Posted by
Riklaa on July 18, 2009 at 7:54pm
The Gambler (Drama On 3)
A comic drama based on Dostoevsky's experiences as a young man, is a portrayal of the power of love and money.
Written by Fyodor Dostoevsky and adapted by Glyn Maxwell.
Patricia Routledge, Nicholas le Prevost, Sam Crane and Siobhan Hewlett star.
Broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Sunday 14 June 2009, 20:00-21:30
128/44; 82 MB; sound quality excellent
In 1866, Fyodor Dostoevsky was in serious debt, addicted to roulette and rejected by several women, he spun these sad materials into The Gambler, a brilliant tragicomic novella written in a feverish few weeks to stave off ruin.
Set in Roulettenburg, a fictional spa town in the Alps, the story tells how Alexei Ivanovich, servant to a bankrupt family, falls madly in love, twice - first with the lovely unobtainable Polina, then with the forbidden thrill of the casino. As Polina demands ever more slavish and reckless obedience from him, Alexei finds liberation in his enslavement and their relationship starts to mutate into something altogether richer and stranger.
Meanwhile, a cast of villains and victims - Polina's weak, infatuated uncle, "the General", the pretty young gold-digger he falls for and a scheming French aristocrat with designs on Polina - wait to inherit millions from her dying granny, until the old lady herself bursts in, foul-mouthed, furious and up for a good time. Fortunes will rise and fall, love will be won and lost and hopes and dreams go up in flames, before the roulette-wheel comes to a final stop and the little silver ball makes its choice.
Patricia Routledge stars as literature's most outrageous granny (Dame Edith Evans played the part on BBC TV in 1968); Sam Crane takes on the role of the lonely obsessive Alexei; Siobhan Hewlett plays the scornful Polina; and Nicholas le Prevost plays the luckless General.
Contemporary poet Glyn Maxwell (The Nerve, The Sugar Mile, Hide Now) recreates the madness and mayhem of a world enthralled by chance, sex and money, a world without values or foundations, spinning out of control.
The Gambler is Maxwell's third collaboration with director Guy Retallack, following on from the The Lifeblood (British Theatre Guide's Best Play at Edinburgh Fringe 2004, which transferred to Riverside Studios in 2005) and Liberty (Shakespeare's Globe/UK Tour 2008).
Alexei Ivanovich ...... Sam Crane
General Zagorski ...... Nicholas Le Prevost
Granny ...... Patricia Routledge
Polina Alexandrovna ...... Siobhan Hewlett
De Grieux ...... David Westhead
Astley ...... Robert Portal
Blanche De Cominges ...... Charlotte Randall
Directed by Guy Retallack
Producer: Frank StirlingDostoevsky 090614-r3 The Gambler.mp3
Replies
Thank you for uploading this particular play. It's a new one for me,
katy