Available Means is the story of David an academic who flies into an Eastern European city to give a lecture on poetry. The city is remote and strange - full of puzzles and possibilities - and David is not a seasoned traveller. He strikes up relationships with both Oksana, a hotel cleaner and Adam, the city's police chief who takes it upon himself to be David's guide and mentor. The man is good company, amusing and, most importantly, he has integrity. He also has a mission: to clear up the corruption that is ruining his city. He's a "good" man.

But David's perspective changes when he realises that the police chief is using torture to achieve what he wants. Not only that, but the cleaner's brother is in his cells at the moment. Oksana is very distressed to think what might be happening to him. But then David learns something about the girl's brother that, perhaps, she doesn't know herself.

So it's not just the city that confuses David, it's the moral world he finds there. What seems right at one moment can suddenly change and seem wrong. The play ends with David facing a dilemma of his own. By the time he has experienced for himself the dark underside of this apparently respectable city, he has been forced to re-set his whole moral compass.

Original music by David Chilton
Written by Nick Warburton

Producer: Gordon House
A Goldhawk Essential Production for BBC Radio 4. Show less