Dan Rebellato Radio Plays
Dan was born in South London in 1968, and studied Drama at Bristol University. He's now a lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. His stage plays include I AM JOSEPH STALIN, HERESIARCH, SHOWSTOPPER and HERE'S WHAT I DID WITH MY BOY ONE DAY.
He translated LES CORBEAUX by Henry Becque for the National Theatre Studio and adapted Nathaniel Lee's THE RIVAL QUEENS for I'm a Camera Theatre Company at the Union Theatre. He has also translated plays by Dario Fo, Maurice Maeterlinck and August Strindberg.
He wrote a book on British Theatre in the 50s, called 1956 AND ALL THAT and introduced a series of plays by Terence Rattigan (q.v.) for Nick Hern Books, also collections of plays by David Greig and Mark Ravenhill for Methuen.
His BBC radio plays:
Erskine May.... (2000) The night before Queen Victoria is due officially to open the new Houses of Parliament, disagreements between the architect erupt and A. W. N. Pugin blows the building up. His architectural partner, Charles Barry, ably assisted by the Parliamentary librarian Erskine May have to gather to scattered fragments of the destroyed palace and rebuilt the Palace of Westminster before morning.
Antique Silver.... (2000) Based loosely on a true story. Victor Grayson is a radical firebrand MP who won the Colne Valley by election in 1907 despite overwhelming hostility from his official sponsors in the Labour Party. But one day, a few months after World War One, he walked out of his house and disappeared. The play imagined Grayson swimming down the Thames recalling the events of his life, before disappearing out to sea. In a fantasised coda, Grayson is imagined running an antique shop where nothing is for sale.
Emily Rising.... (2001, rpt. 2003) One morning, 12-year-old Emily wakes up to discover that her feet don't touch the ground. The best efforts of her mum, the doctor, even the coastguard cannot save her. And she continues to lift before finally finding herself disappearing into the sky. A play about loss, and love, and childhood, and parents.
Dan adds..........I've also written a classic serial which is due to be broadcast on 30 November and 7 December this year. It's The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, and stars Bill Nighy, Clive Merrison, Sarah Parish, Katherine Tozer and Nicholas R. Bailey.
The Midwich Cuckoos....2003
John Wyndham's creepy novel about an alien generation
born into a cosy British village. Adapted in two 60 min parts
as the Classic Serial, beginning R4 30 Nov 03. Original music by
Christopher Madin. Stars Bill Nighy, Sarah Parrish, Clive
Merrison, Nicholas Bailey, Katherine Tozer, Mark Chatterton,
Barbara Marten, Malcolm Raeburn, Christine Brennan, Rebecca
Bridle. Directed by Polly Thomas.
....RADIO TIMES:...One of the best radio dramatisations this year. Dan Rebellato has ensured the dark anxieties of John Wyndham's novel are exploited to the full, and director Polly Thomas has delivered a play seething with tension, emotional frissons and breakneck excitement. Bill Nighy and Sarah Parrish combine a lightness of touch in the opening scenes as a bright, capable married couple, before they are plunged into the terrifying setting of an English country village in the 1950s, where all the fertile women have been impregnated by aliens. Their offspring are so similar and simister that no parent, after listening to this, will ever wish their child was more intellectually gifted. Nicholas Bailey is the troubled army sergeant, feeling totally emasculated by events..............(Jane Anderson)
Dead Souls....2006
Classic Serial, 2 x 55m, beginning 23 Apr. This is the comic tale
by Gogol, dramastised by Dan Rebellato. Chichikov arrives in town and
starts touting for dead serfs. It's obviously a scam, but how does it work?
Suspicions come to a head at the Governor's Ball, the main event of
provincial Russian society.
Stars Michael Palin and Mark Heap, with David Fleeshman,
Judith Davis, Wyllie Longmore, Toby Hadoke, Graeme Hawley; produced by
Polly Thomas.
comment from ND - I like the way the narrator (Michael
Palin) tags along with the villain and becomes part of the story.
An excellent bit of casting, too; Palin is just right for
the part.
CAVALRY....2008
A highly original tale involving The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.... produced by Polly Thomas. Afternoon Play.
Four men are waxing saddles; cleaning spurs; polishing bridles and weapons. They are preparing for battle; but which one? And which century are we in? Claire ...... Frances Grey, Gary ...... Jeff Hordley, Sean ...... Graeme Hawley, Aleks ...... David Harewood, Mark ...... Kevin Harvey.
AND SO SAY ALL OF US....2010
2 May 10, R3; Sunday Play. Ahead of the general election, Radio 3 broadcast a topical new play by Prof. Dan Rebellato of the Department of Drama and Theatre at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Written in collaboration with Linda McLean and Duncan Macmillan, the play, ‘And So Say All of Us’, skewers the absurdities of the the general election.
It imagines a very unusual election day, following it through the unfolding of an unlikely political story and an equally unlikely domestic drama.
The play began life as a project to find new ways of exploring the state of British politics. The collaboration between the writers has been an opportunity for them to follow a political flight of fancy and to highlight the shameful way in which certain politicians are refusing to engage with their audience.
Dan Rebellato: “The election isn’t really generating serious debate. There’s a strange speech act that seems to have overtaken politics. In an election campaign, we need to know literally what politicians are promising; instead we have this curious evasion, a blank locution, phrases literally untrue but which sound as if they mean something - but without any references. The slogans are getting more and more vacuous. They sound like they might be meaningful but who knows what they mean?”
He says the equation for all the campaign and PR advisors across the parties is the same – trust and warm words equals a vote: “In ordinary life, we trust people because they do what they say".
"These things are separated in contemporary politics. They put maximum effort on the appearance of sincerity – toning down the accent, talking about ‘ordinary bloke’ things – and maximum effort to ensure that the speeches say nothing specific".
"It’s a depressing spectacle, and an enraging one, and it is out of that mixture of anger and despair that we wrote ‘And So Say All of Us".
Paraphrased by ND from part of the Royal Holloway University of London website. Click Royal Holloway page for the original article.
- Cast: Louisa Lytton, Derel Riddell, Amelia Bullmore, Michael Begley, David Annen, Tom Goodman-Hill, Effie Woods. Producer Melanie Harris; director Polly Thomas.
ND comment - This was a first-class piece of writing, in the best "Radio 3" style, and the production was excellent too. It was by turns hilariious and thought-provoking. If any politicians were listening I hope they experienced a very uncomfortable 90 minutes.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity Website
