Category Archives: Podcast

LUCILLE FLETCHER: ‘SORRY, WRONG NUMBER’—DIRECTED BY GARRY HYNES, A DRUID AND RTÉ RADIO DRAMA ON ONE CO-PRODUCTION (LISTEN NOW) · Aug 31st

Sorry, Wrong Number

A Druid and RTÉ Radio Drama On One co-production
Written by Lucille Fletcher

‘I’m calling to report a murder.’

Described by Orson Welles as ‘the greatest single radio script ever written’, Sorry, Wrong Number is a whip-smart radio thriller set in 1940s New York.

Tony Award winner Marie Mullen leads the cast playing a woman who overhears a murder plot on the telephone.

The other actors lending their voice talents to this all-star Irish ensemble are Andrew Bennett, Venetia Bowe, Peter Daly, Brian Doherty, Seán McGinley, Rory Nolan and Helen Norton.

Druid takes to the national airwaves for the first time, partnering with RTÉ Radio Drama On One, for this short, sharp and wicked slice of New York noir.

Sorry, Wrong Number is a Druid at Home presentation and was first broadcast on Sunday 29 August 2021 on RTÉ Radio 1.

Join the conversation: #SorryWrongNumber #DruidAtHome

How to Listen

Sorry, Wrong Number is now available to listen to on demand on the Drama On One website.

You can also find it on the Drama On One podcast by searching ‘Drama On One’ on your podcast app.

Running time: 30 mins approx.

LISTEN BACK

In the Wings

After recording Sorry, Wrong Number, some of the company sat down with the RTÉ Drama On One team to chat about the play as well the history of Druid and their careers to date in a segment called In the Wings.

Listen to director Garry Hynes and actors Brian Doherty, Seán McGinley and Marie Mullen on the RTÉ Drama On One website.

You can also listen to In the Wings on the RTÉ Drama On One podcast by searching ‘Drama On One’ on your podcast app.

Image: Julia Monard

Credits

CAST

Andrew Bennett
Venetia Bowe
Peter Daly
Brian Doherty
Seán McGinley
Marie Mullen
Rory Nolan
Helen Norton

CREATIVES

Director Garry Hynes

RTÉ DRAMA ON ONE

Sound Supervision Ruth Kennington
Series Producer Kevin Reynolds

SHELAGH DELANEY AND HER LANDMARK 1958 PLAY, ‘A TASTE OF HONEY’ · Jun 15th

(from the London Review of Books.)

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‘NO, I’M NOT GETTING MARRIED!’: SUSAN PEDERSEN AND JOANNA BIGGS ABOUT SHELAGH DELANEY AND HER LANDMARK 1958 PLAY, A TASTE OF HONEY

Susan Pedersen talks to Joanna Biggs about Shelagh Delaney and her landmark 1958 play, A Taste of Honey.

Image shows Rita Tushingham and Dora Bryan in A Taste of Honey (1961), directed by Tony Richardson (PictureLux / The Hollywood Archive / Alamy Stock Photo).

The first two clips in this episode are from the 1961 film, the third clip is from The White Bus (1967) directed by Lindsay Anderson, and the fourth clip is from a 1959 interview with Delaney for ITN.

PHYLLIS WHEELER INTERVIEW ON “THE LONG SHADOW” · Sep 8th

Author Phyllis Wheeler talks to Bob Shuman, at Marit Literary Agency and Stage Voices, about her YA novel The Long Shadow, a Huckleberry Finn story for the 21st century.

A white suburban, contemporary 14-year-old moves from racism to empathy as he travels through time. He is saved from hypothermia by a black man, and then, finding himself in 1923, works to prevent the lynching of the black man’s grandfather.

Praise for The Long Shadow:

“A book that can make a difference . . . a good history lesson without being offensive to anyone. I like the friendship that blossomed in the story. . . .”–LaShaunda Hoffman, author of Building Online Relationships and also publisher of SORMAG, Shades of Romance Magazine, the award-winning online magazine for readers and writers of multi-cultural literature (sormag.blogspot.com)

“Full of interesting characters . . . [The Long Shadow has] heart, humor, and a great overall theme. . . . Complex subject matter, woven into enjoyable fantasy. . .”–John Hendrix, New York Times bestselling illustrator and author of many children’s books, including Shooting at the Stars and John Brown: His Fight for Freedom

Wheeler runs her own editorial firm in St. Louis and has written for daily newspapers, been a deacon, and worked on airplanes as an engineer.

Phyllis Wheeler, phylliswheeler.com
Bob Shuman, BobJShuman@gmail.com

HAROLD PINTER: ‘THE BIRTHDAY PARTY’ (LISTEN NOW ON BBC RADIO 3–LINK BELOW) · Dec 9th

HAROLD PINTER: ‘THE BIRTHDAY PARTY’

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The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter
Stanley, an erstwhile pianist lives in a dingy seaside boarding house run by Meg and Petey. He is comfortable there, like a surrogate son. Two sinister strangers turn up – Goldberg and McCann. They claim to know him from the past. They turn Stanley’s birthday party into a menacing and terrifying encounter. Franz Kafka meets Donald McGill in Pinter’s iconic comedy of menace.

Stanley ….. Toby Jones
Goldberg ….. Henry Goodman
McCann ….. Stephen Rae
Meg ….. Maggie Steed
Petey ….. Peter Wight
Lulu ….. Jaime Winstone

Director/Producer Gary Brown

An Irishman and a Jew walk into a seaside boarding house. And what? A parable about power and persecution? Or maybe it’s marginalised minorities taking their revenge against seedy Albion? Pinter’s slippery and sly black comedy has a huge resonance for today.

Harold Pinter was one of the writers championed by the Third Programme – and in the late 1950s commissioned one of his early plays before he had his first stage hit. Pinter himself acknowledged the role the Third had had in his own cultural education. For the 70th anniversary, Drama on 3 presents a new production of The Birthday Party, now considered a Pinter classic, but which on its first London opening only lasted a week.

Photo: BBC Radio 3

EDITH WHARTON: ‘THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT’ (HER NEWLY DISCOVERED PLAY–LISTEN NOW ON BBC RADIO 3) · Nov 6th

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World premiere of a newly discovered play by Edith Wharton from 1901, starring Phoebe Fox, Francesca Annis, Paul Ready, David Horovitch and Don Gilet.

Introduced by Laura Rattray, Reader in American Studies, University of Glasgow
Adapted for radio by Melissa Murray
Directed by Emma Harding

Long before she achieved fame with her novel, ‘The Age of Innocence’, Edith Wharton wrote a number of plays. But they were all believed lost until two academics, Laura Rattray and Mary Chinery, discovered the complete manuscript of ‘The Shadow of a Doubt’ in 2017. Wharton’s play – which pivots on the issue of assisted suicide – was about to be staged in New York in early 1901, before the production was abandoned for unknown reasons.

Kate, a former nurse, has recently married above her class to John Derwent, whose first wife Kate had nursed following an horrific accident. But others are suspicious of Kate’s social ascent. And others have knowledge that could destroy her.

Kate Derwent…..Phoebe Fox
John Derwent…..Paul Ready
Sylvia Derwent…..Rosie Boore
Lord Osterleigh…..David Horovitch
Lady Uske…..Francesca Annis
Dr Carruthers…..Don Gilet
Clodagh Nevil…..Alexandra Constantinidi
Bobby Mazaret…..Cameron Percival
Footman…..Lewis Bray
Mrs Fullerton…..Emma Handy

Photo: WBUR

SIMON CALLOW ON: MICHEÁL MACLIAMMÓIR AND HILTON EDWARDS · Oct 9th

The Love that Wrote Its Name

The Boys

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In 1969 while the actor was performing his one man show in Belfast, a young Simon Callow was Micheál MacLiammóir’s dresser. Callow pays tribute to the 50 year relationship of Micheál MacLiammóir and his partner Hilton Edwards, who were the founders of Dublin’s influential Gate Theatre. Simon Callow is an actor, musician, writer, and theatre director. Part of Gay Britannia, a season of programming marking the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act 1967, which decriminalised homosexual acts that took place in private between two men over the age of 21. Writer: Simon Callow Reader: Simon Callow Producer: Simon Richardson.

STILL DREAMING: SHAKESPEARE WITH SENIORS (SHAKESPEARE UNLIMITED) · Jul 27th

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(via Pam Green)

In 2011, Ben Steinfeld and Noah Brody, co-directors of New York’s Fiasco Theater, were invited to an assisted living facility and nursing home just outside New York City to work with its residents on a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Because it was the Lillian Booth Actors Home—a facility filled with retired singers, actors, dancers and musicians—Ben and Noah expected to work with a group of seasoned Broadway professionals. While there were some, the cast they finally assembled was largely anything but. Ben and Noah were invited on this adventure by filmmakers Jilann Spitzmiller and Hank Rogerson, who turned the process into a documentary called Still Dreaming. We talk about the experience with Ben Steinfeld and Hank Rogerson.

Hank Rogerson is a filmmaker who, with Jilann Spitzmiller, produced Still Dreaming. Ben Steinfeld is co-artistic director of Fiasco Theater. He co-directed, with Noah Brody, the Lillian Booth Actors Home’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Hank and Ben are interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.

PATERSON JOSEPH: JULIUS CAESAR AND ME (FOLGER, SHAKESPEARE UNLIMITED) · Jun 7th

(from the Folger Shakespeare Library; via Pam Green.)

Shakespeare Unlimited: Episode 98

In 2012 the Royal Shakespeare Company staged the first-ever, high-profile, all-black British Shakespeare production, Julius Caesar, set in Africa. The actor who played Brutus, Paterson Joseph, recently wrote a book about the experience called Julius Caesar and Me: Exploring Shakespeare’s African Play.

On this podcast episode, he also talks about his early work, his thoughts about race in the British theater, about the proper way to play Brutus, and much more. Paterson Joseph is interviewed by Barbara Bogaev.

Listen on iTunes, Google Play, SoundCloud, or NPR One.

IBSEN: ‘THE WILD DUCK’ TRANSLATED AND ADAPTED BY CHRISTOPHER HAMPTON · Apr 20th

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David Threlfall, Samuel West and James Fox star in Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece – as strong on comedy as profound, tragic drama. A family creates an imaginary forest in their loft room for a wounded wild duck.But will someone come to shatter their dreams?

Translated and adapted by Christopher Hampton

Hjalmar ….. David Threlfall
Gregers ….. Samuel West
Werle ….. James Fox
Gina ….. Lise-Ann McLaughlin
Hedvig ….. Lauren Cornelius
Ekdal ….. Clive Hayward
Relling ….. Michael Bertenshaw
Mrs Sørby ….. Georgie Glen

Solo flute played by Martin Feinstein

Director: Peter Kavanagh.

‘SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM’: LISTEN TO BBC RADIO 3 IN CONCERT · Mar 22nd

SONDHEIM ON SONDHEIM: LISTEN TO RADIO 3 IN CONCERT

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Keith Lockhart conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra and a host of music theatre stars in the European premiere of a brand new review of the work of Stephen Sondheim, featuring some of his best-known songs such as ‘Send in the Clowns’ and ‘Losing my Mind’, from some of his greatest shows including Company, Follies, Gypsy and A Little Night Music. The concert includes specially recorded introductions to some of the songs by Stephen Sondheim himself.

Singers: Liz Callaway, Claire Moore, Julian Ovenden; Rebecca Trehearn, Tyrone Huntley, Damian Humbley

BBC Concert Orchestra, conductor Keith Lockhart
Director: Bill Deamer.

Photo: BBC Radio 3