by DON TAYLOR with Barry Foster as the Man and Gary Watson as Andrew Marvell
David March , Ellen Dryden
Dialogues for String Quartet on a theme of William Lawes composed and conducted by H. R. CHAPPELL and played by THE SIDNEY SAX QUARTET
Produced by RICHARD WORTLEY Don Taylor says of his new play for radio: 'A modern man sits in a small room with gun-fire outside. His curtains are drawn. But his world and his conflicts are ours, and society answers his plea for artistic detachment in the most positive way. While reading Andrew Marvell, his life and the poet's interact.
Marvell had two years of peace at Nunappleton House in Yorkshire, writing most of his greatest poetry while tutor to the daughter of General Fairfax. In 1650 the powerful General had retired prematurely from the Civil War. The play dramatises this period of Marvell's life, studying the forces of conscience and responsibility in the shape of the General who relinquished his commitment and the poet who took it up.'
(Marius Goring reads Marvell's s poem Appleton House tomorrow at 10.35 pm)