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 intellectualy 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.
Nigel Deacon / Diversity Website
