A Passion Play
thenorthwall.com

Phoenix
ett.org.uk

Amid lockdowns and tiers, theatres, as covered in this column, have experimented with audio projects, plausibly recorded and put together from home.

These pieces are often understandably described as “radio plays”, but, in one sense, are not. Neither of the two latest examples – A Passion Play and Phoenix – could be broadcast by BBC Radio in their present form.

Both contain the authentically sweary conversation of younger generations, while some of the dialogue would certainly be cut by a BBC compliance editor due respectively to broadcasting guidelines on potential offence and references to living people.

A Passion Play, a collaboration between Oxford-based arts centre The North Wall and other groups, is a half-hour drama by Margaret Perry about the friendship between two teenage schoolgirls in Cork – observant Catholic Bridie (Nicola Coughlan) and emerging atheist Sam (Hannah Bristow), reluctantly relocated to Ireland by her dad’s job.