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.
