Radio review - drama

Published Monday 10 March 2008 at 16:50 by Moira Petty

Somebody once bravely volunteered to teach me how to tell jokes. Problem was, in the ‘a white horse goes into a bar’ joke, I reversed the perspective. Never mind the barman, I wanted to tell it from the equine’s point of view, which rather messed up the punchline. The creepily effective Lullaby of Shadows rather suffered from this tendency to shift the focus of interest. Most of the time, we were inside the head of Lyndsey Marshal’s Jenny, a new mother whose hyper-anxiety about perceived threats to the safety of her baby catapulted her into a full-scale breakdown. She was clearly a textbook case of post-natal depression but author Andrea Earl decided to paint the psychosis as if it was the real expression of events. So it was the reverse of Gaslight, Patrick Hamilton’s play filmed by George Cukor in 1944, in which a husband attempts to drive his wife mad.

But then, through the blur of Jenny’s paranoia, the voice of her husband (Joe Caffrey) would interrupt her version of the world in which everyone was out to get her. We were encouraged to believe there might be a conspiracy plot in there somewhere and this was accentuated by an exceptionally busy soundscape.

Designed by Kal Ross and Steve Brook, it was almost a character in itself, a passing poltergeist perhaps, with the whistling of the sea and the wind, the howl of solitude and disquiet, the thunder of feet coming along a corridor. Technically, it was an impressive depiction of the place where reason met delusion, but the hyped-up thriller elements made me feel rather deranged by the end.

Another portrayal of a world in turmoil came from the American Expressionist writer Elmer Rice, whose 1923 play The Adding Machine was given an extraordinary production, consistent with the style of the piece. The play relates the tale of accounts clerk Mr Zero, who is ground down by the monotony of his work only to find that, after 25 years of slavish service, he is about to be usurped by a machine.

The entire cast spoke with a clipped rhythm that served to underscore the high emotions of the piece as established social structures came under attack. ‘America for Americans!’ cried the ensemble in an echo of the burgeoning Fascist views of the time. Nathan Osgood was particularly impressive as Mr Zero, whose chilling impassivity hid a seething, murderous heart, with Gina Bellman as the disingenuous Daisy.

The sense of upheaval in 1914 as the country was launched into war underscored the correspondence of the time, which formed the basis of a second series of Writing the Century. Devised by Vanessa Rosenthal and Polly Thomas, it focused this time on the then Chancellor Lloyd George (a bullish Robert Pugh) and his secretary-cum-mistress (Claudia Renton). He sauntered off to join his family for Christmas while she was left to eat her Christmas pudding on her own.

The air of melancholy which pervaded the drama seemed as much a lament for a lost generation sent to war as for the sacrificial mistress.

Another long-suffering woman finally emerged triumphant in Colin Hough’s very silly but highly entertaining - and even touching - drama of an over-zealous sperm donor, Bad Dad. When 164 test-tube offspring came calling just as Adam (Simon Tait) and Eve (Gayanne Potter) were having no luck producing their own progeny, she came into her own. I laughed out loud at the comic absurdism of it all.

Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch featured Philip Jackson as the commander spiralling back in space and time, in a laconic and wry performance that echoed the author’s inventive satire.

DETAILS

Lullaby of Shadows - R3, Saturday, March 1

The Adding Machine - R3, Sunday, March 2

Writing the Century - R4, Monday, March 3

Bad Dad - R4, Friday, February 29

Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch - R4, Wednesday, February 27