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??.09.1981 The Mortification*, R3
??.??.1980 Never Forget a Face*
06.05.1979 Social Welfare
08.03.1979 Scenes From Family Life
13.06.1978 S.O.S*
16.11.1977 Oldenberg
03.09.1976 No Quarter*, new cast
10.03.1972 No Quarter,rpt
??.??.1967 As a man grows older
??.??.1966 Letters of a Portuguese Nun
18.01.1965 Paths of Glory, from novel by Humphrey Cobb
01.04.1965 The After-Life
05.01.1964 Within Dreams*, R3
16.11.1964 Amor Dei
??.??.1964 The Mortification
??.??.1964 The Detour
??.??.1964 Four Inventions
14.11.1962 No Quarter*
28.02.1962 A Glass of Lemonade*
??.??.1962 Nathan and Tabileth
20.07.1962 Freedom Hours
??.??.1962 The Imposters, series
??.??.1961 Never Forget a Face
??.??.1960 The Voice of the Peanut
*known to exist in collections within VRPCC
NOTES ON SOME OF THE PLAYS
A GLASS OF LEMONADE....1962
Rather disturbing but well-written play about the sort of guy who hangs
around on street corners.
FREEDOM HOURS....1962
20 jul 62: Not a play; old people talk about the way they spend
their time. An
old man talks about his gardening and his home-made wine. "The days
are not long enough ..." An old man, 95 years old,
describes his daily round. "I don't worry at all, there's no point
in it, but it would be nice to have someone to talk to ... An old man,
80 years old this year, with a very pronounced
theatrical manner, has written a play called Leonardo, and is trying
to get it produced. He also teaches dress design at an evening
institute, and mentions its name - "I'm advertising but I don't care".
He is never sorry for himself - "My heart is as young as it was at 18"...
An old woman says she is "a bit lonely sometimes",
but is rarely depressed - "I like my wireless". Nowadays she goes
seldom to the pictures - "they've fallen off". She ends, unexpectedly,
"Oh, dear, that tea has given me indigestion again - I've got a
couple of tablets in here". The programme was compiled
by Barry Bermange, and produced by David Thomson. The speakers were
recorded at an old people's club; sometimes a piano is heard behind
the voices, but the music is not identifiable
NATHAN AND TABILETH....1962
Play, produced by Robin Midgley.
Two old people sit side by side on a park
bench. Everything seems familiar, but already the memory is beginning
to play strange tricks ... their hold on life seems tenuous and
uncertain. The past is too difficult to remember, the future is
beyond them, it is all they can do to live in the present; their
awareness of other people is reduced to an intimate awareness of
each other. When a young man calls on them and tells them he is
their grandson, they take him at his word (Radio Times)
10-Jun-1962
Meier Tzelniker, Beatrix Lehmann, Haydn Jones.
NO QUARTER....1962 and 1976
Play; produced by John Gibson.
"Two men, unknown to one another, ask for rooms in an hotel.
A single room only is vacant. They share it.....with others." (RT)
Special effects recorded by John Gibson and Roy Maynard.
Incidental music composed and conducted by John Buckland.
14-Nov-1962-
Peter Pratt, Felix Felton, Denys Hawthorne, Carleton Hobbs.
---Kafkaesque tale with a small group of assorted oddballs
trapped, lost and disoriented in a tower block...excellent
R3-type play. I would like to obtain a complete copy of the
1976 recording; mine has the ending missing---ND. .....UPDATE - recording obtained...
THE MORTIFICATION....1964
Another Kafkaesque play with "the victim" a worker of 20 years'
experience in a large company, perpetually on the move from
office to office...superb casting - Cyril Shaps, Hugh Burden
as far as I can recall. Excellent piece of radio.
WITHIN DREAMS....1964
"Within Dreams" is a radio collage, not a play, done in
collaboration with Delia Derbyshire, of "Dr. Who theme" fame.
"This programme of sounds and voices is an attempt to re-create in
five movements some sensations of dreaming - running away, falling,
landscape, underwater and colour. All the voices were recorded from
life (by Barry Bermange) and arranged in a setting of pure electronic
sounds." (RT) -Produced by David Thomson.
Comment from ND - this piece is
something of a curiosity. The effects are interesting, but the same bits are heard again and again. I had to switch it off after ten minutes, and I probably
won't listen to it again.
---Note also BBC RADIO 3 19.10.93 Between the Ears:
The Dreams by Barry Bermange An invention for radio: people talking
about recurring elements in their dreams; ethereal electronic sounds.
Introduced by Mark Russell in conversation with Barry Bermange.
AMOR DEI....1964
A second invention for radio by Barry Bermange, in collaboration with
the B.B.C.'s Radiophonic Workshop, with talk recorded in co-operation
with the Old People's Welfare Council, Hornsey. Producer: David
Thomson. An attempt to describe God in human terms,
and to create, in the manner of a religious painting, an overall
impression of man's love for Him. The voices were recorded from
life and arranged by the author in a setting of radiophonic sound.
Plainsong Antiphon John Hahessy (boy soprano) -
unacc. 16-Nov-1964
PATHS OF GLORY....1965
Monday play 18/01/65, based on the novel by Humphrey Cobb. By Barry Bermange.
THE AFTER-LIFE....1965
The third in a cycle of inventions for radio by Barry Bermange, in
collaboration with the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop. Produced by David
Thomson. "This programme is an attempt to reconstruct in sound the
spiritualistic vision of Death and Eternity. It is conceived as a
dream of Death. Using the montage process of his earlier programmes,
'The Dreams' and 'Amor Dei', the author has arranged in settings of
electronic sound a collection of voices recorded from life. There are
four movements." Radio Times. "Actuality" voices recorded in
co-operation with the Old People's Welfare Council, Hornsey.
1-Apr-1965.
OLDENBERG....1977
- a play; producer: Shaun
MacLoughlin R4 16-Nov-1977
David March,
Colette O'Neil,
Colin Baker.
S.O.S. ....1978
A new work for voices by Barry Bermange. Drawn from
'The International Code Of Signals for the use of All Nations (1874)'.
An audio-collage of Signals Of Distress, presented
in a transcribed form as a vocal composition with
acoustic & electronic effects, in which voices singly
or in choral groups call to each other
across an ocean for help that never comes.
Special Sound:
Henry Parker, of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Producer: Barry Bermange.
The production contains many sound effects & silences,
which are outside the norms of broadcasting.
R3 13-Jun-1978
Karen Archer, David Ashford, Elizabeth Bell, Michael
Goldie, Henry Knowles, Hilda Kriseman, Joan Matheson, Mary
Elliott Nelson, John Pullen, Roy Spencer, Robert Trotter.
Technical presentation: David Greenwood.
SOCIAL WELFARE....1979
- a play; produced
by Alec Reid R3 06-May-1979. Cast List : Sean Barrett, Jill Balcon,
Peter Wickham.
List of plays compiled from info.
supplied by Roger Bickerton and Steve Arnold.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
Updated Jun 2008
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