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.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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.
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