Drama on 3
War with The Newts
Sunday 1 April 2007 20:00-21:30 (Radio 3)
By Karel Capek, dramatised by George Poles.
When humanity encounters another race of intelligent bipeds sharing the Earth, what choice is there but to exploit it? When the existence of a group of speaking newts comes to the attention of the ruthless GH Bondy and his Salamander Syndicate, they find themselves turned into a commodity as the nations fight over them. At its heart, this joyously funny satire is a plea for decency and tolerance towards others, as relevant now as when it was first written in the 1930s.
Duration:
1 hour 30 minutes
Playlist:
Capek ...... Dermot Crowley
Olga ...... Sally Hawkins
Van Toch ...... Henry Goodman
Povondra ...... Geoffrey Beevers
Mrs Povondra ...... Tina Gray
GH Bondy ...... Adrian Scarborough
Ensemble ...... Ben Crowe; Martin Hyder; Geoff McGivern
Howard Davidson (composer)
Elizabeth Freestone (director)
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Replies
I adapted this for radio several years ago but it was never produced. I feel a bit scooped--but I can't fault the BBC for that. This is one of my favorite stories by a Czech author. I wrote a script for the first third of The Good Soldier Švejk at the same time and it went on the same pile. Thanks for posting this, Rick. Now I can see how someone else attacked the material.