JESSICA
LAZAR
Theatre & Audio Director
AUDIO
director & dramaturg
GHOST STORIES FROM AN OLD COUNTRY [59:37]
Tajinder Singh Hayer
Papatango and English Touring Theatre (2021)
AMAR Shane Zaza
DAL RAj Ghatak
PAULA Rebecca Crankshaw
Written by Tajinder Singh Hayer
Sound design, composition, and editing by Farokh Soltani
Winner of the 2021 Papatango New Writing Prize.
Dalvir has always told a good ghost story, properly unsettling, dark tales to send a chill right through his younger brother Amar. But now DAlvir's almost a ghost himself, cloistered and secretive. Amar desperately wants to reconnect with the only family he has left, but can he unravel Davlir's stories to find a way back to his brother? Threaded through with captivating fables, GHOST STORIES FROM AN OLD COUNTRY is a riveting and poignant exploration of the ties that bind us.
★★★★ The Stage (Fergus Morgan): ‘a deep and moving exploration of brotherhood and buried pain'
★★★★ The Reviews Hub (Dominic Corr): ‘marvellous'
★★★★★ West End Best Friend (Rachel Louise Martin): ‘conjures up the most perfect, haunting scenes'
A PASSION PLAY [32:48]
Margaret Perry
45 North, Atticist, Ellie Keel Productions, North Wall Arts Centre, based on a Paines Plough seed commission / Written on the Waves (2020)
BRIDIE Nicola Coughlan
SAM Hannah Bristow
Written by Margaret Perry
Sound design, composition, and editing by Annie May Fletcher
Cork, 2015. 14-year-old Bridie is really into God. 15-year-old Sam is really into hockey. They might be quite into each other. In Margaret Perry's new romantic comedy, the Passion of the Christ isn't the only passion at play.
A PASSION PLAY was recorded remotely during lockdown between Galway, Shropshire, Stratford-upon-Avon, and London.
★★★★★ The Stage (Ka Bradley): ‘Teenage romance, queer desire, spiritual conflict and the crucifixion might seem like impossibly large themes to squeeze into 30 minutes, but Margaret Perry's fine, tender A PASSION PLAY pulls it off spectacularly.'
★★★★ Theatre Weekly (Louisa Doyle): ‘fiercely relevant and infectiously fun'
★★★★ Love London Love Culture (Emma Clarendon): ‘captures the heart and attention for the full half an hour.'
Exeunt (Lily Levinson): 'They play to the strengths of radio drama...warm and kind and worth a listen.'
THE YOU PLAY Vol 1: Small Acts [44:58]
Rafaella Marcus
45 North & Ellie Keel Productions / Written on the Waves (2020)
NARRATOR Katherine Parkinson
ENSEMBLE Rebecca Banatvala, Jonathan Case, Amber James, Daisy Lewis, Ken Nwosu, and Boadicea Ricketts
Written by Rafaella Marcus
Sound design, composition, and editing by Dinah Mullen
In YOU PLAY: SMALL ACTS, you play the main character. An interactive audio adventure taking place around your own home, loosely based on William Shakespeare's THE WINTER'S TALE, Arthurian legend, and the Brothers Grimm.
★★★★ The Stage (Fergus Morgan): ‘intimate, unknowable, and amusing all at the same time.'
included in the Guardian's 'The best culture you may have missed in 2020' (The Guide, 24 October 2020)
Stagedoor (Lyn Gardner): 'It’s a little thing, but a truthful, bluntly honest one, and it operates like a magical act of transference, one that heightens empathy, rivets attention and reminds that inside we are all swirling changing versions of Leontes, Hermione and Perdita, all lost in different ways and all feeling the pain.'
Exeunt (Lily Levinson): 'gently radical (if that’s a thing) in its optimism and its empathy, its faith in the possibility of redemption. It is beautifully done.'
THE YOU PLAY Vol 2: The Haunted Woman [51:31]
Rafaella Marcus
45 North & Ellie Keel Productions / Written on the Waves (2020)
THE WOMAN Olivia Williams
Written by Rafaella Marcus
Sound design, composition, and editing by Dinah Mullen
A dictaphone clicks into life. A woman is making a recording - for you. She doesn't have a lot of time left: something is coming, and it's coming to get her. So before it arrives, she wants to tell you why. You might be next. So listen carefully and follow her instructions. They might keep you safe. They might save you.
★★★★ Broadway World (Aliya Al-Hassan): 'atmospheric and increasingly gripping'
★★★★ The Reviews Hub (Maryam Philpott): 'pushing the boundaries of audio form'
★★★ Guardian (Arifa Akbar): 'this one leaves a few too many puzzles, though it remains engrossing, and sinister, to the end'
THE GIFT [05:19]
Rafaella Marcus
45 North, Atticist, Ellie Keel Productions, The North Wall Arts Centre / Written on the Waves: Loss and Hope Trilogy (2020)
PERFORMER Olivia Marcus
Written by Rafaella Marcus
Sound design, composition, and editing by Tom Foskett-Barnes
A girl recounts an impossible meeting in which something is lost - but someone is found.
Stagedoor (Lyn Gardner): 'a tiny winking gem that suggests that maybe we don't get a choice in the ghosts we see but we always see the ghosts we need.'