Drama on 3: Andromache

Original version

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

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Series of drama performances, ranging from experimental works to the Classics

Jean-Baptiste Racine

Edward Kemp

Tanya Moodie

Alex Lanipekun

Joel MacCormack

Susannah Fielding

Gunnar Cauthery

Raad Rawi

Mia Soteriou

Rosie Hilal

Chris Drohan

Jeremy Mortimer

Andromache

BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3, Andromache

By Jean Racine. With Tanya Moodie as Andromache and Joel MacCormack as Orestes.

A translation by Edward Kemp of Jean Racine's play Andromache, updated to the present day. With Tanya Moodie, Joel MacCormack, Alex Lanipekun and Susannah Fielding.

Jean Racine's play, first performed in 1667, is set a year after the Fall of Troy in Epirus, where Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, is ostensibly betrothed to Helen's daughter, Hermione. Pyrrhus however is pining after Hector's widow, Andromache. The play opens as Orestes, son to Agamemnon, comes with a message from the Greeks demanding that Pyrrhus should hand over Andromache's son Astyanax. Orestes, it so happens, is in love with Hermione.

Edward Kemp's version of the play is set against a present-day soundscape and asks, 'When a culture has endured a shattering event - the Trojan War or one of the world-changing events of the current century - how can we move on? And if we can't, are we destined to repeat the same cataclysmic mistakes over and over again?'

Translated by Edward Kemp
A Cast Iron Radio production for BBC Radio 3.

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