Drama on 3

Wesker's play is broadcast this evening online and will probably be available for the next 7 days. See the Library Think Radio 3 Group for more information.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 1st June 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long).

Shylock, by Arnold Wesker.

A new perspective on an age-old story by one of the foremost playwrights of his generation. Shylock's close friend Antonio needs a loan, but 16th century Venetian law discriminates against Jews. For Shylock's own protection, Antonio persuades him to agree a bond. They laugh as Shylock invents the absurd forfeit of a pound of flesh - but their mockery of the law may easily turn to tragedy. Produced and directed by David Hitchinson.

Starring: Henry Goodman, Ronald Pickup, Juliet Stevenson, Noma Dumezweni, Toby Stephens, Sheila Steafel.

Drama on 3 is available online up to 7 days after broadcast. BBC Radio Three. Sunday 15th June 2008. 20:00 to 21:40 (1 hour and 40 minutes long). Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe.

The classic play written in 1604 about a man who defies the authority of God by selling his soul to the Devil in return for 24 years of knowledge and power on Earth. Featuring performances by Paterson Joseph, Ray Fearon, Toby Jones, Janet McTeer, Tanya Moodie and Julian Bleach.

Faustus ...... Paterson Joseph
Mephistopheles ...... Ray Fearon
Wagner ...... Toby Jones
Evil Angel ...... Janet McTeer
Good Angel/Duchess ...... Tanya Moodie
Lucifer ...... Julian Bleach
Old Man ...... David Bradley
Robin ...... Nicholas Burns
Rafe ...... Iain Robertson
Valdes/Pope ...... David Bamber
Cornelius ...... Paul Bazely
Emperor ...... Anton Lesser
Scholar/Horse-Courser ...... John Lloyd Fillingham
Scholar/Knight ...... Don Gilet
Scholar/Duke ...... Derek Riddell

Original music composed by Olly Fox.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 22nd June 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 21:40 (1 hour and 40 minutes long). Bazajet, by Jean Racine. In far-off Byzantium, in a harem deep within the Sultan's palace, Bazajet is told by the Emperor's wife that he must marry her or die. However, matters are complicated by the fact that he is already engaged to Atalide. Translated by Alan Hollinghurst.

Acomat ...... Michael Pennington
Osmin ...... Jonathan Christie
Roxane ...... Victoria Hamilton
Atalide ...... Claire Price
Zaire ...... Sophie Scott
Bajazet ...... Bertie Carvel
Zatime ...... Valerie Sarruf

Translated by Alan Hollinghurst.
Directed by Jane Morgan.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 29th June 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 22:10 (2 hours and 10 minutes long). The Wild Duck. By Henrik Ibsen and translated by Inga-Stina Ewbank and Peter Hall. One of Ibsen's most powerful dramas, the play explores the tragic impact on the lives of a young girl and her family when an old friend insists on family secrets being told.

Starring: Paterson Joseph, Michael Maloney, Katie Griffiths, Alexandra Mathie, Russell Dixon, Gordon Langford Rowe.

Hialmar ...... Paterson Joseph
Gregers ...... Michael Maloney
Hedvig ...... Katie Griffiths
Mrs Sorby ...... Alexandra Mathie
Mr Werle ...... Russell Dixon
Old Ekdal ...... Gordon Langford-Rowe
Gina ...... Siobhan Finneran
Relling ...... Glenn Cunningham
Jenson ...... Malcolm Raeburn

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 13th July 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long). Blood Wedding: By Federico Garcia Lorca. An evocative meditation on fate, war, tradition, passion and repression, inspired by the true story of a fatal feud between two families in the Almeria province, high in the mountains of rural Spain. A version by Ted Hughes.

Director: Pauline Harris
Starring: Barbara Flynn, Carl Prekopp, Sarah Smart, William Ash, Andrea Riseborough, David Fleeshman.

Are these broadcasts available via web-stream on the internet?

-- Gerry

Yes, see the Radio 3 LibraryThing Group for details.

Today:

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 27th July 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 21:00 to 22:15 (1 hour and 15 minutes long). Two Men from Delft, by Stephen Wakelam. In 1675, at the time of the death of his close friend Johannes Vermeer, Antony Van Leeuwenhoek made an astonishing discovery. He was the first person to identity bacteria. Directed and produced by Jeremy Mortimer. Starring: Stephen Tompkinson, Alex Jennings, Emma Noakes, Alex Tregear.

This evening:

Drama on 3 On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 31st August 2008. Time: 21:45 to 23:15 (1 hour and 30 minutes long). Your Only Man, by Annie Caulfield. Brian O'Nolan was an Irish writer, columnist and civil servant who wrote novels such as The Third Policeman under the pen name of Flann O'Brien and popular satirical newspaper columns as Myles na gCopaleen, while at the same time working as a civil servant in Dublin under his real name. This play imagines what might have happened had the three of them got together on the day when O'Nolan was asked to leave his civil service post.

Director: Marilyn Imrie
Starring: Ardal O'Hanlon, Dermot Crowley, Dara O'Briain, Pauline McLynn, Lloyd Hutchinson.

A new season of DDrama on 3 begins this evening:

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 21st September 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long). A Disappearing Number. Adapted for radio by Simon McBurney and Ben Power. Based on the stage play by the theatre company Complicite. An award-winning production exploring our relentless compulsion to understand, and which is a provocative meditation on the beauty of mathematics and the nature of creativity. It was inspired by the story of the collaboration between two of the 20th century's most notable pure mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor Brahmin from South India, and Cambridge professor G H Hardy. Performed by David Annen, Firdous Bamji, Paul Bhattacharjee, Divya Kasturi, Chetna Pandya, Saskia Reeves and Shane Shambhu.

Starring: Mick Barnfather, Tamzin Griffin, Tim McMullan, Clive Mendus.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 28th September 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long). Season of Migration to the North. Philip Palmer's dramatisation for Radio 3 of Sudanese novelist Tayeb Salih's sensual and shocking thriller, often described as the most important Arab novel of the 20th century.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 12th October 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 22:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long). The Duchess of Malfi, By John Webster. The Duchess of Malfi is one of the great Jacobean plays, and this new production focuses on the personal tragedies of a powerful family rent by lust and betrayal. When the widowed Duchess marries her steward Antonio, the choice challenges the accepted social order and established lines of power. It also brings her into direct conflict with her powerful brothers, the Duke Ferdinand and the scheming Cardinal, and tragedy ensues. The dark tale is enhanced by dark music, written especially for the play. With Sophie Okonedo in the title role, Rory Kinnear (Antonio), Jonathan Slinger (Ferdinand), Bertie Carvel (Bosola), Oliver Senton (Cardinal), Oliver Le Sueur (Delio), Becky Hindley (Cariola), Rachel Davidge (Julia), Michael Griffiths (Doctor), Paul Panting (Pescara), Nicholas Gadd (Roderigo/Executioner), Francis Middleditch (Grisolan/Servant). Music by Arthur Ka Wai Jenkins. Adapted for radio and directed by Roy McMillan.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 19th October 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:45 to 22:15 (1 hour and 30 minutes long). Black Watch, by Gregory Burke. A radio version of the National Theatre of Scotland's award-winning theatre production. Black Watch is based on interviews conducted by Burke with former soldiers who served in the second war in Iraq. Hurtling from a pool room in Fife to an armoured wagon in Iraq, the action is viewed through the eyes of those on the ground and reveals what it means to be part of this venerable Scottish regiment and the war on terror. This play contains very strong language. Featuring Ali Craig, Emun Elliott and Paul Rattray.

This play took the Edinburgh Festival by storm. See:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2006/aug/08/theatre.edinburgh20061

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2008/jun/25/theatre.reviews1

As part of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of WWI armistice, R3 is dramatising All Quiet on the Western Front.

Broadcast: 09 Nov 2008 20:00 BBC Radio 3

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00fd2tv

Written by Erich Maria Remarque and dramatised by Dave Sheasby.

Considered one of the greatest war novels of all time, it is the haunting, comic, lyrical and desperate story of a group of young German soldiers enduring and coming to terms with the realities of the First World War.

Paul Baumer ...... Robert Lonsdale
Kropp ...... Simon Trinder
Muller ...... Gunnar Cauthary
Leer ...... Llyod Thomas
Tjaden ...... Joseph Arkley
Katczinsky ...... Stephen Critchlow
Cook ...... Malcolm Tierney
Westhaus ...... Stuart McLoughlin
Captain Bertinck ...... Dan Starkey
Kemmerich ...... Luke Walker
Himmelstoss ...... Tim Treloar
Detering ...... Nick Sayce
Mother ...... Janice Acquah
French girl ...... Donnla Hughes
Erna ...... Jill Cardo
Mrs Kemmerich ...... Carolyn Pickles
Orderly ...... Inam Mirza
Mittlestaedt ...... Paul Rider
Major ...... Chris Pavlo
Nurse ...... Manjeet Mann

Directed by David Hunter.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three. Date: Sunday 16th November 2008 (starting this evening). Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long).

Tamburlaine - Shadow of God, by John Fletcher.

As war swirls around them, three of the most important figures in the history of the Middle and Near East are brought together in fierce debate: how can a successful society be built, and what does it need to do to endure? Other parts played by Chris Pavlo, Gunnar Cauthery and Robert Lonsdale.

Director: Marc Beeby
Starring: John Rowe, Jeffery Kissoon, Conleth Hill, Jonathan Taffler, Inam Mirza, Stephen Critchlow, Dan Starkey, Donnla Hughes.

Tambulaine – Shadow Of God by John Fletcher is an epic adventure that tackles three very different philosophies on how a successful society should be built. The play draws together three important figures in the history of the Middle and Near East – Tamburlaine (Jeffrey Kissoon), conqueror of the world, and two of his contemporaries, Ibn Khaldun (John Rowe), the world's first sociologist, and Hafez (Conleth Hill), the great Sufi mystic and poet.

Drama on 3. On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 23rd November 2008 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Pattern of Painful Adventures, by Stephen Wakelam.

A new play in which Antony Sher portrays William Shakespeare. Business is going well, but the playwright urgently needs a collaborator for his latest work. His daughter is getting married, while his brother has a sick child and is in need of a job. It is 1607 and Shakespeare's life is at a turning point. Produced and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

Starring: Antony Sher, Will Keen, Stephen Critchlow, Chris Pavlo, Helen Longworth, John Rowe, Robert Lonsdale, Joseph Kloska

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 30th November 2008 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:40 (1 hour and 40 minutes long)

Shakespeare's Pericles.

A romantic adventure full of tyrants, incest, murder, knights, teenagers, pirates, brothels, sublime poetry, young love, a great hero and the goddess Diana. A multicultural cast, world music and the poet Benjamin Zephaniah give this timeless tale a contemporary twist.

Director: Gaynor Macfarlane
Starring: Tom Mannion, Benjamin Zephaniah, Raad Rawi, Helen Longworth, Sean Scanlan, Dermot Crowley, Paul Dinnen, Lorcan Cranitch, Katherine Igoe, Adjoa Andoh, Peter Gevisser, Siân Phillips, Ayesha Antoine, Nick Sayce, Ifan Meredith, Delroy Brown

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 14th December 2008 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:15 to 21:30 (1 hour and 15 minutes long)

Samson Agonistes, by John Milton and adapted for radio and directed by John Tydeman. A new production of Milton's dramatic poem, originally published in 1671, as part of Radio 3's celebrations of the 400th anniversary of the poet's birth. Written in the form of a Greek tragedy, with the chorus commenting on the action, the play follows the biblical story of the blind Samson wreaking his revenge on the Philistines who have imprisoned him. Directed by John Tydeman.

Starring: Iain Glen, David de Keyser, Samantha Bond, Philip Madoc, Matthew Morgan, Michael Maloney.

Samson ...... Iain Glen
Manoa ...... David de Keyser
Dalila ...... Samantha Bond
Harapha ...... Philip Madoc
Public Officer ...... Matthew Morgan
Messenger ...... Michael Maloney
Chorus 1 ...... Tim Bentinck
Chorus 2 ...... Simon Treves
Chorus 3 ...... Sean Barrett

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 21st December 2008 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

The Cherry Orchard.

Written by Anton Chekhov and translated by Sasha Dugdale. A new production of Chekhov's timeless study of a Russian aristocratic family forced to sell their house and beloved cherry orchard during the great social transitions of the 19th century. Music composed and performed by Olga Thomas-Bosovskaya.

Director: Peter Kavanagh
Starring: Sarah Miles, Nicholas le Prevost, Anne-Marie Duff, Susannah Fielding, Gunnar Cauthery, Roger Hammond

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 28th December 2008 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:20 (1 hour and 20 minutes long)

Beyond Words, by Maurice Maeterlinck and adapted by Katie Hims.

Dr Patrick McGuinness introduces three short plays by a key figure in late 19th-century symbolist theatre. The Intruder: A family keep vigil together when one of their number is ill, but only the blind grandfather seems to see what is really happening. The Seven Princesses: The king and queen of an unnamed land wait on the terrace of a castle high above the sea for the return of their grandson. Interior: Two men, sent ahead to warn a family that their daughter has drowned, are stopped in their tracks by the sight of her household at peace through a window.

Directors: Jessica Dromgoole, Marc Beeby
Starring: John Rowe, Liz Watts, Paul Rider, Trystan Gravelle, Sheila Reid, Manjeet Mann

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 11th January 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Home, by David Storey.

First staged in 1970, the play was a major critical success. A poignant, often darkly funny play which looks at the lives of five people. But who are they and where are they? Adapted for radio and directed by Martin Jenkins.

Starring: Michael Maloney, Adrian Scarborough, Julia McKenzie, Lindsey Coulson, Harry Myers

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 1st February 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:50 (1 hour and 50 minutes long)

Rattigan: The Deep Blue Sea.

A new adaptation of Terence Rattigan's celebrated play. It is post-war Britain around 1950 and Hester Collyer has left her husband, an eminent judge, to be with an ex-RAF pilot with no prospects. The passion she feels for this younger man is not returned by him, and the play opens as Hester, in a state of despair, has attempted suicide.

Director: David Timson
Starring: Auriol Smith, Joseph Kloska, Joannah Tinsey, Carolyn Pickles, Hugh Ross, Anton Lesser

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 29th March 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Gogol: The Government Inspector, By Nikolai Gogol.

Translated by Alistair Beaton. A landmark 19th-century satire on corruption and sleaze in which a penniless clerk is mistaken for a government official by a corrupt town council. With Toby Jones, Paul Ritter, Jeremy Swift, Frances Barber, Russell Tovey, Daisy Haggard, Sean Foley, Mark Heap, Paul Rider, Caroline Guthrie, Janice Acquah, Jonathan Tafler, Benjamin Askew, Matt Addis, Stephen Hogan, Stephen Critchlow, Malcolm Tierney and Lizzie Watts.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 12th April 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

A Small Family Business.

Martin Jarvis directs a starry cast in Alan Ayckbourn's award-winning play from 1987, viewed by many as a protest against the policies of the Thatcher governmnent. When Jake McCraken takes over his family's furniture business, he intends that it be an honest endeavour. However, his relatives' various dishonest actions soon come to light and threaten the company's future. With Alfred Molina, Adam Godley, Rosalind Ayres, Joanne Whalley, Kenneth Danziger, Roy Dotrice, Millicent Martin, Jill Gascoine, Julian Sands, Darren Richardson, Moira Quirk, Fuschia Sumner and Matthew Wolf. Consultant: Alan Ayckbourn.

Director: Martin Jarvis.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 19th April 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 18:00 to 20:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Henry VIII.

A rare chance to hear William Shakespeare and John Fletcher's history play depicting the life of Henry VIII, broadcast to mark the 500th anniversary in 2009 of the king's accession to the throne. It tells the story of the king's struggle to have his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled and the fall of the all-powerful Cardinal Wolsey. With Matthew Marsh, Yolanda Vazquez, Patrick Malahide, Joseph Mydell, Adam Godley, Stuart McQuarrie, Ann Beach, Donnla Hughes, Paul Rider, Chris Pavlo, Stephen Critchlow, Gunnar Cauthery, Jonathan Tafler, Dan Starkey and Sonny Crowe. Other parts played by Jill Cardo, Robert Lonsdale, Manjeet Mann, Inam Mirza, Malcolm Tierney. Pipe and tabor played by Bill Tuck. Adapted for radio and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

Sunday 10th May 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:30 (2 hours and 30 minutes long)

A Midsummer Night's Dream, By William Shakespeare.

A rare chance to hear Shakespeare's play and Mendelssohn's complete incidental music for it in its intended context, specially recorded in the Tudor setting of the Middle Temple Hall in London. Tim Carroll introduces his production in conversation with Louise Fryer. With Martin Turner, Melanie Jessop, Alex Hassell, Daniel Rigby, Catherine Bailey, James Garnon, John Paul Connolly, Elena Pavli, Ladies' Choir of the Enlightenment, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Charles Hazlewood.

Director: Tim Carroll

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 7th June 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:40 (1 hour and 40 minutes long)

Hyde Park-On-Hudson.

A play by Richard Nelson, blending history and conjecture. No reigning British monarch had ever been to the United States before George VI's visit in 1939, just on the cusp of a new world war. History was in the making when the King and Queen arrived at President Roosevelt's upstate New York home, with a promise of politics, a picnic and hot dogs. But the private life of the President provided a whole new dimension to an epochal moment, at least in the memory of his lover. With Barbara Jefford, Emma Fielding, Tim Pigott-Smith, Nancy Crane, Julia Swift, Sylvia Syms, John Chancer, Corin Redgrave, Kika Markham and Jamie Newall.

Director: Ned Chaillet

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 14th June 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Gambler, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and adapted by Glyn Maxwell: A comic drama based on Dostoevsky's experiences as a young man, is a portrayal of the power of love and money. Glyn Maxwell's new version takes us deep into the mind of Alexei Ivanovich, a young tutor, just as he realises he's falling in love with the strikingly beautiful but unobtainable Polina. With Sam Crane, Nicholas Le Prevost, Patricia Routledge, Siobhan Hewlett, David Westhead, Robert Portal and Charlotte Randall. Directed by Guy Retallack.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 5th July 2009 (starting tomorrow evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:45 (1 hour and 45 minutes long)

Tartuffe.

A Liverpool Playhouse production of Roger McGough's version of Moliere's comedy. The wealthy merchant Orgon has taken in an apparently indigent religious man, Tartuffe. He is a beacon of piety and soon has his feet firmly under the table. But all is not as it seems and as Orgon becomes more enraptured with his new companion the whole city is chattering. Is he a friend, a fraud, a miracle or a hypocrite? With John Ramm, Joseph Alessi, Simon Coates, Rebecca Lacey, Eithne Brown, Annabelle Dowler, Emily Pithon, Robert Hastie, Kevin Harvey, Alan Stocks and Roger McGough. Directed by Gemma Bodinetz.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 12th July 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

An adaptation by Michael Symmons of Alfred Lord Tennyson's The Idylls of the King, narrated by Tim Pigott-Smith and broadcast to mark the bicentenary of the poet's birth. In this extraordinary epic poem, Tennyson transforms Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, infusing the legend of King Arthur with a passionate intensity. Told here in five acts, the central arc of the narrative encompasses Arthur's arrival, his relationship with Lancelot and Guinevere, the Holy Grail, the last tournament and his death. With Tim Pigott-Smith (narrator/Tennyson), John Keeble (Arthur), Simon Harrison (Lancelot) and Kathryn Hunt (Guinevere). Music by Paul Carghill.

Director: Susan Roberts

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 13th September 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

Edward The Second, By Christopher Marlowe.

A notorious portrait of a weak king in thrall to his passions, who pays the ultimate price for choosing his heart over his political responsibilities. With Toby Jones, Patrick Kennedy, Paul Hilton, Anastasia Hille, Nigel Hastings, David Hargreaves, Benjamin Askew, Stephen Hogan, Ryan Watson, Paul Rider, Malcolm Tierney, Philip Fox and Lizzy Watts.

Director: Jessica Dromgoole

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 20th September 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Slaughterhouse 5, By Kurt Vonnegut.

Dave Sheasby's adaptation of arguably one of the greatest anti-war novels of all time. The story centres on Billy Pilgrim, who hops back and forth in time, reliving various moments in his real and fantasy lives, as a prisoner of war, optometrist and time traveller. With John Guerassio, Andrew Scott, Nathan Osgood, Joanne McQuinn, Annabelle Dowler, Sarah Goldberg, Madeleine Potter, Simon Lee Philips, Liza Ross, Kerry Shale, Stephen Hogan, Peter Marinker, Michael Mears, Philip Fox, Gunnar Cauthery, Orlando James and Michael Shelford. Music by 65 Days of Static.

Director: David Hunter

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 27th September 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Twyborn Affair, By Patrick White.

The first-ever adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner's Patrick White's provocative and mysterious novel about sexual identity. With Julian Rhind-Tutt, Penny Downie, Hattie Morahan, Philip Quast, Leigh Funnelle, John Rowe, David Henry, Manon Edwards, Piers Wehner, Emerald O'Hanrahan and Joseph Cohen-Cole. Dramatised by DJ Britton.

Director: Alison Hindell

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 11th October 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Researches of Herodotus.

Celebrated writer Tom Holland's new adaptation of his own translation of Herodotus' Histories - one of the most important books in literature and history writing. It is an extraordinary account by an Ancient Greek of how his country and people came into being through their encounters with other people. With Anton Lesser as Herodotus, plus a supporting cast including Richard Bremmer, Stephen Noonan, Owen Teale, Adam Levy and Pippa Heywood.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 18th October 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 23:00 (3 hours long)

The Threepenny Opera.

A production from BBC Radio Drama and the BBC Philharmonic of Brecht and Weill's famous 1928 play with music. With Joseph Millson, Elen Rhys, Ruth Alexander-Rubin, Zubin Varla, Rosalie Craig, Ute Gfrerer, Conrad Nelson, Kevin Harvey, Sean Oliver, Declan Wilson, Peter Edbrook, Graeme Hawley, HK Gruber, Olwen May and the voices of the Manchester Chamber Choir. Music by the BBC Philharmonic/HK Gruber. A BBC Radio Drama North and BBC Philharmonic co-production.

Director: Nadia Molinari

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 1st November 2009 (starting tomorrow evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:50 (1 hour and 50 minutes long)

The Lady from the Sea: A new version of Ibsen's late drama, adapted for radio by Frank McGuinness. Before her marriage to Dr Wangel, Ellida, his second wife, had promised herself to a sailor who then disappeared. Years later, Ellida's family life is strained. Her relations with her step-daughters is poor; she has no child of her own. She seems unhappy with her life. Then the sailor reappears to make his claim on her promise. Faced with the decision of what to do, she persuades her husband that she must have the chance to make her choice. With Lia Williams, Hugh Bonneville, Katherine Parkinson, Ellie Kendrick, Tim McMullan, Sam Crane, Geoffrey Whitehead and Christopher Obi. Directed by Hannah Eidinow.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 22nd November 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 23:45 (3 hours and 15 minutes long)

Don Quixote, By Thomas D'urfey.

Don Taylor's radio adaptation of a play based on Cervantes's classic picaresque novel, commissioned to mark the 300th anniversary of Henry Purcell's death in 1995. The play, with music by Purcell, Eccles and others, was first performed in 1694. Paul Scofield (Don Quixote), Roy Hudd (Sancho Panza), Roger Allam (Thomas Betterton), Douglas Hodge (Henry Purcell), Bill Wallis (Thomas Durfey), Emma Kirkby, soprano (Milkmaid), Evelyn Tubb, soprano (Marcella), David Thomas, bass (Cardenio), Doug Wootton, baritone (Gines), Peter Woodward (Ambrosio), Peter Czajkowski (Carrasco), Sam Dastor (Duke), Michael Tudor Barnes (The Host), Kristin Milward (The Hostess). Other parts played by Derek Waring, Ian Masters and Jilly Bond, with Lucy Skeaping (soprano), the Consort of Musicke, the City Waites and the Purcell Simfony. Additional music by Blaise Compton. Musical director: Anthony Rooley.

Director: Don Taylor

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 29th November 2009 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

The Changeling, By Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.

A new radio production of the Jacobean classic of murder, lust, madness and mayhem, set in Alicante, Spain, in the 1920s. Beatrice-Joanna is due to marry Alonzo e Piracquo, until she falls in love with Alsemero, and seeks the help of her father's man, De Flores. With Anna Madeley, Zubin Varla, Nicky Henson, Alex Hassell, Alex Blake, Simon Muller, Nigel Hastings, Liz Richardson, Catherine Bailey, Philip Fox, Stephen Hogan, Piers Wehner, Joseph Cohen-Cole and Rhys Jennings. Directed and adapted for radio by Jeremy Mortimer.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 3rd January 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Synge - 100 Years On.

New productions of two of Irish playwright JM Synge's pivotal short plays. The Tinker's Wedding is a light comedy about the country people of Wicklow while Riders to the Sea is often described as the definitive Irish tragedy. They are presented alongside a documentary recorded on location in Galway and the Aran Islands. The Tinker's Wedding. With Denise Gough, Stephen Hogan, Brid Brennan and John Rogan. 8.50 Riders to the Sea. With Brid Brennan, Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Denise Gough, Nick Lee, John Rogan, Stephen Hogan and Caroline Guthrie. With contributions from Thomas Conway, James Harrold, Dara O Conaola, Lasairfhiona Ni Chonaola, Maire Mulkerrin, Dolores Lyne and Sean O Coistealbha. Produced and directed by Steven Canny.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 10th January 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

Fences, By August Wilson.

Danny Sapani stars in this Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play exploring race relations in America. It is 1957 and once-famous baseball player Troy Maxson now works as a rubbish collector. The 1950s are yielding to the spirit of liberation of the 1960s. The civil rights movement is kicking in but Troy can't see it. With Danny Sapani, Adjoa Andoh, Jude Akuwudike, Alex Lanipekun, Daniel Anthony, Lily Andoh-Cunnell and Ray Shell.

Director: Claire Grove

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 24th January 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

The Cherry Orchard.

Written by Anton Chekhov and translated by Sasha Dugdale. A new production of Chekhov's timeless study of a Russian aristocratic family forced to sell their house and beloved cherry orchard during the great social transitions of the 19th century. With Sarah Miles, Nicholas le Prevost, Anne-Marie Duff, Susannah Fielding, Gunnar Cauthery, Roger Hammond, Matthew Marsh, Malcolm Tierney, Jill Cardo, Stephen Critchlow, Inam Mirza and Hannah Nicholson. Music composed and performed by Olga Thomas-Bosovskaya.

Director: Peter Kavanagh

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 28th February 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

La princesse de Cleves, by Madame de la Fayette: A classic tale of intrigue and love, translated and freely dramatised by Jo Clifford. Set in the 16th century, the play follows the life of a beautiful young lady newly presented to Court, who is caught in a painful conflict between duty and love. With Melody Grove, Candida Benson, Liam Brennan, Robin Laing, Laurie Brown, Meg Fraser, Irene MacDougall, Ralph Riach and Crawford Logan. Directed by Kirsty Williams.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 21st March 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw.

It is 1885 and there is trouble in the Balkans. The Serbians and the Bulgarians are at war. Raina Petkoff is convinced her fiance, Major Sergius Saranoff, will glorify himself in the war and become her hero - but after a dramatic encounter with a down-to-earth Serbian officer who hides in her room, she is brought face to face with the mundane truth about the conflict rather than its glories. With Rory Kinnear, Lydia Leonard, Tom Mison, Hugh Ross, Frances Jeater, Glen McCready, Jo Herbert and Roger May.

Director: David Timson

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 4th April 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand and translated from the French original by Anthony Burgess. Set in 17th century France, Rostand's play features the eponymous poet-swordsman with a mis-shapen nose who falls in love with the beautiful Roxane. She loves the dashing Gascon soldier Christian de Neuvillette and Cyrano finds himself writing love poems on his behalf. With Kenneth Branagh, Jodhi May, John Shrapnel, Tom Hiddleston, Jimmy Yuill, Stephen Critchlow, Hugh Dickson, Gerard Horan, John McAndrew, Steve Hodson, Frances Jeater, Susan Jamieson, Joannah Tincey, Oliver le Sueur.

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 18th April 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:35 (1 hour and 35 minutes long)

The Leopard, by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Adapted for radio by Michael Hastings. Don Fabrizio, a member of the old Italian aristocracy, contemplates his obsolescence amidst the great social changes during the Risorgimento of the 19th century. The head of an opulent household in Sicily, he reflects nostalgically on the past as his family grows to maturity and Garibaldi's republican movement puts an end to the feudal system and the traditions of the old bourgeoisie. With Stanley Townsend, Julie Legrand, Claire Price, Hayley Atwell, Joseph Alessi, James Hayes, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony O'Donnell, Harry McEntire, Claire Nielson.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 9th May 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

The Government Inspector, By Nikolai Gogol.

Translated by Alistair Beaton. A landmark 19th-century satire on corruption and sleaze in which a penniless clerk is mistaken for a government official by a corrupt town council. With Toby Jones, Paul Ritter, Jeremy Swift, Frances Barber, Russell Tovey, Daisy Haggard, Sean Foley, Mark Heap, Paul Rider, Caroline Guthrie, Janice Acquah, Jonathan Tafler, Benjamin Askew, Matt Addis, Stephen Hogan, Stephen Critchlow, Malcolm Tierney and Lizzie Watts.

Sunday 16th May 2010 (starting in 2 days)
Time: 20:00 to 20:30 (30 minutes long)

Krapp's Last Tape, by Samuel Beckett.

A production of the classic stage play, broadcast as a tribute to actor Corin Redgrave, who died last month. On his 69th birthday, Krapp sits down to record a tape as he has done every year. With Corin Redgrave.
(Repeat)

Directors: Polly Thomas, Carrie Rooney

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 27th June 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 23:00 (3 hours long)

Antony and Cleopatra.

Frances Barber and David Harewood star in Shakespeare's last great tragedy, the story of the love between Roman triumvir Antony and Egyptian queen Cleopatra set against a backdrop of the struggle for control of the Roman Empire. With Roger Allam as Antony's trusted friend Enobarbus, Colin Tierney and Ewan Hooper as Antony's fellow triumvirs Octavius Caesar and Lepidus, Garry Cooper as Pompey, and Amanda Root as Caesar's sister Octavia.

Directors: Mary Peate, Sylvia Hallett

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 19th September 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 18:45 to 23:00 (4 hours and 15 minutes long)

Goethe's Faust, one of the pillars of Western literature, is presented in a dramatisation by David Timson.

By Johann Wolfgang Goethe, translated by John R. Williams, with Samuel West as Faust, Toby Jones as Mephistopheles, Anna Maxwell Martin as Gretchen and Derek Jacobi as The Lord. Adapted and directed by David Timson, with music composed by Roger Marsh.

Goethe's Faust, one of the pillars of Western literature, is presented in a dramatisation by David Timson. In Part 1, following an agreement between Mephistopheles and The Lord, the scholar Faust is tempted into a contract with the Devil. His life is changed and he plunges into the enjoyment of sensuality until his emotions are stirred by a meeting with Gretchen, leading to a tragic outcome. Part 2, written much later in Goethe's life, presents a series of episodic scenes in which the poet places his eponymous hero in a variety of surprising circumstances reflecting the predicament of humanity. Funny, reflective and moving, this dramatisation shows why Goethe's Faust had such a massive influence on Western culture.

Faust ..... Samuel West
Mephistopheles ..... Toby Jones
Gretchen ..... Anna Maxwell Martin
The Lord ..... Derek Jacobi
Wagner (Faust's assistant) ..... Stephen Critchlow
Martha ..... Joannah Tincey
Valentin (Gretchen's brother) ..... Peter Kenny
Helen ..... Emily Raymond
The Emperor ..... Gunnar Cauthery
The Earth Spirit and Thales ..... Sean Barrett
Lord Chancellor and Anaxagoras ..... Hugh Dickson
Homunculus ..... Anne-Marie Piazza
Nereus ..... Gerard Horan
Chiron and Proteus ..... Gunnar Cauthery
Manto and Panthalis ..... Auriol Smith
Lynceus ..... Peter Kenny
Care ..... Emily Raymond
Euphorion ..... Daniel Mair

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 26th September 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Yerma, by Federico Garcia Lorca.

The tragic tale of a woman's desperate yearning for a child that leads her to murder. A translation by Michael Dewell and Carmen Zapata of one of Lorca's best-known plays, infused with poetic imagery and song. With Emma Cunniffe, Conrad Nelson, Declan Wilson, Rebecca Callard, Annette Badland, Clare Benedict, Kate Layden, Debbie McAndrew, Fionnuala Dorrity, Liz Carter, Helen Longworth, Kevin Harvey and Anna Castineiras.

Director: Pauline Harris

Sunday 3rd October 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Hairy Ape, By Eugene O'neill.

A classic American expressionist drama from 1921. It tells the tragic tale of Yank, a stoker whose whole world is turned upside down when a young heiress ventures into the engine room of a transatlantic ocean liner. Starring Dominic West, Shaun Dingwall, Jim Norton, Sasha Pick, Annabelle Dowler and John Guerrasio. Other parts played by John Kay Steel, Joe Montana, Matt Addis, David Hargreaves, Stephen Hogan, Benjamin Askew and Philip Fox.
(Repeat)

Director: Toby Swift

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 14th November 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Twyborn Affair, By Patrick White.

The first-ever adaptation of Nobel Prize-winner's Patrick White's provocative and mysterious novel about sexual identity. With Julian Rhind-Tutt, Penny Downie, Hattie Morahan, Philip Quast, Leigh Funnelle, John Rowe, David Henry, Manon Edwards, Piers Wehner, Emerald O'Hanrahan and Joseph Cohen-Cole. Dramatised by DJ Britton.

Director: Alison Hindell

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 19th December 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Royal Game.

Yolanda Pupo-Thompson's adaptation of Viennese writer Stefan Zweig's famous novella about chess madness, Schachnovelle. It tells the story of Dr Berg, a well-to-do German banker who is interrogated by the Gestapo who want to find out where influential members of the clergy and aristocrats have hidden their money. They hold him in a deserted hotel in solitary confinement in order to break him down, but he steals a book of chess puzzles from a guard and this keeps his mind active. Unfortunately after learning to play games in his head Dr. Berg goes mad. With Paul Rhys, Rupert Young, Kevin Trainor, Allan Corduner, Hamish Clark, Sandy Grierson and Madeleine Brolly. Music is from Carl Orff's Schulwerk.

Director: Matt Thompson

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 26th December 2010 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

The Marriage of Figaro.

A rare chance to hear Beaumarchais' original play, on which Mozart's opera was based. Bristling with social and political conflict, it was considered too dangerous to be allowed to be performed in its own time. With Rupert Degas, Nicholas Rowe, Joannah Tincey, Clare Wille, Sean Barrett, Frances Jeater, Hugh Dickson, Stephen Thorne, Anton Lesser, Gina Bramhill and Charlie Morton. Adapted and directed for Radio 3 by David Timson.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 2nd January 2011 (starting this afternoon)
Time: 17:45 to 20:00 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Amadeus.

For Radio 3's Genius of Mozart season, another chance to hear Peter Hall's 1983 version of the Peter Shaffer's award-winning play, recorded with the original National Theatre cast. Combining fiction and history, the work details the final years of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose tragic downfall is plotted by Antonio Salieri, an older composer, wracked with jealousy. With Paul Scofield, Simon Callow, Felicity Kendall, John Normington, Nicholas Selby, Willoughby Goddard, Basil Henson, Donald Gee, Dermot Crawley, Nigel Bellairs, Susan Gilmore, Peggy Marshall, Robin Meredith, Anne Sedgwick, William Sleigh and Glenn Williams.
(Repeat)

Director: Peter Hall

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 16th January 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Charles and Mary.

Carlo Gebler's new play written specially for Radio 3 dramatises the extraordinary relationship between Charles and Mary Lamb, the brother and sister who in 1807 wrote The Tales Of Shakespeare, the seminal children's introduction to Shakespeare, which is still in print today. The domestic and personal circumstances behind their partnership were tragic - the combination of family poverty and stress drove Mary insane and she murdered her mother. Mary was never 'sane' again but during the writing of The Tales alongside her brother she was at her sanest. Literary production gave order and structure to her life. With Lia Williams, Paul Rhys, Anna Carteret, Dudley Sutton, Mark Bazeley, Marcella Riordan, Christine Kavanagh and Sam Dale. Directed by Roland Jacquarello.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 13th February 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Danton's Death.

Simon Scardifield's adaptation of Georg Buchner's radical retelling of the fall-out from the French Revolution, launching Radio 3's week-long Focus on Buchner. It's 1794, and charismatic hedonist Georges Danton, still tormented by his role in the killing of 1400 aristocrats in a single night, is losing his grip on power. Can he care enough to fight the terror that he himself set in motion? With Joseph Millson, Khalid Abdalla, Patrick Kennedy, Claire Harry, Laurence Mitchell, Adeel Akhtar, Sean Baker, David Seddon, Lloyd Thomas, Leah Brotherhead and Iain Batchelor.

Director: Jessica Dromgoole

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 27th February 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:45 (1 hour and 45 minutes long)

Euripides: Helen.

Don Taylor's translation of the savage tragicomedy by Euripides about a war in the Middle East fought for the flimsiest of reasons. The Trojan War is over and the Greek forces are making their way home. Meanwhile, in Egypt, Helen of Troy is protesting to anyone who will listen that she is innocent, that she never went to Troy, and the whole war was fought under false pretences. When her husband Menelaus is shipwrecked on the shore where Helen has been taking sanctuary, she not only has a lot of explaining to do, but also an escape to plan. With Frances Barber, James Purefoy, Paul Ritter, Anna Francolini, Catherine Russell, Laura Rees, Gus Brown, Richard Galazka and Max Digby. Music composed and performed by Derek Bourgeois. Adapted and.

Director: Ellen Dryden

Sunday 6th March 2011 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 20:00 to 22:15 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Spring Storm, by Tennessee Williams.

A radio adaptation of the Royal and Derngate, Northampton production, broadcast to mark the centenary of the playwright's birth. Heavenly Critchfield has almost everything a young woman could desire, but when she's forced to decide between respectable suitor Arthur and handsome, wild lover Dick, her actions cause a chain of consequences that tear their lives apart. With Liz White, Michael Malarkey, Michael Thomson, Anna Tolputt, Jacqueline King, Joanna Bacon, Janice McKenzie, Gavin Harrison, James Jordan, Steven France and Ailish Symons. Music by Jon Nicholls. Directed by Laurie Sansom.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 27th March 2011 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Wuthering Heights.

A new adaptation by Jonathan Holloway of Emily Bronte's great novel of violent obsession. With Carl Prekopp, Natalie Press, Janine Duvitski, Samuel Barnett, David Birrell, Hayley Doherty and Russell Boulter.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 27th March 2011 (starting in 1 day)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Wuthering Heights.

A new adaptation by Jonathan Holloway of Emily Bronte's great novel of violent obsession. With Carl Prekopp, Natalie Press, Janine Duvitski, Samuel Barnett, David Birrell, Hayley Doherty and Russell Boulter.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 8th May 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

La princesse de Cleves, by Madame de la Fayette: A classic tale of intrigue and love, translated and freely dramatised by Jo Clifford. Set in the 16th century, the play follows the life of a beautiful young lady newly presented to Court, who is caught in a painful conflict between duty and love. With Melody Grove, Candida Benson, Liam Brennan, Robin Laing, Laurie Brown, Meg Fraser, Irene MacDougall, Ralph Riach and Crawford Logan. Directed by Kirsty Williams.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 22nd May 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Giovanni's Room.

James Baldwin's classic novel in its world premiere radio production, set in Paris in 1954. When handsome blond American David meets the stunning Giovanni in a bohemian Parisian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But David's fiance Hella returns to Paris and, unable to admit the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened, with calamitous results for all three, especially for Giovanni, whose life descends into murderous tragedy. Dramatised for radio and directed by theatre director Neil Bartlett. With Damian Lewis, John Lithgow, Greta Scacchi, Derek Jacobi, Michael Feast, Antonio Magro.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 29th May 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Dreams and Censorship.

Robert Stephens stars in David Pownall's play, originally broadcast in 1993, centring on Shakespeare's features about the King James Bible. It is 1610, and the translation of James I's new bible is at last complete. However, assured by Shakespeare, that to allow the inclusion of the Dream of St John will lead to bloody revolution, James travels to Oxford, determined to excise it from the sacred text. With Edward Petherbridge, Gary King, David Learner, Eric Allan, Robert Stephens, John Church, Hugh Ross, Melanie Hudson, Robert Mcintosh, Michael Tudor Barnes, Peter Penry-Jones, Hugh Dickson, Garard Green, John Webb and Siriol Jenkins.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 5th June 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:40 (1 hour and 40 minutes long)

Flare Path.

Written in 1941 and first staged in 1942, Terence Rattigan's play draws on his experiences as a tail gunner in the RAF Coastal Command. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during the Second World War, the story involves a love triangle between a pilot, his actress wife and a famous film star. The title refers to the flares that were used to light runways to allow planes to take off and land, though these paths were also used by the Germans to target the RAF planes. With Rupert Penry Jones, Ruth Wilson, Rory Kinnear, Monica Dolan, Una Stubbs, Tom Goodman-Hill, Justin Salinger, Julian Wadham, David Hartley and Kelly Shirley. Directed by Jeremy Herrin.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 3rd July 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 21:45 (1 hour and 45 minutes long)

Widowers' Houses.

Martin Jarvis directs a cast including Ian McKellen, Charles Dance and Tim Piggot-Smith in Bernard Shaw's first play, which examines the financial corruption of slum landlords. The play is broadcast as part of Radio 3's Money Talks series. Also with Dan Stevens, Honeysuckle Weeks, Siobhan Hughes and Jon Glover. Music composed by Mark Holden and Michael Lopez.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 11th September 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:00 to 22:00 (2 hours long)

A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare.

An adaptation of the comedy play centring on the adventures of four young lovers, a group of amateur actors and their interactions with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest, recorded on location in 22 acres of Sussex woodland. With Lesley Sharp, Toby Stephens, Robert Pugh, Roger Allam, Freddie Fox, Nicholas Farrell, Emma Fielding, Joseph Timms, Ferdinand Kingsley, Emerald O'Hanrahan, Anna Madeley, David Collings, Nicholas Boulton, Sara Markland, Sam Alexander, Sam Dale, Jessiga Sian, Jay Carter, Tressa Brooks and Stuart Walker. Music by Stephanie Nunn. Director.

Director: Celia de Wolff.

Radio 3’s Conviction drama series continues on Sunday October 9 with an accomplished new production of George Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan.

The story – which follows Joan of Arc as she raises an army, leads a successful campaign against the English and is ultimately betrayed and burned at the stake – will be familiar to most.

But Shaw’s portrayal of the heroine’s character is more subtle and patterned than anything you’ll find in a history textbook.
Lyndsey Marshal is excellent in the lead, conveying a brittle and difficult figure driven by her absolute conviction that she’s on a mission from God.

Paul Ritter and Sean Baker are the misguided Chaplain and Inquisitor who send her to her death.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 16th October 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 21:30 to 23:30 (2 hours long)

Brand, by Henrik Ibsen.

As part of Radio 3's Conviction series, a performance of Ibsen's play about a religious zealot who refuses all compromise. Faced with the possible death of his beloved wife and child, will he persist with his absolutism? With Gerard Murphy, Morven Christie, Jeremy Swift, Ann Mitchell, Carl Prekopp, Alex Tregear, Alan Cox, Mark Tandy, James Lailey, Susie Riddell, Elaine Claxton, Reg Stewart, Gerard McDermott and Simon Bubb.

Director: Peter Kavanagh

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 4th December 2011 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:40 (2 hours and 10 minutes long)

The Plough and the Stars.

Sean O'Casey's classic play, set in the midst of the Easter Rising of 1916. The impact of events is viewed through the eyes of ordinary people inhabiting a Dublin tenement. It is the second in a three-part series of classic plays chosen by playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah, who also introduces this new production. With Elaine Cassidy, Padraic Delaney, Gabrielle Reidy, Finbar Lynch, Stephen Hogan, Jonathan Forbes, Fiona Clarke, Rebecca Gleeson, Jane McGrath, Matthew McNulty and Sam Smith. Musical director: Conrad Nelson.

Director: Nadia Molinari.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 26th February 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:00 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Woyzeck, by Georg Buchner.

Gregory Motton's translation of the seminal 19th-century expressionist play, based on a real-life murder case. Franz Woyzeck, a lowly soldier stationed in a provincial German town, earns extra money for his family by performing menial jobs for his captain and agreeing to take part in medical experiments. But then an act of betrayal shatters his brittle life. With Lee Ingleby, Deborah McAndrew, Derek Riddell, Gerard Fletcher, Becky Hindley, Rob Pickavance, Jonathan Keeble and Perveen Hamilton. Original music by Tom Lingard.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 15th April 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:00 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Largo Desolato, by Vaclav Havel.

Theatre critic Michael Billington introduces a classic play from the archives by Czech playwright and President, Vaclav Havel, to mark Havel's death in December last year. Richard Briers stars as Leopold, a philosopher who has offended the authorities in an unnamed country. He has written a certain philosophical essay and anxiously each day awaits the knock on the door. His friends, of course, expect him to act like a hero. With Paul Gregory, Jennifer Piercey, Philip Jackson, David Goodland, Belinda Lang, John Moffatt, Anthony Jackson, Ian Thompson and Sue Broomfield.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 22nd April 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:30 (2 hours long)

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare.

A comedy of misrule and a trenchant attack on puritanism as disguise and deceit leads to misadventure, madness and mistaken love. Part of the Shakespeare Unlocked season. With Naomi Frederick, Trystan Gravelle, Gerard McDermott, Paul Ready, Harry Livingstone, Rosie Cavaliero, Ron Cook, Adam James, Vanessa Kirby, James Lailey, David Tennant, Don Gilet and Peter Hamilton Dyer.

Director: Sally Avens

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 29th April 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:30 (2 hours long)

Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare.

A performance of Shakespeare's great tragedy about family feuds and love across a divide, beginning Radio 3's Shakespeare and Love season. With Trystan Gravelle, Vanessa Kirby, Rosie Cavaliero, Ron Cook, David Tennant, Paul Ready, Adam James, Carl Prekopp, Johnny Flynn, James Lailey, Naomi Frederick, Peter Hamilton Dyer, Don Gilet, Christine Absalom, Harry Livingstone, Joe Sims and Tracy Wiles.

Director: Jessica Dromgoole

This, plus other Shakespeare programmes throughout the day - see Library Thing BBC Radio 3 Listeners group for details.

DRAMA: Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 6th May 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:25 (1 hour and 55 minutes long)

Shakespeare's the Tempest.

A performance of Shakespeare's play of magic, romance and revenge, broadcast as part of the Shakespeare Unlocked season. David Warner is Prospero, with Carl Prekopp as Ariel, Rose Leslie as Miranda and Don Warrington as Gonzalo. Adapted for radio and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

Drama on 3
On: BBC Radio Three
Date: Sunday 20th May 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:10 (1 hour and 40 minutes long)

Chicken Soup with Barley: An adaptation of the Royal Court Theatre's 2011 production of Arnold Wesker's landmark play that captures the collapse of an ideology alongside the disintegration of a family. Sarah Kahn, an East End Jewish mother, is a feisty political fighter and a staunch communist. Battling against the State and her shirking husband she desperately tries to keep her family together. With Samantha Spiro, Danny Webb, Harry Peacock, Nitzan Sharron, Rene Zagger, Steve Furst, Alexis Zegerman, Jenna Augen, Tom Rosenthal and Rebecca Gethings.

Director: Simon Godwin

Sunday, June 10th, 2012 on
BBC Radio Three from 8:30pm to 10:30pm

Henceforward.

Alan Ayckbourn's darkly prophetic comedy about a composer with a creative block. What's the most important thing for composer Jerome: a great new work, or his family?. With Jared Harris, Simon Templeman, Sophie Winkleman, Rosa Calcraft, Joanne Whalley, Darren Richardson, Moira Quirk, Daisy Hydon and Matthew Wolf. Music: Mark Holden and Michael Lopez.

Sunday 8th July 2012 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:00 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

The Go-Between.

A new adaptation of L.P. Hartley's story of a boy who is betrayed by a sophisticated young rich woman and her farmer lover who use him to ferry letters back and forth in the blazing summer of 1900 - with Richard Griffiths and Harriet Walter. On re-reading the book adaptor Frances Byrnes found within it another drama perfect for radio in which an old man finds a boyhood diary and is forced to unlock the trauma inside. Re-visited by that summer for the first time since it happened, the older man (Richard Griffiths) turns detective. Leo, in his 60s, finds a locked diary in his attic: it was written in 1900, the last time he lived with any sense of possibility. Leo realises that his tidy life has been a living death and that summer was to blame. Cast: Richard Griffiths, Harriet Walter, Lydia Leonard, Joseph Arkley, Blake Ritson, Josef Lindsay and Oscar Kennedy.

Sunday, September 16th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 8:30pm to 10:30pm

Tamburlaine

Christopher Marlowe's 16th-century play about the growth to absolute power of a Scythian shepherd. A classic drama said to have changed the course of British drama and to have influenced the young Shakespeare. With Con O'Neill, Oliver Ford Davis, Kenneth Cranham, Shaun Prendergast, Ewan Bailey, Susie Riddell, Noma Dumezweni, Danny Sapani, Joseph Kloska, Edward de Souza, Don Gilet, Paul Stonehouse, Patrick Brennan, Bob Blythe, Patrice Naiambana, Stephanie Racine, Eleanor Crooks, Sarah Thom, Will Howard and Adam Nagaitis.

Sunday, September 23rd, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 8:30pm to 10:00pm

Mary Stuart

by Friedrich Schiller.

in a version by David Harrower, adapted for radio by Robin Brooks.

One of European theatre's major plays, Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart is a thrilling account of the extraordinary relationship between England's Elizabeth I and her rival cousin, the imprisoned Queen of Scots. David Harrower is one of the most attuned, most talented playwrights working in Britain today. This is the second in Drama on 3's series of classic and new plays that portray the ruthlessness and uncertainties of absolute power.

David Harrower's other plays include KNIVES IN HENS, GOOD WITH PEOPLE and the international success, BLACKBIRD. He has also translated works by Pirandello, Brecht, Chekhov and Gogol.

Mary Stuart ..... Meg Fraser
Queen Elizabeth ..... Alexandra Mathie
Mortimer ..... Matthew Pidgeon
Leicester ..... Robin Laing
Burleigh ..... Richard Greenwood
Shrewsbury ..... Paul Young
Jane Kennedy ..... Wendy Seager
Paulet ..... Jimmy Chisholm
Davidson ..... Laurie Brown
Aubespine ..... Grant O'Rourke
Melville ..... John Buick

Produced and directed by Gaynor Macfarlane

Sunday, October 7th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 8:30pm to 10:25pm

A Doll's House, by Henrik Ibsen.

Tanika Gupta's updating of Ibsen's classic play is set in India in 1879, where Nora is an Indian woman married to Torvald, an English man working for the British Colonial Administration in Calcutta. Nora risks her own reputation in order to save her husband's and in the process discovers herself. With Indira Varma, Toby Stephens, Shaheen Khan, Shiv Grewal, Rani Moorthy, Conrad Nelson, James Allen, Matthew Allen, Shahbaz Hussain and Anjum Malik.

Sunday, October 14th, 2012 on BBC Radio Three from 8:30pm to 10:10pm

Flare Path

Written in 1941 and first staged in 1942, Terence Rattigan's play draws on his experiences as a tail gunner in the RAF Coastal Command. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command airbase during the Second World War, the story involves a love triangle between a pilot, his actress wife and a famous film star. The title refers to the flares that were used to light runways to allow planes to take off and land, though these paths were also used by the Germans to target the RAF planes. With Rupert Penry Jones, Ruth Wilson, Rory Kinnear, Monica Dolan, Una Stubbs, Tom Goodman-Hill, Justin Salinger, Julian Wadham, David Hartley and Kelly Shirley. Directed by Jeremy Herrin.

Cast

Peter Kyle ..... Rupert Penry Jones
Patricia Graham ..... Ruth Wilson
Teddy Graham ..... Rory Kinnear
Doris Skriczevinsky ..... Monica Dolan
Mrs Oakes ..... Una Stubbs
Count Skriczevinsky ..... Tom Goodman-Hill
Dusty Miller ..... Justin Salinger
Swanson ..... Julian Wadham
Percy ..... David Hartley
Maudie Miller ..... Kelly Shirley.

Exec Producer: Catherine Bailey
Directed by Jeremy Herrin (Deputy Artistic Director of the Royal Court)

Sunday 6th January 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:30 (2 hours long)

Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare.

A comedy of misrule and a trenchant attack on puritanism as disguise and deceit leads to misadventure, madness and mistaken love. Part of the Shakespeare Unlocked season. With Naomi Frederick, Trystan Gravelle, Gerard McDermott, Paul Ready, Harry Livingstone, Rosie Cavaliero, Ron Cook, Adam James, Vanessa Kirby, James Lailey, David Tennant, Don Gilet and Peter Hamilton Dyer.
(Repeat)

Director: Sally Avens

Sunday 10th March 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:10 (1 hour and 40 minutes long)

The Misanthrope, by Moliere.

For Radio 3's Baroque Spring season, a new version by Roger McGough of the classic play, performed by the Everyman Playhouse and English Touring Theatre Company in front of an audience at Powis Castle. Disgusted with French society, where powdered fops gossip in code and bejewelled coquettes whisper behind fans, poet Alceste embarks on a one-man crusade against fakery, frippery and forked tongues. But could the woman he adores be the worst culprit of them all? With Neil Caple, Simon Coates, Leander Deeny, Daniel Goode, Alison Pargeter, George Potts, Zara Tempest-Walters and Harvey Virdi. Directed by Gemma Bodinetz.

Sunday 31st March 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:45 to 22:00 (2 hours and 15 minutes long)

Spring Storm, by Tennessee Williams.

A radio adaptation of the Royal and Derngate, Northampton production, broadcast to mark the centenary of the playwright's birth. Heavenly Critchfield has almost everything a young woman could desire, but when she's forced to decide between respectable suitor Arthur and handsome, wild lover Dick, her actions cause a chain of consequences that tear their lives apart. With Liz White, Michael Malarkey, Michael Thomson, Anna Tolputt, Jacqueline King, Joanna Bacon, Janice McKenzie, Gavin Harrison, James Jordan, Steven France and Ailish Symons. Music by Jon Nicholls. Directed by Laurie Sansom.

Sunday 14th April 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 19:45 to 22:35 (2 hours and 50 minutes long)

The Tragedy of King Richard III by William Shakespeare.

Douglas Henshall plays Richard Duke of Gloucester, with a cast including Ben Miles (Buckingham), Geoffrey Streatfield (Richmond), Jasmine Hyde (Lady Anne), Anastasia Hille (Queen Elizabeth), Geraldine James (Duchess of York), Barbara Jefford (Margaret), Michael Maloney (Clarence), Mark Bazeley (King Edward), Paul Bentall (Hastings) and John Rowe (Lord Stanley). Music by David Pickvance.
(Repeat)

Director: Marc Beeby

Sunday 21st April 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:25 (1 hour and 55 minutes long)

Shakespeare's The Tempest.

A performance of Shakespeare's play of magic, romance and revenge, broadcast as part of the Shakespeare Unlocked season. David Warner is Prospero, with Carl Prekopp as Ariel, Rose Leslie as Miranda and Don Warrington as Gonzalo. Adapted for radio and directed by Jeremy Mortimer.

Sunday 12th May 2013 (starting this evening)
Time: 20:30 to 22:00 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Jungle of Cities, by Bertolt Brecht.

An early play in which two men join in a deadly struggle for survival, amid Brecht's uniquely tough and poetic portrayal of Chicago, 1912.

First performed in 1923 (then revised in 1927), 'Im Dickicht der Städte' is one of Brecht's earliest plays, in which he began to move away from the influence of Expressionism towards a new style. His sources ranged from the bizarre facts of a real-life Chicago murder in 1912, to 'Une Saison en Enfer' and the relationship between Rimbaud and Verlaine, to J V Jensen's 'The Wheel' and Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle'.

He fused them all into this darkly compelling vision of the impossibility of real human contact in 'the crushing impact of cities' - Brecht's vision of the mechanistic inhumanity and poverty of the early twentieth-century city.

Brecht wrote in a programme for the play: 'An idealised fight such as can be seen in the play ... is at present only to be found in the theatre. ... Its simple basic conception is that pure sport might involve two men in a fight which transforms them and their economic circumstances to the point of unrecognisability. The passion for sport is here being classed with all the other passions already at the theatre's disposal. ... The territory used for fighting in this play is probably unfamiliar. For the territory so used consists in certain complexes of ideas which a young man like George Garga holds about the family, about marriage, or about his own honour. His opponent uses these complexes of ideas in order to damage him. Moreover, each combatant stimulates such thoughts in the other as must destroy him; he shoots burning arrows into his head.' (translation: Gerhard Nellhaus)

George Garga ..... Paul Ritter
Shlink ..... Nicholas Woodeson
The Worm ..... Kerry Shale
The Baboon ..... Richard Ridings
Maynes/Pat Manky ..... Stephen Hogan
Jane Larry ..... Tracy Wiles
Marie Garga ..... Melody Grove
John Garga ..... Nathan Osgood
Mae Garga ..... Buffy Davis
Man ..... David Seddon

Producer/Director, Jonquil Panting.

Sunday 21st June 2015 (starting this evening)
Time: 22:00 to 23:30 (1 hour and 30 minutes long)

Strindberg: The Father, by August Strindberg.

Laurie Slade's version of a notorious drama from 1890 about suspicion, adultery and the disintegration of a marriage. With Joe Dixon, Katy Stephens, Holly Earl, Patrick Toomey, Laurence Kennedy, Barbara Young and Staten Cousins-Roe. Directed by Joe Harmston.