By Angela Carter
Adapted by Lucy Catherine

The fantastical story of Sophie Fevvers - aerialist extraordinaire and star of the circus. Hatched from an egg, Fevvers is part woman, part bird - if you believe her. Having fallen under her spell, journalist Jack Walser follows Fevvers' tour across Russia, determined to discover the truth.

This new adaptation of Angela Carter’s penultimate novel tells the story of the extraordinary, raucous, and often raunchy,` life of Sophie Fevvers, a winged circus performer. The 1984 novel not only won the James Tait Black memorial prize (Britain's oldest literary prize) when it was first published, but also won the Best of the James Tait Black prize in 2012.

Award-winning screenwriter and playwright Lucy Catherine has adapted the novel for audio. Previous work for BBC Radio include The Master and Margarita, Roald Dahl’s Boy and Going Solo, Frankenstein and long-running serial Gudrun. Award-winning comedian, actor and writer Roisin Conaty plays the Cockney Venus, Sophie Fevvers.

Nights at the Circus forms part of a season of dramas on BBC Radio 4 and Radio 3 that celebrates the writing of Angela Carter. The season includes The Bloody Chamber; Carter's unmade screenplay The Christchurch Murder; and An Evening With Angela Carter on BBC Radio 3 - two new productions of Carter’s radio plays, Vampirella and Come Unto These Yellow Sands.

Sophie Fevvers . . . . . Roisin Conaty
Lizzie . . . . . Elizabeth Counsell
Jack Walser . . . . . Ryan Whittle
Mignon . . . . . Carys Eleri
Colonel Kearney . . . . . Stewart Wright
Samson/Kidnapper . . . . . Joe Sims
Princess . . . . . Clare Cage
Lamarek/Grand Duke . . . . . Richard Elfyn

The piano was played by David Thomas.

Directed by Sasha Yevtushenko Show less