COMING UP
ARIA 2024 Best Music Special shortlist
VERGIL! A MYTHOLOGICAL MUSICAL
Classical poetry like you’ve never heard it……A 10 part musical drama starring Will Young and Claudia Kariuki, with Derek Jacobi, Le Gateau Chocolat, Alice Fearn, John Partridge and Divina de Campo.
Brilliant reinvention of Vergil’s epic poem, The Aeneid by New York Times best seller Maria Dahvana Headley, featuring a myriad of marginalised and overlooked characters, in a swashbuckling adventure. With songs.
Vergil’s epic story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero, prophesied to found Rome, who encounters the fearsome Cyclopes, the tragic queen Dido, the Trojan horse, the River Styx and the three headed dog who guards the underworld. But what about Vergil, the man who wrote it and why? This is that story. This time, full of warrior queens, rebels, queer poets and pirate women fighting back against the oppressive Roman Empire, shining a brilliant light on hidden history……accompanied by soaring ballads, poppy bangers, barber shop quartets, and comedy raps….
Cast: Alžbeta Matyšáková, Ani Nelson, Ashley Zhangazha, Ashok Gupta, Beth Hinton-Lever, Cavin Cornwall, Dan Collins, Douglas Jones, Ella Djurovich, Freddie Tapner, Frewyn Thursfield, George Georgiou, Gordon Kennedy, Harrison Knights, Jacoba Williams, Jonathan Case, Luke Hammond, Mark Hannah, Max Runham, Michael Kosko, Nadim Naaman, Olivier Huband, Olugbeminiyi Bammodu, Oscar Hansen, Raj Ghatak, Robyn Mcintyre, Romeo Mika, Sam Howard-Sneyd, Sharan Phull, Shaun Mendum, Silas Carson, Tachia Newall, Tonderai Munyevu, Tristan Waterson and William Collison.
With special thanks to London Musical Theatre Orchestra Singers, conducted by Freddie Tapner.
Music composed by Alexandra Braithwaite, Joseph Keckler and Elizabeth Purnell. Lyrics by Maria Dahvana Headley.
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore, Jon Nicholls, Louis Blatherwick, Paul Cargill and Steve Brooke.
Production Manager for Naked Productions Darren Spruce. Thanks to Miles Wheway and Teresa Milewski.
Directed and produced by Polly Thomas. Musical direction by Harrison Knights.
For Audible UK, Executive Producer Mariele Runacre Temple, Co-Executive Producer and Commissioning Editor Lydia Shamah and Production Co ordinator Alex Curran.
Produced by Naked Productions for Audible Originals.
Listen now: https://adbl.co/vergil
BBC AUDIO AWARD 2024 WINNER!
Mark Heap won BBC Audio Awards for Best Supporting Actor, a Max Brod in Kafka’s Dick.
KAFKA’S DICK
BBC RADIO 3 Sunday 2nd April 2023 2030
Iconic modern comedy by Alan Bennett.
Starring Toby Jones, Mark Heap, Jason Watkins, Fenella Woolgar, Jim Broadbent and Don Warrington.
Directed and produced by Polly Thomas and Dermot Daly, sound design by Alisdair McGregor
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— a Naked Production for BBC Radio 3
— A Naked Production for BBC Radio 3
2024 Sandford St Martin audio shortlist
REQUIEM
BBC Radio 4 / 4th July 2023, 1415
Harrison Knights and Misia Butler’s debut BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama on prestigious awards shortlist
Inspired by true events, Requiem follows young priest Paul as he navigates the prejudice and pain surrounding the setup of a care and education centre for AIDS sufferers in the 80s. The drama is set around the structure of a requiem mass, woven with traditional and contemporary choral music.
Performed by Jonathan Case, Olugbeminiyi Bammodu, Rosa Hesmondhalgh, and Nadia Albina.
Singers Emilia Bertolini, Venetia Iga, Laurence Kilsby,Oscar Hansen, MD/original music composition Oscar Osicki . Additional vocal arrangements by Harrison Knights .
The poem, Jesus at the Gay Bar, was written by Jay Hulme.
Sound design by Paul Cargill, illustration by Ed Duffill, production management by Darren Spruce and the Executive Produce was Eloise Whitmore.
Directed by Harrison Knights and Misia Butler, produced by Polly Thomas,
— a Naked Production for BBC Radio 4
Radio Times, 18/7/23
WILLIAM’S CASTLE
BBC Radio 4 / 1st April 2024, 1415
Inspired by real Sunderland history, William’s Castle is by Jay Sykes with historical accuracy advice fromLily Daniels. In 1891, 13 year old orphan William Elliot wrote a letter to the future and hid it in a pew of the local church. Found centuries later, the letter inspired a community search to find out what happened to William….
Performed by Mikki Hodgson, Lyndan Trenholm, Charlie Hardwick, Becky Lindsay, Daniel James, Christina Berriman and Ken Smithson.
Original music was written and performed by Paige Temperley and Holly Rees.
Directed by Polly Thomas, with sound design and production by Jay Sykes, executive produced by Chantal Herbert
— a Sister Sounds production for BBC Radio 4
SONG FROM FAR AWAY
BBC Radio 4 / 18th May 2024, 1445
Starring multi award winning singer/songwriter and actor Will Young, Song From Far Away by Olivier Award winning Simon Stephens and Mark Eitzel.
A powerful and deeply personal letter to those left behind.
One crisp winter day in New York, Willem receives a phone call – it’s time to go home.
Home to Amsterdam – to estranged family and forgotten relationships. As he reflects on loss and life, unwilling to face the future, he finds himself reaching out to the brother he lost.
Based on the original stage production direct by Kirk Jameson, from Thomas Hopkins, Guy Chapman and HOME.
Additional Composer/Musical Supervisor on the stage production – Paul Schofield.
Full stage production credits: https://www.hampsteadtheatre.com/whats-on/2023/song-from-far-away#cast
Directed for audio by Polly Thomas, assistant producer Louis Blatherwick, production manager Darren Spruce, executive producer Eloise Whitmore with sound design by Jon Nicholls,.
— a Thomas Carter Project for BBC Radio 4
Image by Michael Warley.
RESTLSS DREAMS
BBC Radio 4 / 15th June 2024, 1445
The latest audio drama from award winning writer Dan Rebellato.
Restless Dreams follows Max Brod’s thrilling train journey in 1939 from Prague, fleeing the Nazis, as the world stood on the brink of WWII and everything that entailed for nations and borders and refugees. In his suitcase are manuscripts, many of them unpublished, of works by Franz Kafka. On one level, this is a wartime thriller, a tense story of one man smuggling a jewel of world literature to safety. On the other, it is a Kafkaesque nightmare, teetering between reality and hallucination, as Brod’s encounters with train staff, border guards and fellow passengers seem to pass between wakefulness and dreaming, echoing Kafka’s writing.
Sound design by Eloise Whitmore.
Production Manager Darren Spruce.
Directed and produced by Polly Thomas.
A Naked Production for BBC Radio 4.
PENTABUS YOUNG WRITERS
PENTABUS / October 2022 onwards
written by 10 new young writers, directed by Polly Thomas , music and sound design by Jon Nicholls
— a Naked Production for Pentabus Theatre
SWEET DREAMS
TUTTI FRUTTI/ MAY2021 onwards
a new audio drama with songs for younger children about how to have a good night’s sleep…written by. Mike Kenny music by Christella Litras and directed by Polly Thomas
— a Naked Production forTutti Frutti
DOG LOVES BOOKS
CBeebies / 9 MAR 2020
voice directed by Polly Thomas
Animated children’s 52 episode series based on the award winning books by Louise Yates featuring Craig Cash and John Thompson
— head writer Alan Gilbey
— a Komixx Media Group production for CBeebies