Timberlake Wertenbaker’s adaptation from the French of Marcel Proust’s allegorical reflection on time, memory, art and love.
It begins with the vivid memory of a young boy’s childhood summers spent in the French countryside of Combray and the long nights waiting for his mother to come and kiss him goodnight. The young Marcel takes beautiful walks with his parents and has his first sighting of the young Gilberte Swann, daughter of family friend and well-connected Parisian Dandy, Charles Swann and his wife, the courtesan and seductress Odette de Crecy.
Cast:
MARCEL (narrator) ………Derek Jacobi
FATHER ………Oliver Cotton
FRANCOISE ………Susan Brown
MOTHER ………Sylvestra le Touzel
GRANDMOTHER ………Joanna David
TANTE LEONIE .……Pamela Miles
GILBERTE (girl) ………Mary Glen
ODETTE …………..Bessie Carter
SWANN ………… Paterson Joseph
MADEMOISELLE VINTEUIL/PROSTITUTE …. Charlotte Blandford
THE DUCHESS DE GUERMANTES (Oriane) …………… Fenella Woolgar
MADAME DE VERDURIN ………Frances Barber
PIANIST …………Daniel Whitlam
DOCTOR COTTARD …………Lloyd Hutchinson
MARCEL(boy) ………Isaac Watts
MONSIEUR VERDURIN …………Jeff Rawle
FEMALE FRIEND……….Phoebe Marshall
Translated and adapted from the French by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Produced and directed by Celia de Wolff
Production Co-ordinator: Sarah Tombling
Recording and Sound Design: David Chilton and Lucinda Mason Brown
Executive Producer: Peter Hoare
A Pier production for BBC Radio 4
