THE CHILDREN Radio Premiere to Air on BBC Radio 4 with Royal Court
Anastasia Hille, Stanley Holloway and Emma Fielding star in the radio premiere of Lucy Kirkwood's play.
A new radio production of Lucy Kirkwood's The Children and a season of landmark Royal Court plays from the BBC archive, curated by Mark Ravenhill, will be broadcast to audiences across the UK from 26th September.
BBC Radio 4 and the Royal Court Theatre, which this year marks its 70th anniversary, have confirmed details of a collaboration that will bring acclaimed contemporary drama from the Royal Court's rich history and the BBC archive to audiences nationwide.
At the heart of the collaboration is a new radio production of Lucy Kirkwood's award-winning play The Children, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2016 before transferring internationally, including to Broadway. The production will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 26th September at 3.00 - 4.30 pm.
The play follows retired nuclear physicists Hazel (Anastasia Hille) and Robin (Stanley Holloway), who wonder why their former colleague Rose (Emma Fielding) has turned up at their house near the damaged power station where they used to work. Over the course of the play, old alliances and divisions are exposed and it becomes clear that Rose has a challenging proposition for her old friends, as the play explores personal and professional responsibility within the context of a global crisis.
Playwright Mark Ravenhill has curated a selection of radio adaptations of Royal Court plays drawn from seven decades of BBC archives. The collection will celebrate the theatre's enduring influence on British playwriting and showcase some of the most significant voices to have emerged from the Court since its founding, as well as star-studded casts including Ben Whishaw, David Bradley, David Troughton, Siobhan Finneran, Sheila Hancock, Nikki Amuka Bird, Elliot Levey, the late Helen McCrory and Brigit Forsyth. Following the broadcast of The Children, the archive productions will air on BBC Radio 4 Extra at 8.30pm each evening and will also be available on BBC Sounds in the Spotlight feed for 28 days after broadcast.
This collaboration reflects a shared commitment between the Royal Court and the BBC to making groundbreaking drama accessible to audiences throughout the UK, while celebrating the extraordinary legacy of writers whose work has shaped contemporary theatre.
Alison Hindell, Commissioner for Radio 4 Drama and Fiction, said: 'These productions showcase the breadth, ambition and enduring relevance of great playwriting. As the biggest commissioner of audio drama in the world, the BBC is proud to bring these remarkable stories to a wider audience, so that everyone can access brilliant contemporary theatre through the visionary lens of the Royal Court.'
Royal Court Theatre Executive Director Will Young said: 'It's an absolute gift for the Royal Court to have this collaboration with Radio 4 during our 70th Anniversary. Opening up their archival treasure trove of seven decades of pioneering playwrights from our stages, and making that freely available to listeners - with Mark Ravenhill as our national guide through contemporary British theatre - is thrilling. Look Back In Anger, Sizwe Banzi Is Dead, Cuttin' It, Random, Roots, Our Country's Good, Top Girls, plus a radio premiere for The Children - what a feast, and what a reminder of the value of a public service broadcaster.'
Mark Ravenhill said: 'I've got a particular bond with the Royal Court Theatre, as they discovered and produced my first play, so it's been fascinating to work through the archive of BBC radio productions of Royal Court plays and to select seven of them for Radio 4 Extra. It's a chance for listeners to share the journey that Royal Court new plays have made in the last seventy years, to hear the swaggering male voice of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger - the Court's first big hit - and then trace the emergence of powerful Black and female voices in more recent years. Radio brings a fresh intimacy to a series of plays that have become contemporary theatre classics and provides a great introduction to plays that the listener may never have encountered.'
