Britten 100: Billy Budd - These Buttons We Wear

The playwright Keith Dewhurst adapts Herman Melville's powerful story of persecution and retribution in the aftermath of the Naval Mutinies at Nore and Spithead in 1797. He also tells the story of the man who wrote it. Part of Radio 3's Britten centenary weekend, this play provides an alternative context to Britten's opera, which is also being broadcast on the station. Herman Melville was a man who himself had more than a passing acquaintance with mutiny. There was a history of it amongst his forebears and his own escapades as a sailor in the South Pacific involved him in a mutiny of his own. Starring Gerard Murphy, Robert Portal and Monica Dolan and with effects specially recorded off the Cornish coast, this is a story steeped in the naval history of two nations. It is also a touching account of creative aspiration, failed adventuring and a family haunted by misfortune.

Herman Melville ..... Gerard Murphy
Eleanor Melville ..... Monica Dolan
Long Ghost/Captain Vere ..... Robert Portal
Guert Gansevoort/John Claggart ..... David Westhead
Bill Budd ..... Mark Quartley
Young Eleanor ..... Caitlin Welch
Liverpool/The Dansker ..... Simon Greenall
Salem/The Stranger ..... Nathan Osgood
Consul Wilson/Captain Graveling ..... Pip Donaghy
Dr. Johnstone/Lieutenant Ratcliffe ..... Robert Hastie
Rope Yarn/Donald ..... John Tams

Keith Dewhurst is one of our most eminent writers for both stage and screen. As a writer for the stage, he is a master of the epic: one of the major dramatists with Bill Bryden's companies at the Royal Court and the Cottesloe in the seventies and eighties. His plays ranged from the Napoleonic 'Corunna!' to the definitive promenade adaptations of 'Lark Rise' and 'Candleford'. As a writer for both large and small screen, his many credits include The Land Girls, The Man In The Iron Mask, The Three Musketeers, Joe Wilson, The Empty Beach, Juliet Bravo and 'Z- Cars'.

Songs arranged by John Tams.

Director, Frank Stirling
A Unique production for BBC Radio 3.