Our second venture into Radio Plays was again featured by Radio Shetland as part of their Arts programme. Jennie Atkinson took a play written by Lesley Leslie which had been performed in the Garrison Theatre and adapted it for radio. Working alongside a local writer enables changes to be made to take out the visual elements and insert other small scenes which move the story along and create a sense of time.
Jennie explains what the play is about:
Marion Pardone tells the story of the imprisonment and interrogation of Mistress Pardone, a resident of Scalloway, who tends the local community with her herbs and remedies. The play is set in 1645 in Scalloway, which was at that time the capital of Shetland. In the opening scenes we hear the voices of villagers and servants who discuss the rumours surrounding Mistress Pardone, before learning from the Lady Eleanor that Marion has indeed been arrested.
The interrogation of Marion by Churchman Black shows how words and actions can be twisted and misunderstood and despite protesting her innocence Marion is broken by the questioning.
The play is a story of its time, about real people and how ignorance and rumour can be used to such devastating conclusions.
In this second Radio Play Director/Producer Jennie Atkinson was working with a larger cast and with recording equipment which had been part funded by the Shetland Arts Refresh Now Project.
Following a trial recording of three voices, she felt ready to go ahead with the full recording. This meant the main members of the cast (located in Lerwick and Scalloway) sitting in bedrooms and other quiet rooms in their house plugged into their individual pieces of recording equipment. Jennie directed operations from her own "quiet" room in Tingwall. The recordings were then edited by Molly Williams along with sound effects Jennie had sourced through BBC Sounds. The resulting recording was amazingly clear and listeners commented on how well the atmosphere was created through the sound effects and music.
As we can only record nine voices at any one time, the whispered voices had to be recorded separately: Val Hall, Jennie Atkinson, Karen Erasmuson and Zoe Galbraith (sadly Zoe's video wasn't working!).
The music which created such an amazing atmosphere for the play was Flinken and was used by very kind permission of the Nordic Fiddlers Block. Jennie had always felt there was a story in this piece of music and was pleased to be able to use it instead to tell a story. Various parts of the single track were used throughout the play.
The play can be accessed by clicking this link: