a couple of simple melody lines. These sounds serves to place us in the emotional atmosphere of the play, actually help to create it. It would be lovely if more of the BBC radio plays employed Nina Perry's work. Too often BBC plays resort to clips of old pop tunes to evoke time and setting. The 12 Shares Theme as well as clips of more of Perry's beautiful work can be found here: Nina Perry
12 Shares is available to listen again through Thursday, April 26, 2007: The Afternoon Play. Click on the Friday button.
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
Here is an example of a rather obvious, simple conception. It's the sort of thing that seems obvious after it is heard. One can imagine writers of radio plays around the world striking themselves on the forehead, "Why didn't I think of that?"
Dennis Kelly is the one who thought of it and produced a brilliant script.
Oh, yes, the concept. The play is made up of exactly what the title says it is. The story is told through the course of 12 Shares at an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting. The form of an AA meeting hardly ever varies. It involves someone speaking first, telling their story, and followed by an open time where others in attendance speak about what they are going through. This is the brilliance of the concept of the play. It is a story told completely naturally in the course of a series of AA meetings. Dennis Kelly does not need to resort to the sometimes awkward template of narration to illuminate the radio play. The shares tell the story.
In the play we hear Kate thank the unheard speaker by name and then set into the latest events in her own story. It is a moving story of personal and family struggle with substance abuse. For the most part she speaks openly of her hopes, fears, and emotional insecurities. Most of the issues involve relationship with others, the interface with the outside world.
The believability of the play is enhanced by Sophie Stanton's measured, emotionally full, yet nuanced performance as Kate. She hits just the right pitch in a role that all to easily could have veered toward the melodramatic.
The play is directed by Pam Marshall. One gets the feel of the room in what is basically a one woman show.
A special note on the music by Nina Perry. In the theme she loops and digitally distorts the voice of Kate along with a gentle yet insistent beat, and a couple of simple melody lines. These sounds serves to place us in the emotional atmosphere of the play, actually help to create it. It would be lovely if more of the BBC radio plays employed Nina Perry's work. Too often BBC plays resort to clips of old pop tunes to evoke time and setting. The 12 Shares Theme as well as clips of more of Perry's beautiful work can be found here: Nina Perry
12 Shares is available to listen again through Thursday, April 26, 2007: The Afternoon Play. Click on the Friday button.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Entertaining Mr Sloane
By Joe Orton
BBC Radio 3Drama on 3
As director John Tydeman says in the informative introduction of this first radio production of the 1964 play, this is not an important play but an entertaining one. We also learn that Dudley Sutton played the 19 year old Sloane in that first production. Here he is Kemp, the family grandfather.
I saw a production of this in New York less than 10 years ago. It didn't make much of an impression on me then. I think I was in a cranky mood with my date in a relationship that was going bad. But today I quite enjoyed it for what it was as I listened at the gym on an mp3 player. Actually it was sort of the perfect way to hear it, while working out. There is a scene where Ed is asking Sloane about his workout habits.
In the early scenes Sloane is a sort of projection screen for the lustful desires of the other, older characters in the play. This to me was the most interesting part of the play. It starts to explore that blind and unseemly atmosphere of lust. The object becomes what they want him to be. They are not at all able to see what he really is. This sort of lust is not at all attractive, the vampire like need of the old to connect with youth as if somehow it will give them a new lease on life. He uses this, his attractiveness, their desire, to his own advantage as he plays all the bisexual angles within this odd family. One thinks that he might just win the game until the tables are turned on him and he proves to be so deeply amoral, actually criminal, that he entraps himself in the web they weave. He will be their plaything, their time-share slave.
As they stated in the introduction, it's not a great play. But it is beautifully paced, has some funny, witty dialogue and some fun turns of plot. Some of these plot twists would seem a bit melodramatic unless one considers what happened to poor Mr. Orton just three years after this piece was written. This is a fine and entertaining production.
It can be heard here: Drama on 3 through Saturday April 21, 2007
BBC Radio 3Drama on 3
As director John Tydeman says in the informative introduction of this first radio production of the 1964 play, this is not an important play but an entertaining one. We also learn that Dudley Sutton played the 19 year old Sloane in that first production. Here he is Kemp, the family grandfather.
I saw a production of this in New York less than 10 years ago. It didn't make much of an impression on me then. I think I was in a cranky mood with my date in a relationship that was going bad. But today I quite enjoyed it for what it was as I listened at the gym on an mp3 player. Actually it was sort of the perfect way to hear it, while working out. There is a scene where Ed is asking Sloane about his workout habits.
In the early scenes Sloane is a sort of projection screen for the lustful desires of the other, older characters in the play. This to me was the most interesting part of the play. It starts to explore that blind and unseemly atmosphere of lust. The object becomes what they want him to be. They are not at all able to see what he really is. This sort of lust is not at all attractive, the vampire like need of the old to connect with youth as if somehow it will give them a new lease on life. He uses this, his attractiveness, their desire, to his own advantage as he plays all the bisexual angles within this odd family. One thinks that he might just win the game until the tables are turned on him and he proves to be so deeply amoral, actually criminal, that he entraps himself in the web they weave. He will be their plaything, their time-share slave.
As they stated in the introduction, it's not a great play. But it is beautifully paced, has some funny, witty dialogue and some fun turns of plot. Some of these plot twists would seem a bit melodramatic unless one considers what happened to poor Mr. Orton just three years after this piece was written. This is a fine and entertaining production.
It can be heard here: Drama on 3 through Saturday April 21, 2007
Monday, April 16, 2007
In Denial: The Story of Paul Blackburn
A radio play by Kevin Fegan
The Friday Play BBC Radio 4
I invite you to take a trip to hell. Well, it is not an actual trip to hell, but rather the story of one boy's, one man's trip to hell. This is not the hell that somehow was put into the cosmic order of things by God (did God invent Hell?), in order to punish the bad people for eternity with fire, brimstone and all that sort of thing. This is the hell that humans in authority, our agents on high, our representatives, and therefore WE innocent citizens, have willfully created right here and now on earth in our dear, smug, self-satisfied, and self aggrandizing, democratic states. It is where we GOOD PEOPLE send our BAD PEOPLE.
Something clearly has to be done with people who are a danger to the rest of us. Yet that something turns out to be time and again treating them or allowing them to be treated brutally. We all know this is going on, we hear countless stories about it year after year, it's not big secret. People joke in media about how so and so who has been bad will be sent away to suffer rape inside, as if that is what they deserve for the wrongs they have done. We are not even concerned that most of these people will one day be released, set free, in a more distorted, brutalized, angry, vengeful, and dangerous condition than they were when they went in. After all they are BAD, otherwise they would not be there, would they?
With the story of Paul Blackburn we hear the horrifying quarter century saga of one who happen to fall into the hell that we made. This is the story of a young teen boy convicted for a brutal sexual assault and his time inside. He is convicted even though three others confessed to the crime, he is convicted even though the police did not at all follow legal procedural guidelines for the handling of youthful suspects. And he is released 27 years later and exonerated and with little support, cast out into an alien world of freedom to get by as best he can as a brutalized, damaged, traumatized victim of state justice.
This is not a pretty or uplifting story, but one that we have to keep hearing time and again until something is done to avoid the continuance of convictions of the innocent, and the unjust and disgusting criminal brutality of the guilty.
In Denial: The Story of Paul Blackburn, the play by Kevin Fegan. Is a very well written and produced piece. The cast with Adrian Bower, Gerard Kearns, Robert Pickavance, Glenn Cunningham gives the docudrama a rare and heartbreaking authenticity.
The atmospheric music by Andrew Diey adds much to the feel of the play without calling attention to itself.
It can be heard here through Thursday April 19, 2007:
The Friday Play BBC Radio 4
More information on the Blackburn case can he read here:
: Innocent-FIGHTING MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE
The Friday Play BBC Radio 4
I invite you to take a trip to hell. Well, it is not an actual trip to hell, but rather the story of one boy's, one man's trip to hell. This is not the hell that somehow was put into the cosmic order of things by God (did God invent Hell?), in order to punish the bad people for eternity with fire, brimstone and all that sort of thing. This is the hell that humans in authority, our agents on high, our representatives, and therefore WE innocent citizens, have willfully created right here and now on earth in our dear, smug, self-satisfied, and self aggrandizing, democratic states. It is where we GOOD PEOPLE send our BAD PEOPLE.
Something clearly has to be done with people who are a danger to the rest of us. Yet that something turns out to be time and again treating them or allowing them to be treated brutally. We all know this is going on, we hear countless stories about it year after year, it's not big secret. People joke in media about how so and so who has been bad will be sent away to suffer rape inside, as if that is what they deserve for the wrongs they have done. We are not even concerned that most of these people will one day be released, set free, in a more distorted, brutalized, angry, vengeful, and dangerous condition than they were when they went in. After all they are BAD, otherwise they would not be there, would they?
With the story of Paul Blackburn we hear the horrifying quarter century saga of one who happen to fall into the hell that we made. This is the story of a young teen boy convicted for a brutal sexual assault and his time inside. He is convicted even though three others confessed to the crime, he is convicted even though the police did not at all follow legal procedural guidelines for the handling of youthful suspects. And he is released 27 years later and exonerated and with little support, cast out into an alien world of freedom to get by as best he can as a brutalized, damaged, traumatized victim of state justice.
This is not a pretty or uplifting story, but one that we have to keep hearing time and again until something is done to avoid the continuance of convictions of the innocent, and the unjust and disgusting criminal brutality of the guilty.
In Denial: The Story of Paul Blackburn, the play by Kevin Fegan. Is a very well written and produced piece. The cast with Adrian Bower, Gerard Kearns, Robert Pickavance, Glenn Cunningham gives the docudrama a rare and heartbreaking authenticity.
The atmospheric music by Andrew Diey adds much to the feel of the play without calling attention to itself.
It can be heard here through Thursday April 19, 2007:
The Friday Play BBC Radio 4
More information on the Blackburn case can he read here:
: Innocent-FIGHTING MISCARRIAGES OF JUSTICE
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Energy Swap
Energy Swap is a half hour, three part BBC Radio 4 factual described as this on the page for the program:
"Two families, one from the heart of gas-guzzling Texas and the other from rural Cheshire, exchange their lives for one week to compare their carbon footprints."
Featured are the UK Thomas family and the Spencers in Texas. Mr. Spencer is an airline pilot, his wife works as a food caterer for film crews. They have two children. With the UK couple, he is a building surveyor, she works for an environmental group. The Spencers live in a big house near Dallas in a gated community. They have lived here for three years and have never seen their neighbors. These people live in a consumerist bubble. Basic information apparently can't get through the entertainment news gate. I was a bit shocked in the part where the English woman is showing the Texan woman what a florescent bulb is. She seems to have never heard of it.
Mr. Spencer, the airline pilot, doesn't believe in global warming, or he doesn't believe that human activity is the cause. I there is little doubt that climate change is going on, but room for doubt that humans are the cause. But does one have to believe in global warming in order to see the value of conservation? And by the way, what's the deal with conservatives being the least interested in conservation?
The Spencers use over $800 worth of electricity a month in their uninsulated house. This is a rather stunning fact in itself. Well, at least they seem somewhat open to learning something.
It's a fascinating half hour and we have the other two parts to look forward to in Energy Swap.
"Two families, one from the heart of gas-guzzling Texas and the other from rural Cheshire, exchange their lives for one week to compare their carbon footprints."
Featured are the UK Thomas family and the Spencers in Texas. Mr. Spencer is an airline pilot, his wife works as a food caterer for film crews. They have two children. With the UK couple, he is a building surveyor, she works for an environmental group. The Spencers live in a big house near Dallas in a gated community. They have lived here for three years and have never seen their neighbors. These people live in a consumerist bubble. Basic information apparently can't get through the entertainment news gate. I was a bit shocked in the part where the English woman is showing the Texan woman what a florescent bulb is. She seems to have never heard of it.
Mr. Spencer, the airline pilot, doesn't believe in global warming, or he doesn't believe that human activity is the cause. I there is little doubt that climate change is going on, but room for doubt that humans are the cause. But does one have to believe in global warming in order to see the value of conservation? And by the way, what's the deal with conservatives being the least interested in conservation?
The Spencers use over $800 worth of electricity a month in their uninsulated house. This is a rather stunning fact in itself. Well, at least they seem somewhat open to learning something.
It's a fascinating half hour and we have the other two parts to look forward to in Energy Swap.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Joseph and Joseph
A radio play by Oliver Emanuel
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
As this began it reminded of a recent radio play that had the theme of a young teacher who was clandestinely photographed by a camera phone while having a one-off sex act with someone she had just met at a party. That play was a straight ahead from-the-headlines current horror sort of story.
Joseph and Joseph starts out in much the same way as we meet mild mannered accountant Joseph Taylor and his fiancé going over the credit card invoice. She is very angry about his trip to Nice when he had told her he was going on a business trip somewhere much less glamorous. And what's is with these expenses in Nice? What is he doing spending an enormous amount of money gambling, drinking, and buying a very expensive wristwatch? Joseph is completely baffled by the matter. He is also canned from his job for stealing money from a business account. Our boy is in trouble and doesn't know why. Arriving home from his dismissal his fiancé is waiting for him with a postcard from a woman in Nice. It's a love note. She misses him and wonders where he is and why he hasn't contacted her.
It takes Joseph a few beats more than average to catch on that he has been the victim of identity theft. He jets off to Nice to try to get to the bottom of it. Here the suspense continues as he looks for the thief Joseph. But happily this turns out not to be your average horror-from-the-headlines show. Oliver Emanuel takes us on quite a trip. Sometimes there is a bit in a bump in continuing to suspend disbelief with the turns of the plot. But all in all it is a pleasant diverting trip to Nice that just might get the listener thinking, "What if. It there another way?"
This is a fine, fully realized production director Colin Guthrie. Shaun Dooley, Helen Longworth, Christine Kavanagh, Sam Dale do a very nice job with the acting chores. Give it a listen.
It is available here: The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 Through Tuesday April 17, 2007. Click the Wednesday button.
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
As this began it reminded of a recent radio play that had the theme of a young teacher who was clandestinely photographed by a camera phone while having a one-off sex act with someone she had just met at a party. That play was a straight ahead from-the-headlines current horror sort of story.
Joseph and Joseph starts out in much the same way as we meet mild mannered accountant Joseph Taylor and his fiancé going over the credit card invoice. She is very angry about his trip to Nice when he had told her he was going on a business trip somewhere much less glamorous. And what's is with these expenses in Nice? What is he doing spending an enormous amount of money gambling, drinking, and buying a very expensive wristwatch? Joseph is completely baffled by the matter. He is also canned from his job for stealing money from a business account. Our boy is in trouble and doesn't know why. Arriving home from his dismissal his fiancé is waiting for him with a postcard from a woman in Nice. It's a love note. She misses him and wonders where he is and why he hasn't contacted her.
It takes Joseph a few beats more than average to catch on that he has been the victim of identity theft. He jets off to Nice to try to get to the bottom of it. Here the suspense continues as he looks for the thief Joseph. But happily this turns out not to be your average horror-from-the-headlines show. Oliver Emanuel takes us on quite a trip. Sometimes there is a bit in a bump in continuing to suspend disbelief with the turns of the plot. But all in all it is a pleasant diverting trip to Nice that just might get the listener thinking, "What if. It there another way?"
This is a fine, fully realized production director Colin Guthrie. Shaun Dooley, Helen Longworth, Christine Kavanagh, Sam Dale do a very nice job with the acting chores. Give it a listen.
It is available here: The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4 Through Tuesday April 17, 2007. Click the Wednesday button.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Three Large Beers
A radio play by David Nobbs
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
If I were to introduce someone to their first radio comedy play Three Large Beers would be an excellent point of entry. First radio comedy play? Yes, well, here in the good ole USA we don't do such things. But praise be to the gods of 21st Century technology who control all the satellites, fiber optics or whatever is involved, for now we have the gift of the internet and the delight of North American, and global access to The Afternoon Play . This is an anthology series of plays 45 minutes in length. Some days these 45 Minutes are longer than others. Today April 10, 2007 the 45 minutes feels more like 10 minutes. The comedy Three Large Beers is a tasty slightly dark rich brew that is full bodied with a thick handsome frothy head. We take a sip and feel amused, somewhat lightheaded, after a nice swig we begin to giggle, half way through we are fully engaged and can't help but laugh out loud. By the end we are tapping our glass on the table top and begging David Nobbs, "I'll have another please"
This is about as good as I have heard. It features solid performances by Tim McInnnerny, James Fleet, Jeremy Swift, and Kulvinder Ghir under the direction of Turan Ali.
But really the man of the hour, of the 45 minutes, is a young fellow named David Nobbs. With Three Large Beers he serves up his very first original radio play. But there are novels and television work going back, back, back, to almost the mid 20th Century. Check out the young fellow's brand new site: David Nobbs is a master craftsman artist.
"Please sir. I want some more."
Three Large Beers will be available via all the satellites, fiber optics, telephone lines, wifi, what have you, but only through April 16, 2007. At The Afternoon Play web page.
Just scroll down and hit Tuesday. Don't miss it!
The Afternoon Play BBC Radio 4
If I were to introduce someone to their first radio comedy play Three Large Beers would be an excellent point of entry. First radio comedy play? Yes, well, here in the good ole USA we don't do such things. But praise be to the gods of 21st Century technology who control all the satellites, fiber optics or whatever is involved, for now we have the gift of the internet and the delight of North American, and global access to The Afternoon Play . This is an anthology series of plays 45 minutes in length. Some days these 45 Minutes are longer than others. Today April 10, 2007 the 45 minutes feels more like 10 minutes. The comedy Three Large Beers is a tasty slightly dark rich brew that is full bodied with a thick handsome frothy head. We take a sip and feel amused, somewhat lightheaded, after a nice swig we begin to giggle, half way through we are fully engaged and can't help but laugh out loud. By the end we are tapping our glass on the table top and begging David Nobbs, "I'll have another please"
This is about as good as I have heard. It features solid performances by Tim McInnnerny, James Fleet, Jeremy Swift, and Kulvinder Ghir under the direction of Turan Ali.
But really the man of the hour, of the 45 minutes, is a young fellow named David Nobbs. With Three Large Beers he serves up his very first original radio play. But there are novels and television work going back, back, back, to almost the mid 20th Century. Check out the young fellow's brand new site: David Nobbs is a master craftsman artist.
"Please sir. I want some more."
Three Large Beers will be available via all the satellites, fiber optics, telephone lines, wifi, what have you, but only through April 16, 2007. At The Afternoon Play web page.
Just scroll down and hit Tuesday. Don't miss it!
Sunday, April 8, 2007
The Employee
A radio play by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
This week's The Friday Play on BBC Radio 4 is a replay of The Employee.
This is beautifully produced and directed by Marc Beeby. He gives it a very realistic soundscape that helps the play work. It doesn't SOUND silly and is acted with total conviction with a fine cast headed up by Ron Cook as Iain "With two 'i's.". Mr. Cook's performance in itself makes the play worth a listen. Our Iain is a very loyal worker. He is a building maintenance man at The Elm, a high tech, climate controlled, terrorist proof high-rise office building. But he is not loyal to the managers above him or the clients who rent space in the building. He loves and owes his loyalty to The Elm itself. Is this not what we want in a building, a man who loves it and knows it very, very well? It would seem that this would be the best except that what is more important to others in the pecking order. Those above him know little about the actual function of The Elm, but that doesn't keep them from lording over our Iain "With two 'i's."
This is the conflict in Sebastian Baczkiewicz's play which comes off as a sort of mix between a Stanislaw Lem novel and the Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life (maybe with a touch of The Marx Brothers or Olson & Johnson). But this is not all silliness. There are indeed some very dark comedy elements in The Elm. If you are a upper or mid level manager of others you might want to stay away. It might just increase your paranoia about what 'They" are really up to. If you are one of the rest of us you might find in much more amusing and somewhat familiar.
It is available at BBC Radio 4 The Friday Play through April 12, 2007.
This week's The Friday Play on BBC Radio 4 is a replay of The Employee.
This is beautifully produced and directed by Marc Beeby. He gives it a very realistic soundscape that helps the play work. It doesn't SOUND silly and is acted with total conviction with a fine cast headed up by Ron Cook as Iain "With two 'i's.". Mr. Cook's performance in itself makes the play worth a listen. Our Iain is a very loyal worker. He is a building maintenance man at The Elm, a high tech, climate controlled, terrorist proof high-rise office building. But he is not loyal to the managers above him or the clients who rent space in the building. He loves and owes his loyalty to The Elm itself. Is this not what we want in a building, a man who loves it and knows it very, very well? It would seem that this would be the best except that what is more important to others in the pecking order. Those above him know little about the actual function of The Elm, but that doesn't keep them from lording over our Iain "With two 'i's."
This is the conflict in Sebastian Baczkiewicz's play which comes off as a sort of mix between a Stanislaw Lem novel and the Capra movie It's a Wonderful Life (maybe with a touch of The Marx Brothers or Olson & Johnson). But this is not all silliness. There are indeed some very dark comedy elements in The Elm. If you are a upper or mid level manager of others you might want to stay away. It might just increase your paranoia about what 'They" are really up to. If you are one of the rest of us you might find in much more amusing and somewhat familiar.
It is available at BBC Radio 4 The Friday Play through April 12, 2007.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
The Pledge
Dare to compare?
Here we have an opportunity to compare a movie with a radio play.
BBC World Service: World Drama presents The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt and dramatized by Steve Chambers. This fine production heard last year on BBC Radio 4 is a detective story about an illusive child murder. There is a false accusation of one of the usual suspects, this one who conveniently happens to be the one to first stumble upon the corpse of the victim. The play shows how the cops just want to get the job done, solve the case and move on to the next thing. If not for the retiring Detective Matthai's insistence and pledge to find out what really happened, our killer would have been free to kill again and again, or would he?
So the comparison? The story was made into a movie directed by Sean Penn in 2001. Matthai becomes Jack Nicholson's Jerry Black in the Americanized version . It has a rather star studded cast. It has been a while since I've seen the movie. It is over two hours long and one has to look at a screen that long to watch the thing. The BBC Radio version gets the job done in an hour. Maybe it depends on how one wants to spend one's time. Or if one sees entertainment as more a pastime where the more time that passes the better, or just to get the basic information and be done with it. Or maybe it depends on if one wants to see things in the imagination or displayed in explicit fashion on a screen. EarStory Radio Review votes for the latter. Besides the Swiss setting was just somehow more convincing without the intrusion of all those familiar star faces.
Either way it's a good story even if one in not particularly interesting to the detective cop mystery genre.
The play is available to "Listen Again" through Friday April 6, 2007. BBC World Service: World Drama Page
Here we have an opportunity to compare a movie with a radio play.
BBC World Service: World Drama presents The Pledge by Friedrich Durrenmatt and dramatized by Steve Chambers. This fine production heard last year on BBC Radio 4 is a detective story about an illusive child murder. There is a false accusation of one of the usual suspects, this one who conveniently happens to be the one to first stumble upon the corpse of the victim. The play shows how the cops just want to get the job done, solve the case and move on to the next thing. If not for the retiring Detective Matthai's insistence and pledge to find out what really happened, our killer would have been free to kill again and again, or would he?
So the comparison? The story was made into a movie directed by Sean Penn in 2001. Matthai becomes Jack Nicholson's Jerry Black in the Americanized version . It has a rather star studded cast. It has been a while since I've seen the movie. It is over two hours long and one has to look at a screen that long to watch the thing. The BBC Radio version gets the job done in an hour. Maybe it depends on how one wants to spend one's time. Or if one sees entertainment as more a pastime where the more time that passes the better, or just to get the basic information and be done with it. Or maybe it depends on if one wants to see things in the imagination or displayed in explicit fashion on a screen. EarStory Radio Review votes for the latter. Besides the Swiss setting was just somehow more convincing without the intrusion of all those familiar star faces.
Either way it's a good story even if one in not particularly interesting to the detective cop mystery genre.
The play is available to "Listen Again" through Friday April 6, 2007. BBC World Service: World Drama Page
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The Homecoming
Drama on 3, BBC Radio
3
This new production of Harold Pinter's 1965 play features Pinter in the role of the old man of the family, Max. This is quite a family of men. These are not at all nice people who we spend this hour and a half with. As a matter of fact these are awful people who engage in a sort of verbal slapstick in this dark comedy. One might not want to actually wander into such a house, yet their jabs at one another provides some fast paced entertainment. There is never a dull moment.
The exuberance with which Pinter's tackles the role makes one think that he has been waiting all these years to play Max. He is dreadfully marvelous. Well, they all are. This is a great production of a great demented and somewhat courageous play. This is the sort of thing that earned Pinter the Nobel. This is the artist taking things beyond the edges of reason.
The play presents more questions than it answers and this is a very good thing. One question is. "What the hell is up with Ruth, and why does she agree with this scheme?" It would be interesting to get the opinion of a woman who has heard the play. The people in the play are unkind to women, or at least they speak about some horrible criminal activity toward women. And yet Ruth is not frightened off. Is she a masochist?
In childhood it was a lot of fun to be spun around enough to upset the fluids in the inner ear to cause dizziness, be left stumbling, giggling, and bumping into the furniture in mock drunkenness yet with all senses lucid and alert. This is the effect of a play like this. It's disorienting.
Unfortunately the week portal of BBC WWW 'Listen Again" has expired on this one. so if you missed it, it's gone. Perhaps it will be replayed in the future or released on CD or purchasable download. It would be a good thing if they created a site where downloads of dramas could be bought. Perhaps they are working on such an idea.
3
This new production of Harold Pinter's 1965 play features Pinter in the role of the old man of the family, Max. This is quite a family of men. These are not at all nice people who we spend this hour and a half with. As a matter of fact these are awful people who engage in a sort of verbal slapstick in this dark comedy. One might not want to actually wander into such a house, yet their jabs at one another provides some fast paced entertainment. There is never a dull moment.
The exuberance with which Pinter's tackles the role makes one think that he has been waiting all these years to play Max. He is dreadfully marvelous. Well, they all are. This is a great production of a great demented and somewhat courageous play. This is the sort of thing that earned Pinter the Nobel. This is the artist taking things beyond the edges of reason.
The play presents more questions than it answers and this is a very good thing. One question is. "What the hell is up with Ruth, and why does she agree with this scheme?" It would be interesting to get the opinion of a woman who has heard the play. The people in the play are unkind to women, or at least they speak about some horrible criminal activity toward women. And yet Ruth is not frightened off. Is she a masochist?
In childhood it was a lot of fun to be spun around enough to upset the fluids in the inner ear to cause dizziness, be left stumbling, giggling, and bumping into the furniture in mock drunkenness yet with all senses lucid and alert. This is the effect of a play like this. It's disorienting.
Unfortunately the week portal of BBC WWW 'Listen Again" has expired on this one. so if you missed it, it's gone. Perhaps it will be replayed in the future or released on CD or purchasable download. It would be a good thing if they created a site where downloads of dramas could be bought. Perhaps they are working on such an idea.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Joni Mitchell on BBC Radio 2
COME IN FROM THE COLD – THE RETURN OF JONI MITCHELL
BBC Radio 2 Documentaries.
Is there anyone in popular music quite like Joni Mitchell? Why is she so special and what made her that way?
Come in from the Cold, a two part interview profile currently running on BBC Radio 2 has some answers.
You will discover some interesting technical information. What comes first, words or music? Mitchell says she does it the hard way, she likes puzzles.
The two hour production of which only the first part has played so far, probably has about a half hour or 45 minutes of straight interview material. The rest is filled out with sound clips from her recordings. Did she say that the new CD is album number 23? That is not a surprise when we look at what has so far been a 40+ year career. She even took the last ten years off to work on visual art.
Fortunately we have a figure of the current moment here. She is not one of these people who is looking back to the glory days of the past, to how cool her gen, gen, generation was. She is clearly and individual which is what one would expect given the evidence of the unique popular songs and recordings she has produced.
Of course the whole point of the exercise is to promote the upcoming CD of new material which is called Shine. Yet it is worth a listen for even those with a passing interest in this major figure in 20th Century popular and perhaps what we could call art song.
Part one should be available to "Listen Again" through Monday March 26, 2007. Part two appears on Tuesday March 27 and will be available for streaming for a week after that.
BBC Radio 2 Documentaries.
Is there anyone in popular music quite like Joni Mitchell? Why is she so special and what made her that way?
Come in from the Cold, a two part interview profile currently running on BBC Radio 2 has some answers.
You will discover some interesting technical information. What comes first, words or music? Mitchell says she does it the hard way, she likes puzzles.
The two hour production of which only the first part has played so far, probably has about a half hour or 45 minutes of straight interview material. The rest is filled out with sound clips from her recordings. Did she say that the new CD is album number 23? That is not a surprise when we look at what has so far been a 40+ year career. She even took the last ten years off to work on visual art.
Fortunately we have a figure of the current moment here. She is not one of these people who is looking back to the glory days of the past, to how cool her gen, gen, generation was. She is clearly and individual which is what one would expect given the evidence of the unique popular songs and recordings she has produced.
Of course the whole point of the exercise is to promote the upcoming CD of new material which is called Shine. Yet it is worth a listen for even those with a passing interest in this major figure in 20th Century popular and perhaps what we could call art song.
Part one should be available to "Listen Again" through Monday March 26, 2007. Part two appears on Tuesday March 27 and will be available for streaming for a week after that.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The Diane Rehm Show
There is good news this week for the lovers of intelligent talk on the radio. Diane Rehn is back on the air. She was out last week. We were told she was recovering from pneumonia which was a frightening thing to hear. But now she is back.
Who is Diane Rehm? She is the host of The Diane Rehm Show which originates weekday morning from WAMU (American University Radio) in Washington D.C. and is syndicated on some NPR stations including WNYE-FM 91.5 in New York from 10 am until noon.
There are a lot of interview programs on Public Radio, but where most of the others have adapted the magazine format in which they will only cover a subject for 20 or sometimes around 35 minutes, The Diane Rehm Show takes a more leisurely and in-depth approach of sticking to one subject for the full hour. The subject does not need to be trite on up to the minute to be worthy of discussion. Today's show had an hour long discussion on Flaubert's Madame Bovery.
Of course the element that makes the program great is Diane Rehm herself. She is not a young woman and brings a lifetime of experience to the work she does. She suffers from some sort of voice ailment that makes her speak a little more slowly than most people on the radio, and this is welcome. It was funny hearing her some years back in discussion with Mister Rogers, two slow talkers. And yet she can be quite tough. I remember her with Henry Kissinger. She was smart and tough with him, asking him things that no others have had the guts to.
The guests are mostly the ones on the circuit at the moment, out selling the new book, but she is just so much better, smarter and more feeling than the other hosts, presenters, on American radio.
Recent standout programs have been her visits with Art Buchwald at his death bed in a hospice, and later when he didn't die on schedule instead leaving the hospice and writing another book before he passed away. They talked about the issues involved with dying in a direct and forthright manner, a rarity on USA media. There are many others. Such as Ellen Burstyn who was on promoting the publication of her autobiography.
Please visit the site for The Diane Rehm Show. She has all you need there, streaming, podcasts, archives, etc. If you don't know her already, you will meet an exciting new radio friend.
Who is Diane Rehm? She is the host of The Diane Rehm Show which originates weekday morning from WAMU (American University Radio) in Washington D.C. and is syndicated on some NPR stations including WNYE-FM 91.5 in New York from 10 am until noon.
There are a lot of interview programs on Public Radio, but where most of the others have adapted the magazine format in which they will only cover a subject for 20 or sometimes around 35 minutes, The Diane Rehm Show takes a more leisurely and in-depth approach of sticking to one subject for the full hour. The subject does not need to be trite on up to the minute to be worthy of discussion. Today's show had an hour long discussion on Flaubert's Madame Bovery.
Of course the element that makes the program great is Diane Rehm herself. She is not a young woman and brings a lifetime of experience to the work she does. She suffers from some sort of voice ailment that makes her speak a little more slowly than most people on the radio, and this is welcome. It was funny hearing her some years back in discussion with Mister Rogers, two slow talkers. And yet she can be quite tough. I remember her with Henry Kissinger. She was smart and tough with him, asking him things that no others have had the guts to.
The guests are mostly the ones on the circuit at the moment, out selling the new book, but she is just so much better, smarter and more feeling than the other hosts, presenters, on American radio.
Recent standout programs have been her visits with Art Buchwald at his death bed in a hospice, and later when he didn't die on schedule instead leaving the hospice and writing another book before he passed away. They talked about the issues involved with dying in a direct and forthright manner, a rarity on USA media. There are many others. Such as Ellen Burstyn who was on promoting the publication of her autobiography.
Please visit the site for The Diane Rehm Show. She has all you need there, streaming, podcasts, archives, etc. If you don't know her already, you will meet an exciting new radio friend.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a review
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
This is an enjoyable production of the book by Robert Louis Stevenson, dramatised for radio by Yvonne Antrobus.
It is directed by Claire Grove
BBC Radio 4 The Saturday Play Feb 3, 2007
It will be available to Listen Again on The Saturday Play web page through Friday February 9, 2007.
It's funny in New York there is a theme restaurant that the tourists take the kiddies too. It's called Jerkyll & Hyde.
It's not the first time that quite serious, adult, literature having to do with moral and psychological issues has been turned into some form entertainment for children. Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.
In that way I think some depth, art, of these things is stripped away.
Yet in another way they become bigger things. They turn into modern, fairy tales, folk tales and maybe the depth remains and is somehow transferred even in the bare bones of the stories.
Frankenstein: Become god-like and think you can create life. Then weird stuff can happen that you didn't anticipate. You ain't so smart as you might think are you.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Mind and body altering substances can be fun and very interesting. But. . .
I'm going to have to read the novel one day. I was quite fascinated by the play. The concept of attempting it integrate the good and bad side of ones personality is just great.
He drinks the stuff and feels free form his repression, guilt. It's just a great drug abuse melodrama and I'm quite fond of the genre. I recently watched a 1980s cocaine movie with James Woods called The Boost. Same deal.
These things must be big fun to act in. Adam Godley in the lead role gets to really chew the microphone.
This is an enjoyable production of the book by Robert Louis Stevenson, dramatised for radio by Yvonne Antrobus.
It is directed by Claire Grove
BBC Radio 4 The Saturday Play Feb 3, 2007
It will be available to Listen Again on The Saturday Play web page through Friday February 9, 2007.
It's funny in New York there is a theme restaurant that the tourists take the kiddies too. It's called Jerkyll & Hyde.
It's not the first time that quite serious, adult, literature having to do with moral and psychological issues has been turned into some form entertainment for children. Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.
In that way I think some depth, art, of these things is stripped away.
Yet in another way they become bigger things. They turn into modern, fairy tales, folk tales and maybe the depth remains and is somehow transferred even in the bare bones of the stories.
Frankenstein: Become god-like and think you can create life. Then weird stuff can happen that you didn't anticipate. You ain't so smart as you might think are you.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Mind and body altering substances can be fun and very interesting. But. . .
I'm going to have to read the novel one day. I was quite fascinated by the play. The concept of attempting it integrate the good and bad side of ones personality is just great.
He drinks the stuff and feels free form his repression, guilt. It's just a great drug abuse melodrama and I'm quite fond of the genre. I recently watched a 1980s cocaine movie with James Woods called The Boost. Same deal.
These things must be big fun to act in. Adam Godley in the lead role gets to really chew the microphone.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Daybreak
Daybreak
a radio play by Tom Ray
At the outset this play has a Weird Tale, Twilight Zone feel to it. But there is more to it than just that.
Aint no sunshine when she is gone, or at least that's what appears to be the situation through most of the play.
It is the story of a couple. We hear flashbacks to earlier points in the 14 year marriage. The marriage has failed in light of the death of their only baby at birth. Lisa has left Phil and all is darkness now for the both of them. All is darkness quite literally. The two have one more confrontation as she returns to pick up the wardrobe that she needs.
Daybreak is a very good play. It is not at all a straight forward narrative. It contains symbolic or allegorical elements. This is an art play that does not fail to entertain and enthrall. It is beautifully rendered by Marshall Lancaster as Phil and Loraine Coady as Lisa. Mr. Lancaster's Phil carries the weight of the production and his low key, yet emotional performance is pitch perfect and really serves the material well. Producer/director Kate Chapman mounts a production rich in subtle and effective ambient music that heightens the emotional atmosphere while giving the text room and trusting it to ultimately make the show.
The play by Tom Ray is deeply thought provoking. Is the lack of light the loss of love, or the loss of honesty, the will, desire, and where with all to come out of hiding, face the truth and move on?
A little research on Tom Ray shows that he is a man who has had to face the darkness and crawl out of the closet if he wished to survive. We can be glad that he did and that he has shown us the way of the truth and the light through his work.
Hear Daybreak at the BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play web page where it will be available through February 1, 2007 by clicking on the Friday button.
a radio play by Tom Ray
At the outset this play has a Weird Tale, Twilight Zone feel to it. But there is more to it than just that.
Aint no sunshine when she is gone, or at least that's what appears to be the situation through most of the play.
It is the story of a couple. We hear flashbacks to earlier points in the 14 year marriage. The marriage has failed in light of the death of their only baby at birth. Lisa has left Phil and all is darkness now for the both of them. All is darkness quite literally. The two have one more confrontation as she returns to pick up the wardrobe that she needs.
Daybreak is a very good play. It is not at all a straight forward narrative. It contains symbolic or allegorical elements. This is an art play that does not fail to entertain and enthrall. It is beautifully rendered by Marshall Lancaster as Phil and Loraine Coady as Lisa. Mr. Lancaster's Phil carries the weight of the production and his low key, yet emotional performance is pitch perfect and really serves the material well. Producer/director Kate Chapman mounts a production rich in subtle and effective ambient music that heightens the emotional atmosphere while giving the text room and trusting it to ultimately make the show.
The play by Tom Ray is deeply thought provoking. Is the lack of light the loss of love, or the loss of honesty, the will, desire, and where with all to come out of hiding, face the truth and move on?
A little research on Tom Ray shows that he is a man who has had to face the darkness and crawl out of the closet if he wished to survive. We can be glad that he did and that he has shown us the way of the truth and the light through his work.
Hear Daybreak at the BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play web page where it will be available through February 1, 2007 by clicking on the Friday button.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
The Concert
The Concert
Over the last few weeks the BBC World Service World Drama slot has featured their "Heroes Season". EarStory Review heard three of these. The first was about British men who went to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. The second had to do with a courageous priest who faced death in the 1980's land reform movement. There is little doubt of the heroic content of these two plays and the appropriateness in their presentation in something called "Heroes Season".
But last Saturday they presented The Concert by Ulises Rodriguez Febles. I very silly play about a very silly man with a very silly hero. The hero is a rock star, a performer. It wouldn't have caused quite so much offence had it not been presented in the same series as the other two.
What we have here is an aging rocker "man" who steals the recently installed statue of John Lennon from the Havana bench on which it sits. He takes the thing home, all by himself "man" in some sort of feat of superhuman strength for the 50 year old codger, and puts it in his basement which he has decked out as a replica of the original Cavern Club where the Beatles famously preformed. He speaks to the statue and sets about trying to reunite his 1960 rock band The Crusaders because they had once promised one another "man" that they would get together and play for The Beatles should they ever happen to visit Cuba.
He "Johnny" doesn't have much luck with his former bandmates. Some of them are not interested, one has had a stroke so can't speak for himself, and Johnny goes around through the play saying "man" in most every sentence. When he does get around to singing to John the statue he songs him a Paul McCartney song.
This is a not a very good play about a uninteresting boring silly old man. If you're some sort of Beatles fan with the misguided notion that they are the best thing that happen in 20th Century music and simply must see and hear everything about them, feel free to give The Concert a listen. All others can skip it "man".
"A working class hero is something to be."
Over the last few weeks the BBC World Service World Drama slot has featured their "Heroes Season". EarStory Review heard three of these. The first was about British men who went to fight the fascists in the Spanish Civil War. The second had to do with a courageous priest who faced death in the 1980's land reform movement. There is little doubt of the heroic content of these two plays and the appropriateness in their presentation in something called "Heroes Season".
But last Saturday they presented The Concert by Ulises Rodriguez Febles. I very silly play about a very silly man with a very silly hero. The hero is a rock star, a performer. It wouldn't have caused quite so much offence had it not been presented in the same series as the other two.
What we have here is an aging rocker "man" who steals the recently installed statue of John Lennon from the Havana bench on which it sits. He takes the thing home, all by himself "man" in some sort of feat of superhuman strength for the 50 year old codger, and puts it in his basement which he has decked out as a replica of the original Cavern Club where the Beatles famously preformed. He speaks to the statue and sets about trying to reunite his 1960 rock band The Crusaders because they had once promised one another "man" that they would get together and play for The Beatles should they ever happen to visit Cuba.
He "Johnny" doesn't have much luck with his former bandmates. Some of them are not interested, one has had a stroke so can't speak for himself, and Johnny goes around through the play saying "man" in most every sentence. When he does get around to singing to John the statue he songs him a Paul McCartney song.
This is a not a very good play about a uninteresting boring silly old man. If you're some sort of Beatles fan with the misguided notion that they are the best thing that happen in 20th Century music and simply must see and hear everything about them, feel free to give The Concert a listen. All others can skip it "man".
"A working class hero is something to be."
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
A review of Immigrants
A radio play by John P Rooney
BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play January 15, 2007
Available on "Listen Again" RealAudio internet stream(One might have to click on "Listen on a stand alone player" to get the stream clip to go.) through Jan 21, 2007
This is a period piece, a play about three young Irish men in Belfast in the 1966. They see their prospects as rather slim unemployed at home. They find that they can get assisted passage to Australia which they don't have to repay if they stay two years. So they set off to seek their fortune. They go via a ship. A trip that must take a very long time. But, no matter, that is not the business of this play. It only has 45 minutes to tell the story of two years in Australia so we get there pretty quickly and it is there that the interesting drama really begins. What unfolds is a more or less universal immigrant story. They have a rather hard time finding decent work and end up falling in with a rather nasty exploitive contractor. So off the three of them go with this man and find themselves in a very rough situation with dangerous work. They end up splitting off in ways that will not be told here so as not to spoil the enjoyment of the story.
The play brings up several issues. The plight of newcomers who find themselves vulnerable to exploitation being only one if them. That is obvious and of course continues today all over the world. At least the young men in the play had some sort of papers, they were not illegal. I don't suppose that Australia is so open to uneducated, unskilled newcomers as it was 40 years ago. And yet even with that they find it very hard, find themselves entrapped in backbreaking, dangerous work. This brought to mind the plight of women who find themselves going for an offer of a new life out of misery and end up as sex slaves in the new land with little recourse to do much about it. This sort of thing goes on today all over our glorious modern world. Slavery lives today.
Another issue is who become the volunteer immigrants. True it is often the unemployed, but the young men in the play didn't have to set off to the new land. Surely there were thousands of others in a similar situation back home who chose to remain do to ties with family or just not really being the adventurous sort. The men in the play were self selected. It is the self selected adventurous ones who set off, leave home regardless of relational ties and take off. And who are these people who ended up making modern industrial nations out of the former tribal close to nature lands of Australia or North America?
Are they the most aggressive, the most yearning of their breed? Are they ones who built the (dangerous?) superpower of the current USA? Are they all adventurous young men seeking their fortune, traveling far to achieve it and not too concerned in the end who they have to push out of the way or kill to get it and keep it?
Some of these issues of the American character are addressed in American Mania a book by Peter C. Whybrow. It's an interesting read.
Immigrants brushes up against these issues in this very entertaining and personal coming of age adventure play. It's a fast 45 minutes and worth the listen.
BBC Radio 4 The Afternoon Play January 15, 2007
Available on "Listen Again" RealAudio internet stream(One might have to click on "Listen on a stand alone player" to get the stream clip to go.) through Jan 21, 2007
This is a period piece, a play about three young Irish men in Belfast in the 1966. They see their prospects as rather slim unemployed at home. They find that they can get assisted passage to Australia which they don't have to repay if they stay two years. So they set off to seek their fortune. They go via a ship. A trip that must take a very long time. But, no matter, that is not the business of this play. It only has 45 minutes to tell the story of two years in Australia so we get there pretty quickly and it is there that the interesting drama really begins. What unfolds is a more or less universal immigrant story. They have a rather hard time finding decent work and end up falling in with a rather nasty exploitive contractor. So off the three of them go with this man and find themselves in a very rough situation with dangerous work. They end up splitting off in ways that will not be told here so as not to spoil the enjoyment of the story.
The play brings up several issues. The plight of newcomers who find themselves vulnerable to exploitation being only one if them. That is obvious and of course continues today all over the world. At least the young men in the play had some sort of papers, they were not illegal. I don't suppose that Australia is so open to uneducated, unskilled newcomers as it was 40 years ago. And yet even with that they find it very hard, find themselves entrapped in backbreaking, dangerous work. This brought to mind the plight of women who find themselves going for an offer of a new life out of misery and end up as sex slaves in the new land with little recourse to do much about it. This sort of thing goes on today all over our glorious modern world. Slavery lives today.
Another issue is who become the volunteer immigrants. True it is often the unemployed, but the young men in the play didn't have to set off to the new land. Surely there were thousands of others in a similar situation back home who chose to remain do to ties with family or just not really being the adventurous sort. The men in the play were self selected. It is the self selected adventurous ones who set off, leave home regardless of relational ties and take off. And who are these people who ended up making modern industrial nations out of the former tribal close to nature lands of Australia or North America?
Are they the most aggressive, the most yearning of their breed? Are they ones who built the (dangerous?) superpower of the current USA? Are they all adventurous young men seeking their fortune, traveling far to achieve it and not too concerned in the end who they have to push out of the way or kill to get it and keep it?
Some of these issues of the American character are addressed in American Mania a book by Peter C. Whybrow. It's an interesting read.
Immigrants brushes up against these issues in this very entertaining and personal coming of age adventure play. It's a fast 45 minutes and worth the listen.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Glass Houses
He said, She said.
Glass Houses
a radio play Colin Teevan
As we peer in at them it appears that they were once a happy couple. They both agree on that point. In this play we hear form both sides in two cross-cut monologues. Wife, perhaps to a journalist sometime after the fact. Husband, into a cassette audio tape recorder.
Where did it all go so bad? With the coming of the children? Did the problems, the games, really start over the accounting of family expenses? Didn't they always play power games? Didn't they get off on them at one time? Did the games get out of hand? Is the ultimate result just the last more, the last play, in the game? Is it the ultimate move or does it just appear that it is? Who lives in the Glass House? Husband? Wife? The both of them? We, the listeners? Who would we throw the stones at? Do we have any right to throw any? Is it possible to see clearly into a glass house? Did he go mad? Did it have to do with being on the treadmill to provide for the middle-class lifestyle that once had them so envied? Was she lying and cheating all along? Did the children just become a possession the fight over, just mere pawns in the games? Is it all a bluff in the end?
This play by Colin Teevan is an absolute mess of he said, she said. I'm not saying that Mr. Teevans' writing is a mess. I think his writing is spot on. What I'm saying is that it presents the mess of a love, a marriage, a family gone very wrong in such a way that it is impossible to get a solid, clear picture of who, if any single one, is at fault for the disaster. That it is a disaster for all involved is undisputable. That we can make heads or tails of why and who's to blame is impossible. This is the most real and illuminating aspect of the play. It points to the fact that it is very difficult, virtually impossible to make out what exactly happens in a relationship from the outside based on the testimony of the two people involved. They blame each other. But are they even clear as to who is at fault, or does it just come down to getting the outside, the law on their side to retain possession?
This BBC Radio 4 presentation of The Friday Play is very strong stuff. It is not recommended for those going through a difficult divorce. It is not a very good date play. It is not something to put on as light entertainment while you cuddle up with the one you love before the fireplace. It is harsh, angry, sad, troubling, but also devilishly clever and delightfully murky. Only two voices are heard through the hour. Husband is played by Greg Hicks. Wife by Clare Higgins. Both are excellent. Although I have no criticism of Mr. Hicks work here, I can't help but wonder how differently the drama would have felt if Husband was played slightly more toned down. I wonder if that might have done more to highlight the ambiguity of the piece. This ambiguity is what I love most about it. In the end I don't really know what went on with these two.
Of course the real star of this piece is the author Colin Teevan . He presents, doesn't tell too much, steps back, and allows the listener to do the rest, the listener is left to be the ultimate judge. I shirk the responsibility. I can't make a judgment in the end. I'm glad I'm not some divorce judge who has to figure these two out.
The only judgment I can make is a very easy one. This is very solid, very dark, very troubling, very hard hitting and thoughtful entertainment. Good show.
The play was directed by David Hunter with tasteful and effective music cues throughout.
But note: Glass Houses is available to "Listen Again" via The Friday Play page until January 18, 2007. I would advise you not to read the description of the play. Fortunately I didn't. I just clicked on the Listen Again button. I think the description is spoiling and misleading. You've been warned.
Glass Houses
a radio play Colin Teevan
As we peer in at them it appears that they were once a happy couple. They both agree on that point. In this play we hear form both sides in two cross-cut monologues. Wife, perhaps to a journalist sometime after the fact. Husband, into a cassette audio tape recorder.
Where did it all go so bad? With the coming of the children? Did the problems, the games, really start over the accounting of family expenses? Didn't they always play power games? Didn't they get off on them at one time? Did the games get out of hand? Is the ultimate result just the last more, the last play, in the game? Is it the ultimate move or does it just appear that it is? Who lives in the Glass House? Husband? Wife? The both of them? We, the listeners? Who would we throw the stones at? Do we have any right to throw any? Is it possible to see clearly into a glass house? Did he go mad? Did it have to do with being on the treadmill to provide for the middle-class lifestyle that once had them so envied? Was she lying and cheating all along? Did the children just become a possession the fight over, just mere pawns in the games? Is it all a bluff in the end?
This play by Colin Teevan is an absolute mess of he said, she said. I'm not saying that Mr. Teevans' writing is a mess. I think his writing is spot on. What I'm saying is that it presents the mess of a love, a marriage, a family gone very wrong in such a way that it is impossible to get a solid, clear picture of who, if any single one, is at fault for the disaster. That it is a disaster for all involved is undisputable. That we can make heads or tails of why and who's to blame is impossible. This is the most real and illuminating aspect of the play. It points to the fact that it is very difficult, virtually impossible to make out what exactly happens in a relationship from the outside based on the testimony of the two people involved. They blame each other. But are they even clear as to who is at fault, or does it just come down to getting the outside, the law on their side to retain possession?
This BBC Radio 4 presentation of The Friday Play is very strong stuff. It is not recommended for those going through a difficult divorce. It is not a very good date play. It is not something to put on as light entertainment while you cuddle up with the one you love before the fireplace. It is harsh, angry, sad, troubling, but also devilishly clever and delightfully murky. Only two voices are heard through the hour. Husband is played by Greg Hicks. Wife by Clare Higgins. Both are excellent. Although I have no criticism of Mr. Hicks work here, I can't help but wonder how differently the drama would have felt if Husband was played slightly more toned down. I wonder if that might have done more to highlight the ambiguity of the piece. This ambiguity is what I love most about it. In the end I don't really know what went on with these two.
Of course the real star of this piece is the author Colin Teevan . He presents, doesn't tell too much, steps back, and allows the listener to do the rest, the listener is left to be the ultimate judge. I shirk the responsibility. I can't make a judgment in the end. I'm glad I'm not some divorce judge who has to figure these two out.
The only judgment I can make is a very easy one. This is very solid, very dark, very troubling, very hard hitting and thoughtful entertainment. Good show.
The play was directed by David Hunter with tasteful and effective music cues throughout.
But note: Glass Houses is available to "Listen Again" via The Friday Play page until January 18, 2007. I would advise you not to read the description of the play. Fortunately I didn't. I just clicked on the Listen Again button. I think the description is spoiling and misleading. You've been warned.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
To Make The People Smile Again by George Wheeler
I was talking with a friend recently about the new movie Pan's Labyrinth. Neither of us had seen the movie yet. I said that I was sort of interested in it since in was set in Spain during the civil war in the 1930s. My friend who is 38 and well educated, about to get a PhD, knew nothing about the Spanish Civil War. I was a little shocked by this. I guess I think that it is something everyone should know about since it was such a pivotal point in the events of the 20th Century.
The BBC World Service radio is presenting a drama set in the war. The play can be heard on the internet for a couple more days, until late Friday Jan. 12th 2007. I wish there could archive these things somewhere, but I guess there are rights issues involved.
To Make The People Smile Again by George Wheeler
Dramatized by Steve Chambers
With Ben Crowe as George Wheeler.
Directed and Produced by Marion Nancarrow
The play begins with a young British man George Wheeler signing on to join the International Brigades to travel to Spain an assist in the support of the republican government . In 1936 General Franco backed by The Catholic Church and various other interests including the Nazis and the Italian fascists rebelled against the government which was engaged in land reform. An International Brigade was formed to help in the struggle. This was made up of American and British Communists, socialists and anarchists. The we follow the young man George to Spain and see the struggle through his eyes in this excellent factual production. The play includes a few recordings of the voices of actual aged survivors.
This play presents the internal difficulties of the various political forces involved with the international brigades. This is also discussed in George Orwell's memoir of his time in Spain, Homage to Catalonia.
The play has a very human story. It's not at all a dry history lesson and is a very good introduction to the war. It is an entertaining and informative radio drama. The so called "free world" didn't help at all. There was no aid to the republic from the USA or British governments. Only individual citizens and communists, socialist parties and anarchists organizations helped . The Soviet Union helped for a while, but perhaps in the end somehow betrayed or abandoned the struggle. It's didn't end up so good for the cause of freedom. Franco won and was the dictator of Spain for the next 40 years.
The BBC World Service Drama is presenting a series of plays about heroes. The story of Mr. Wheeler and the International Brigades could not be more fitting in such a series.
The BBC World Service radio is presenting a drama set in the war. The play can be heard on the internet for a couple more days, until late Friday Jan. 12th 2007. I wish there could archive these things somewhere, but I guess there are rights issues involved.
To Make The People Smile Again by George Wheeler
Dramatized by Steve Chambers
With Ben Crowe as George Wheeler.
Directed and Produced by Marion Nancarrow
The play begins with a young British man George Wheeler signing on to join the International Brigades to travel to Spain an assist in the support of the republican government . In 1936 General Franco backed by The Catholic Church and various other interests including the Nazis and the Italian fascists rebelled against the government which was engaged in land reform. An International Brigade was formed to help in the struggle. This was made up of American and British Communists, socialists and anarchists. The we follow the young man George to Spain and see the struggle through his eyes in this excellent factual production. The play includes a few recordings of the voices of actual aged survivors.
This play presents the internal difficulties of the various political forces involved with the international brigades. This is also discussed in George Orwell's memoir of his time in Spain, Homage to Catalonia.
The play has a very human story. It's not at all a dry history lesson and is a very good introduction to the war. It is an entertaining and informative radio drama. The so called "free world" didn't help at all. There was no aid to the republic from the USA or British governments. Only individual citizens and communists, socialist parties and anarchists organizations helped . The Soviet Union helped for a while, but perhaps in the end somehow betrayed or abandoned the struggle. It's didn't end up so good for the cause of freedom. Franco won and was the dictator of Spain for the next 40 years.
The BBC World Service Drama is presenting a series of plays about heroes. The story of Mr. Wheeler and the International Brigades could not be more fitting in such a series.
Saturday, January 6, 2007
Flutterby
Flutterby
A radio drama
By Mark Catley
The Friday Play Jan. 5, 2007
broadcast on BBC Radio 4
This is a repeat from sometime last year. It can be heard on BBC Radio 4 "Listen Again" Real Audio stream through Jan 12, 2007.
The story is set in contemporary Leeds in a rough drug and crime ridden neighborhood. We meet Jo, a 19 year old heroin addict, just after she has some sort of spiritual conversion in which she hears a voice in her head that tells her to help herself and others.
Alison is a middle class architect who Jo calls at random on the phone and to her doorstep because she wants to meet someone who wears a suit. Allison feels that something is up and stays to help Jo in a campaign to transform the neighborhood and the people in it. Jo continues to find that she can get people to do what she wants with the help of "The Voice" the comes from within her and instantly convinces skeptics and people in power that she is right and that they should do as she wishes.
The district begins to change. The crime rate drops but a problem comes up when the press becomes aware of the change and the people begin to sell off their homes to "yuppies" who are now interested in the safe cheaper housing. There is also a bit of a problem with Lee, Jo's former boyfriend, drug buddy, and sort of dealer or supplier. He's seems to be the only one who hasn't been saved. Jo, although off drugs, has something wrong with her skin and is soon bedridden. There is some symbolism having to do with a butterfly that is not exactly clear. Or is it a moth flying into a flame?
This is a very odd play with realistic, noir, class struggle, and fantastical spiritual elements intermixed in the 57 minute production. The presents the question of what is the value of one person's activist spiritual conversion and who they can take with them where. With all of these elements, none of them are explored in depth. The acting is good throughout. "The Voice" is ushered in with interestingly eerie musical cues and effects. That along with the writing in the dialog and the production work are good enough to bring the whole thing off in a reasonably satisfactory way. The return of the bad boyfriend recalled the movie Resurrection with Ellen Burstyn as the holy lady and Sam Shepard as the bad boyfriend. The bottom line is that Flutterby is far from a great work but worth an hour of entertaining and somewhat thought provoking listening.
A radio drama
By Mark Catley
The Friday Play Jan. 5, 2007
broadcast on BBC Radio 4
This is a repeat from sometime last year. It can be heard on BBC Radio 4 "Listen Again" Real Audio stream through Jan 12, 2007.
The story is set in contemporary Leeds in a rough drug and crime ridden neighborhood. We meet Jo, a 19 year old heroin addict, just after she has some sort of spiritual conversion in which she hears a voice in her head that tells her to help herself and others.
Alison is a middle class architect who Jo calls at random on the phone and to her doorstep because she wants to meet someone who wears a suit. Allison feels that something is up and stays to help Jo in a campaign to transform the neighborhood and the people in it. Jo continues to find that she can get people to do what she wants with the help of "The Voice" the comes from within her and instantly convinces skeptics and people in power that she is right and that they should do as she wishes.
The district begins to change. The crime rate drops but a problem comes up when the press becomes aware of the change and the people begin to sell off their homes to "yuppies" who are now interested in the safe cheaper housing. There is also a bit of a problem with Lee, Jo's former boyfriend, drug buddy, and sort of dealer or supplier. He's seems to be the only one who hasn't been saved. Jo, although off drugs, has something wrong with her skin and is soon bedridden. There is some symbolism having to do with a butterfly that is not exactly clear. Or is it a moth flying into a flame?
This is a very odd play with realistic, noir, class struggle, and fantastical spiritual elements intermixed in the 57 minute production. The presents the question of what is the value of one person's activist spiritual conversion and who they can take with them where. With all of these elements, none of them are explored in depth. The acting is good throughout. "The Voice" is ushered in with interestingly eerie musical cues and effects. That along with the writing in the dialog and the production work are good enough to bring the whole thing off in a reasonably satisfactory way. The return of the bad boyfriend recalled the movie Resurrection with Ellen Burstyn as the holy lady and Sam Shepard as the bad boyfriend. The bottom line is that Flutterby is far from a great work but worth an hour of entertaining and somewhat thought provoking listening.
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