The Edison Cylinders by Mike Walker

Posted by Michael Walker on March 28, 2013 at 11:32pm

Rhona Forrester (Clare McCarron) is about to lose her job in a sound laboratory due to economic circumstances.  In the last three months working for the company, she discovers some old cylinder recordings of Darwin and Edison that require restoration.  At the same time she is trying to fight off the attentions of an old boyfriend Liam (Jonjo O'Neill) who also happens to be her boss.  Unfortunately for Rhona, the two strands of her complicated life come together, as voices from the past begin to blight her views of present and future.

The Edison Cylinders is a sinister piece, making us aware of the power of sound recordings both to preserve the past and to cast sinister influences over the future. What might have seemed a 'normal' or 'mundane' piece in the late Victorian era assumes a different meaning in the present.  Through this sophisticated device - ideal for the medium of radio, where sounds can be integrated into a temporal continuum that subverts distinctions between past, present, and future - dramatist Mike Walker explores the contingency of historical meaning: there is no such thing as an objective 'fact' of a recording, but solely interpretations.

The production started mundanely enough as the story of a love-affair gone wrong, which Liam tries to resurrect, but soon moved into a more sinister mode, in which nothing - not least the characters' behaviour - was what it seemed.  The director was John Taylor.

Credits
Rhona Forrester  -  Clare McCarron.
Liam  -  Jonjo O'Neill.
Miles Hautigan  -  Harry Hadden-Paton.
Feveral  -  Stephen Critchlow.
Ice Cream Seller  -  Laura Hyde.
Director  -  John Taylor
Writer  -  Mike Walker

A Fiction Factory production for BBC Radio 4.

First broadcast BBC-R4: 22 March 2013.
MPEG 1.0 Layer 3 - 128 kbps mp3 – 44 khz - Joint Stereo.
Duration: 44 minutes.

 

EDISON Link

 

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Replies

  • Jamie McAllister May 3, 2013 at 9:29pm

    Thanks so much for this.  Very timely.  I just saw on the t.v. a few days ago that they recently found an original record recording of Alexander Graham Bell which spoke the words, "Can you hear me? This is Alexander Graham Bell".

  • Jim Robarts April 23, 2013 at 5:41pm

    Thank You for the program.

  • codepop March 31, 2013 at 10:20am

    Thank you

  • Lesa Williams March 29, 2013 at 9:00pm

    What a unique plot !  Can't wait to get my ears around this one...Thanks !

  • Thomas Kelley March 29, 2013 at 1:06pm

    I agree with Steve,sounds very interesting and original. Thanks!

    Thomas

  • Steve Kostelecky March 29, 2013 at 12:14am

    This sounds fascinating. Many thanks, Michael.

This reply was deleted.