Qued though this was a simple smuggling job. Now they’ve lost their spaceship, his beautiful blue symbiotic scarf Miranda is telling them the eggs they’ve stolen are for a suicide mission, and an aggressive tentacled security agent called Bernhardt is interested in crushing his skull. Thankfully, Miranda is the one in charge of the thinking…
Qued – Keith Crawford
Miranda – Stephanie Campion
Bernhardt – Tuvana Hizarci
A brand new original play from Little Wonder – check it out:
https://anchor.fm/dashboard/episodes
Lisa is a very special writer and an all-round excellent human being who we have had the pleasure of working with before at Little Wonder with her piece Non-Figurative Scuplture. She is best known for her poetry: her 2012 book Any Bright Horse was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for poetry, “The Riparian” ties first with TS Eliot’s The Wasteland as my favourite piece of long form poetry (yes, I recognise The Wasteland isn’t exactly a controversial choice, but read The Riparian and you’ll see that it isn’t a controversial choice either: brilliant, startling writing that is deeply immersive and occasionally terrifying – I don’t know what was in the river but I am sure I don’t want to know.)
So when she agreed to write us some Science Fiction I was pretty much in seventh heaven. This brings us to another thing I love about Lisa as a writer: she never forgets her audience. If she’d written me a poem I would have published it (we did some Robert Frost, after all!). What Lisa gave me was an action packed, funny, adventure story with three memorable characters that (importantly) were a joy for the actors to play. There is so much invention and imagination in Chordata, not to mention it being a touch kinky. So. Much. Fun.
I spent a long time chasing an exceptionally talented actor I’d worked with previously to play Qued, which was why we recorded this as late as we did (and thus the late publication), but in the end we couldn’t make timetables work so I stepped into the breach for the “lead” (listen to the play and you’ll quickly realise the real stars are Miranda and Bernhardt). Having to switch actors at the last moment happens often when you’re doing this sort of work: if you’re going to do any sort of theatre it is important to stay flexible. I don’t cast myself in plays just because I want to hog great parts. Honest.
Many authors, when making a submission, dig out an old idea from the drawer or, worse yet, adapt a stage play they’re sure would work on the radio. And that can be fine. However, it will never beat a writer who has looked at the theatre company, who has considered the sort of material they publish, and who writes something they will probably like. Lisa took the time to write us an irresistible play: for the actors, for the director, for the sounds team, and, hopefully, for the audience.
And I will always have special memories of an afternoon with Steph and Tuvani laughing our way through the recording of Lisa’s script. Thanks guys.
