Orwell vs Kafka: Restless Dreams

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Drama on 4: Orwell vs Kafka: Restless Dreams

BBC Radio 4 - Drama on 4, Orwell vs Kafka: Restless Dreams

A mystifying train journey about identity, culture and Franz Kafka.

By Dan Rebellato. Inventive, darkly comedic drama, part of Radio 4's drama series to mark the centenary of Kafka’s death, with Anton Lesser, Tracy-Ann Oberman and Henry Goodman.

Inventive new drama from leading audio dramatist Dan Rebellato, one of a series of Radio 4 dramas marking the centenary of Kafka’s death.

Part thriller, part surreal, darkly comedic dream, part exploration of who owns culture, Restless Dreams is set entirely on a train. It's both a mystifying journey, and a reflection on the legacy of great literature, the battle between membership of a nation and citizenship of the world, and the dark heart of Europe. 

Restless Dreams takes place during Max Brod’s urgent train journey in 1939 from Prague, fleeing the Nazis, as the world stood on the brink of WWII and everything that entailed for Jewish people, nations and borders. In his suitcase are manuscripts, the unpublished works by Franz Kafka – of no contemporary value but inestimable treasures for the future. In his will, Kafka instructed Brod, his friend and executor, to burn thousands of pages after his death. Brod didn’t, ensuring Kafka’s writings made it out into the world. 

When guards challenge Brod’s identity, he decides to hide his treasures – but  where? Every carriage he tries becomes more and more surreal. Where is this train actually taking him? Why is there a circus troupe in one carriage, a team of philosophers in the next? And who really are all these people who one minute claim to know him, the next deny ever meeting him?  Including his own wife, Elsa.

On one level, this is a wartime thriller, the tense story of one man smuggling a jewel of world literature to safety. On the other, it is a Kafkaesque nightmare, teetering between reality and hallucination, often comedic, as Brod’s encounters with train staff and fellow passengers seem to pass between wakefulness and dreaming, echoing Kafka’s writing. There is wry humour throughout, mirroring Kafka’s own writing style, references to his work threaded throughout the drama.

The Writer:
Dan is a leading dramatist and professor of Contemporary Theatre at Royal Holloway University. He has written over 20 individual dramas for BBC Radio 4, and has been shortlisted multiple times for Sony, BBC Audio and WGGB Awards, including winning Silver at the ARIAS 2022 for his Radio 4  drama, You & Me. He was the lead writer who masterminded the epic 20 hour Emile Zola epic on Radio 4 2015–16. Recent stage commissions include Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Plymouth Drum, Suspect Culture and Graeae, Soho Theatre and National Theatre.  

Cast:
Max Brod ….. Anton Lesser
Elsa/Ilse …..  Tracy-Ann Oberman
Hanna/Eva/Ottili …..  Annie Cowan 
Franz Kafka/Titorelli ….. Henry Goodman
Train Guard/Kasper ….. Guy Rhys
		
Producer ……………………………..Polly Thomas
Sound Designer……………………..Eloise Whitmore 
Illustration……………………………Ed Duffill
Production Manager………………..Darren Spruce
Executive Producer…………………Eloise Whitmore

Written by Dan Rebellato

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