LEILA ABOULELA RADIO PLAYS

A relative newcomer to radio writing, Leila Aboulela is producing some impressive work. She is a Sudanese writer living in Scotland; following graduation from the University of Khartoum in 1985, she travelled to Britain to study Statistics at the London School of Economics and now lives in Aberdeen with her husband and three children.

BBC BROADCASTS:
11.01.99 Visitors
05.02.99 Coloured Lights (reading)
20.07.00 Cardamom
21.05.01 The Sea Warrior
02.11.01 Majed (reading)
14.02.02 The Translator
15.10.02 The Museum
21.05.03 The Mystic Life
27.06.05 The Lion of Chechnya, R3, 90m

NOTES

VISITORS....1999
A reading by Adjoa Andoh: a doctor in Sudan discovers there are essentials which money will not buy. Produced by Bruce Young.

COLOURED LIGHTS....1999
Short story read by Adjoa Andoh broadcast on Radio 3.

CARDAMOM....2000
Written with Sarah Phelps. A couple go to Egypt for a holiday. They return with an ancient bottle containing a female genie which has been trapped for 900 years, along with some cardamom seeds. What will happen if she gets out? With Adjoa Andoh as Cardamom, Lisa Coleman as Hope; also stars Mark Bonnor, Patricia Gannon and Michael Tudor Barnes; directed by Bruce Young.

THE SEA WARRIOR ....2001
Two engineers on a North Sea oil rig notice a stranger...he seems to know more than he should about their lives. Who is he? Noma Dumezweni as Nafisa, with Paul Birchard, James Bryce, Lynne Bains Simon Tait, Phyllis Livingstone; directed in Edinburgh by Bruce Young.

THE SEA WARRIOR
Short story read by Eileen McCallum, Radio 3.

THE TRANSLATOR ....2002
A contemporary love story set in Sudan and Scotland. A dramatisation of her own novel, in 5 parts (12m each). With David Rintoul and Noma Dumezweni. Directed by Bruce Young.

THE MUSEUM....2002
Dramatisation by the author of a prizewinning short story. A Scottish student falls for a Sudanese girl, but not everything goes smoothly. A pity there's no sequel (so far). With David Tennant as Brian, Wendy Baxter as Shabia, Tracy-Ann Obermann as Miriam, Karim by Ray Emmett Brown; also stars David Baker and Gordon Reid; directed by Bruce Young.

THE MYSTIC LIFE ....2003
Romance raises questions about faith and commitment for Kassim and Dina, two Scots Muslims in Edinburgh. With David Baker as Kassim, Roxana Pope as Dina; also stars Ali de Sousa, Joanna Tope, Uzma Mir, Richard Conlon, Vicki Liddelle, Simon Tait; directed by Bruce Young. The creative partnership of Leila Aboulela and Bruce Young has produced "some of the most moving and illuminating dramas of interfaith romance..." (Gillian Reynolds, Daily Telegraph)

THE LION OF CHECHNYA....2005
90m, R3 play. Dramatisation of the kidnapping of a Georgian princess, Anna, by the 19th century Chechen warrior Imam Shamyl, in an attempt to win the release of his son Jamal, who had been taken by the Russians years earlier. The play also tackles Shamyl's jihad against foreign intervention, and his eventual defeat and exile. With Raad Rawl, Katherine Igoe, Matthew Pidgeon, Michael Cochrane, Caroline Loncq, Jordan Waller, Shiv Grewal, Ben Onwukwe, Sarah Ozeke, Nina Wadia, Renu Setna, Harry Myers, Richard Katz. Producer Bruce Young.

Information from Leila Aboulela and from own collection.

Nigel Deacon / Diversity website.

Back to top