Family Business

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Drama on 4: Family Business

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Alecky Blythe’s drama created from interviews recorded at John Lewis stores over 10 years.

Award-winning playwright Alecky Blythe brings her unique brand of verbatim drama to radio, using interviews with shoppers and staff at John Lewis stores, recorded over ten years.

A state-of-the-nation docu-drama about family relationships, national identity and commerce, by acclaimed Critic's Choice winning playwright Alecky Blythe (London Road, National Theatre; The Girlfriend Experience, Royal Court). 

Created from edited recordings collected in John Lewis stores across the UK, this funny, provocative, and fast-moving story offers extraordinary insight into the aspirations of the British shopper, making important purchases for life's key moments from cradle to grave.

In 2014, Alecky Blythe embarked on writing a play, focusing on customers in John Lewis, shopping for the many different key life stages. She recorded interviews with shoppers struggling with leaving home, furnishing flats, negotiating families, weddings, divorces, affairs, christenings and retirement. Ten years later, Alecky returned to talk to the same people to see how life had dealt with them. 

Her plays are created from recorded conversations with real people which are edited and become the text spoken by actors. The ensemble of actors do not work with scripts, but are fed their lines, spoken by the interviewees in the edited recordings, through earpieces in the studio. They reproduce what they hear as faithfully as they can, down to the last pause and vocal tick.

The ensemble includes Debbie Chazen, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Andrew Leung, Sarita Gabony, Joe Bolland, Claire Lams and Barry McCarthy.

Created and written by Alecky Blythe 
Original idea by Matthew Byam Shaw
Directed by Alecky Blythe and James Dacre
Music and sound design by Adam Cork

Audio production by Richard Power and Frank Stirling

A 7digital production with the Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Living Theatre Productions for BBC Radio 4

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