Artist Descending a Staircase
"Tom Stoppard's Artist Descending a Staircase is both very
much written for, and a tribute to, the medium of radio - the medium for
which Tom Stoppard first started writing drama. Originally written for
radio in 1972, this will be the first new production to be heard on the airwaves for 43 years.
Taking
its title from Duchamp's painting Nude Descending a Staircase No 2, Tom
Stoppard's 1972 radio play is both a funny and moving exploration of
the meaning and purpose of art and the constantly shifting uncertainties
of so-called "reality". It is also a tragic love story.
It
begins in classic murder-mystery mode. Donner, an elderly artist, lies
dead at the bottom of the staircase. His last moments of life -
ambiguous fragments of sounds and words - have been captured by the tape
recorder, which his housemate Beauchamp uses to make ''tonal art''. But
the meaning of these aural clues (which are replayed and re-examined
nearly as assiduously as the tape in Coppola's film The Conversation),
depends entirely on the radio listener's interpretation of them.
Beauchamp and the third artist, Martello, assume - quite understandably -
that the recorded clues can only mean that one or other of them is a
murderer. But Stoppard aficionados will know that reality is never quite
what it seems, and that there is a characteristic coup de theatre (or
coup de radio) awaiting them in the last scene of this beguiling drama.
Sound Design and Original Music: David Chilton
A Goldhawk Essential production for BBC Radio 3."
Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Writer | Tom Stoppard |
| Martello (older) | Geoffrey Whitehead |
| Beauchamp (older) | Derek Jacobi |
| Donner (older) | Ian McDiarmid |
| Sophie | Pippa Nixon |
| Martello | Joshua McGuire |
| Beauchamp | Blake Ritson |
| Donner | Hugh Skinner |
| Producer | Gordon House |
Broadcast
- Sunday 21:00
No comments:
Post a Comment