(very good)
(also *drama takes a huge bite out of "Weekend Woman's Hour" and laughs triumphantly)

The Bacchae
Drama on 4

Euripides’ Greek tragedy reimagined by Katherine Soper. In this new version, myth entwines with modernity to explore the root causes of rebellion.

When a group of young women discover the mysterious and charming Bacchus online, they instantly form an unshakeable devotion to him and to each other. It has awakened something inside of them that cannot be contained. Is this a supportive sisterhood or something more dangerous?

Bacchus ….. Colin Morgan
Joy ….. Francesca Amewudah-Rivers
Song ….. Ella Bruccoleri
Love ….. Matilda Tucker
Freedom ….. Tia Bannon
Agave ….. Clare Corbett
Pentheus ….. Sam Swann
Tiresias ….. Sam Dale
Semele ….. Yasmin Mwanza
Libation ….. Madeleine Clarke

Directed by Gemma Jenkins

Production Co-ordinator: Sara Benaim
Casting Manager: Alex Curran
Sound Design: Keith Graham, Sam Dickinson and Andrew Garratt

The Bacchae by Katherine Soper after Euripides was commissioned and first performed as part of the Springboard Trainee Programme at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in July 2023.

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26 days left to listen

1 hour, 27 minutes

#BBCRadio4 #BBCRadioDrama #BBCDrama #Bacchanalia #BBCDramaOn4

(... Cordwainer Smith did similar but in a more entertaining sci-fi way with Krishna as the central figure (or was it another Vedic?) in "Under Old Earth" ...)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002t10r

this was a trip! a bit like that Kellogg film with Anthony Hopkins

Transcendental Wild Oats
Drama on 4

Louisa May Alcott ([played by] Louisa Harland - Hamnet) immortalised herself and her sisters in her book Little Women. In Transcendental Wild Oats, she tells the story of her parents, Abigail (Rebekah Staton) and Bronson (Alistair Petrie - Night Manager 2), and her father’s attempt to found a utopia on a farm in the New England wilderness, called Fruitlands.

Accompanied by a dour Englishman named Charles Lane (Mathew Baynton - Ghosts), and a small band of eccentrics, they believed Eden could be returned to Earth through veganism, celibacy and organic farming – which none of them knew how to do. What followed were six months of misadventure, with comedy gradually threatening to turn into tragedy.

This adaptation combines Louisa’s original short story with historical record, drawing on the letters and diaries of the people involved, to tell the full story of Fruitlands.

Dramatised by Edward Rowett
Original Story by Louisa May Alcott
Directed by Gordon Kennedy and Edward Rowett

Cast:
Louisa May Alcott and Louy Alcott - Louisa Harland
Bronson Alcott - Alistair Petrie
Abigail Alcott - Rebekah Staton
Charles Lane - Mathew Baynton

Christopher Godwin as Joseph Palmer
Tom Moores as Samuel Bower
Edward Rowett as Abraham Wood
Patricia Rodriguez as Ann Page
Jason Barnett as Ralph Waldo Emerson
Victoria Rigby as Anna Alcott

Production Manager - Sarah Tombling
Studio Engineer, Sound Design and Editing - Wilfredo Acosta
Produced by Gordon Kennedy
Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios, London

An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4

#BBCRadio4 #LouisaMayAlcott #BBCDramaOn4

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002r39k

Hersey's Hiroshima

#BBCRadio4 #BBCDramaOn4

2025-08-09 1500-1600

Hersey's Hiroshima
Drama on 4

John Hersey's searing account of the bombing of Hiroshima and its aftermath.

John Hersey's Hiroshima is a ground-breaking piece of journalism that gave voice to the survivors of the 1945 atomic bombing. Written after two weeks spent interviewing citizens in the devastated city, the article was originally published in The New Yorker in 1946 under tight secrecy, due to U.S. suppression of the bomb’s long-term effects. It sold out rapidly and helped shift public understanding from triumphalist narratives to the harrowing human cost of nuclear war.

Hailed by New York University as the most important work of journalism in the 20th century, Hiroshima remains a moving testament to the power of bearing witness.

Hersey focuses his account on six of the survivors he interviewed. Miss Toshiko Sasaki; Dr. Masakazu Fujii; Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura; Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge; Dr Terufumi Sasaki; Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto.

Part One takes us through the morning of the bombing and its immediate aftermath.

Read by:
Akie Kotabe
Ami Okumura Jones
Dai Tabuchi
Kae Alexander
Mark Edel-Hunt
Matt McCooey

Directed by Anne Isger
Sound by Andy Garratt
Production co-ordination by Sara Benaim and Jon Powell

A BBC Studios Audio Production

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57 minutes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002gzqx