Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Pearl (radio play)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Written by
  
Original language
  
Playwright
  
Genre
  
Place premiered
  
BBC Radio 4London

First performance
  
3 July 1978

Setting
  
England

Places premiered
  
Characters
  
PearlBackhouseGrimscarBelladonnaDuchessGideon GripCaptain Catso

Date premiered
  
July 3, 1978 (1978-July-03)

Pearl is a 1978 radio play by award-winning English playwright John Arden. Set in England in the 1640s, the play concerns a young Irish political operative named Pearl, who, with playwright Tom Backhouse, attempts to sway the political climate in favour of the British Parliament, as part of a plan to achieve Irish sovereignty.

Contents

Production

Pearl was produced and broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on July 3, 1978, with the following cast:

  • Pearl - Elizabeth Bell
  • Mother Bumroll - Paula Tilbrook
  • Barnabas/Male Voice - David Mahlowe
  • Stage Manager/Casca/Actor - John Jardine
  • Grip - Geoffrey Banks
  • Sowse/Caesar - Ronald Herdman
  • Grimscar/1st Commoner - Peter Jeffrey
  • Backhouse/Soothsayer - David Calder
  • Belladonna - Lynda Marchal
  • Duchess - Kathleen Helme
  • Catso/Marullus - Kenneth Alan Taylor
  • Katerina/Female Voice - Jane Knowles
  • Messenger/Flavius/Actor - Robert Morton
  • Music composed and conducted by Stephen Boxer
  • Musicians Ephraim Segerman and members of the Northern Renaissance Consort
  • Produced by Alfred Bradley
  • Critical reception

    The play won a Giles Cooper Award in 1978, and is considered one of the finest examples of the medium.

    Publication

    Hardcover and Paperback editions were published by Eyre Methuen in 1979.

    References

    Pearl (radio play) Wikipedia


    Similar Topics