Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Wire

Drama

Showcase for works that push the boundaries of drama and narrative

Showcase for works that push the boundaries of drama and narrative, created by first-time radio writers and also writers distinguished in other forms

Xiaolu Guo

Vera Chok

Chris Lew Kum Hoi

Paul Courtenay Hyu

Steve Toussaint

Carolyn Pickles

Priyanga Burford

Arthur Hughes

Emma Harding

The Wire: Dostoevsky and the Chickens

Dostoevsky and the Chickens

15/02/2014

BBC Radio 3 - The Wire, Dostoevsky and the Chickens

Drama in which convicts read Dostoevsky and dream of life beyond the prison chicken plant.

Novelist Xiaolu Guo's first radio drama, set in a vast chicken processing plant in the Pacific Ocean. Two young convict-labourers read Dostoevsky and dream of a different life.

Novelist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo's first radio drama, set on a purpose-built island in the Pacific Ocean in a vast poultry processing plant, staffed entirely by prisoners. 

A teenage couple, Zhuang and Niue, are prison-labourers in this chicken factory, having been convicted for petty theft. After nightfall, they meet in secret and read Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment together. Zhuang dreams about the possibility of bringing about a new social order, while Niue has quieter ambitions to become a mother and earn a living from her talent for singing. 

When the Mainland is hit by a highly virulent strain of bird flu, suspicion falls on chicken meat from the island's processing plant. The chicken factory island and its workers are put into enforced quarantine, surrounded by soldiers and left to their fate. But Zhuang is determined that the workers should be masters of their own destinies.

About the writer: Writer and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo was named one of Granta's Best British Novelists in 2013. She studied at the Beijing Film Acadamy and received her MA from the National Film School in London. She has published seven novels in both English and Chinese. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Her other novels include UFO in Her Eyes and 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth. She directed the award-winning films She, A Chinese and Once Upon A Time Proletarian. Her new novel, I Am China, is published this year by Chatto & Windus.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Wire

Dostoevsky and the Chickens

Contributors

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3