Gaynor Macfarlane is a radio drama director and producer for BBC Radio Drama at Pacific Quay, Glasgow.
Gaynor Macfarlane directed the first, second, fourth, sixth and seventh radio series of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.
In the Theatre Gaynor Macfarlane has directed Wit by Margaret Edson, Folie à Trois by Sarah Wooley and The Past is not a Place by Beatrice Colin for the Stellar Quines Theatre Company; The Birds by Aristophanes and After the Rain by Sergi Belbel at the Gate Theatre; The House of Desires by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Burdalane by Judith Adams at the Battersea Arts Centre; Damon and Pythias at the Globe and Helen at the RNT Studio. She has been Literary Manager of the Gate Theatre, Script Advisor at the National Theatre and Dramaturg at the Globe during its first season. She has translated plays for the Almeida and Chichester Festival Theatre.[1]
| Radio Plays Directed or Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date first broadcast | Play | Author | Cast | Synopsis Awards |
Station Series |
| 21 August 1999 | So Much Blood | Simon Brett dramatised by Bert Coules | Bill Nighy, Jimmy Chisholm and John Paul Hurley | Charles Paris takes his one-man show to the 1999 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, filling a vacant spot at a student venue which is a hotbed of behind-the-scenes drama, until a stage dagger turns murderously into a real one. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play[2] |
| 21 February 2000 – 3 March 2000 | The Hours | Michael Cunningham abridged by Alison Joseph | Buffy Davis, Geraldine James and Elizabeth McGovern | A meditation on love, loss and time. Echoing Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, it gives a moving and eloquent account of one day in the lives of three very different women. | BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama[3] |
| 25 July 2000 | Summer Sectioned | John Binnie | Lorelei King and Colin Stinton | An elegiac and moving encounter with the woman who was the muse of playwright Tennessee Williams – his sister Rose. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play[4] |
| 23 October 2000 – 3 November 2000 | The Weight of Water | Anita Shreve dramatised by Beatrice Colin | Nancy Crane, Derbhle Crotty, Emma Fielding and Karl Johnson | On the night of 5th March 1873, two women, both Norwegian emmigrants, were murdered on the Isles of Shoals. In the present day, a newspaper photographer discovers a cache of papers that appear to give an eyewitness account of the murders. | BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama |
| 17 April 2001 | Zander's Boat | Grace Barnes | Vicki Masson, Rose McBain and Wendy Seager | Three generations of Shetland women reflect on their lives, on love and loss. Edith is coming to terms with the death of her son, Sylvia prays for a miracle, and Marie is finding the courage to live alone. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 8 July 2001 | Wit | Margaret Edson adapted for radio by Judith Adams | Nancy Crane, Jasmine Hyne, John McGlynn, Stuart Milligan, Margaret Robertson, John Sharian, Adam Sims and Tracy Wiles | A brilliant scholar discovers that she has cancer and, through several courses of exhausting chemotherapy treatments, is forced to learn about wit, compassion and – finally – death. | BBC Radio 4 |
| 8 November 2002 | Zeitgeist Man | Iain Heggie | Forbes Masson, Liam Brennan, Gayanne Potter, Eileen McCallum, Chris Young, Jo James and Cora Bissett | A biting comedy about writing, the media and the dream of catching the zeitgeist.
Unsuccessful novelist, Hugh Crombie, inadvertently offers an idea to aspiring writer, Dekky Duff. A year passes and Dekky is hailed as the new sensation Scottish writer. He is the real thing, a genuine working class hero, a hospital porter turned novelist. Hugh is enraged and sets out to convince the world that he is the true Zeitgeist Man. |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play[5] |
| 19 April 2003 | Turtle Diary | Russell Hoban | Geraldine James, Bill Nighy, Suzanne Heathcote, Martin Hyder, Isobel Middleton and Graham Turner | The turtles in London Zoo become the mutual obsession of two lonely strangers who dream of setting free the turtles and themselves. | BBC Radio 4 Saturday Play |
| 28 October 2003 | The Time Between Two Tides | Andy Macdonald | William Barlow, Kate Dickie, Tony Kearney, Gary Lewis, Steven McNicoll, Nick Underwood and Wendy Seager | A refugee boy is chased into the River Clyde. When a local lad leaps in to save him, both are trapped under a wharf building. In the time that it takes for the tide to change, and for a rescue to be mounted, truths are revealed about the boys, their families and the city in which they live. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 11 June 2004 | Soft Fall the Sounds of Eden | Sharman Macdonald | Frances Grey, Patricia Kerrigan, Phyllida Law, Cal Macaninch, Shauna Macdonald, Colette O'Neil and Iain Robertson | What is Paradise? The hot Dumfries countryside in late summer is transformed into a Garden of Eden of sorts as diverse groups of locals enjoy the sunshine and reflect on their lives.
A beautiful and evocative play about freedom, the impact of the choices we make, and about picking brambles on a hot afternoon in Scotland. |
BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 10 September 2004 | The Daddy[6] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Joseph Marcell, Janice Acquah, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Jude Akuwudike, Chuk Iwuji, Maynard Eziashi, Peter Gevisser, Noma Dumezweni, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Willie Jonah, Ben Thomas, Nadine Marshall, Alibe Parsons, Bhasker Patel, Nancy Crane, Tehmina Sacranie and Heather Mann | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, takes on her first case – and a news secretary. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 17 September 2004 | The Bone[7] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, sets out to discover the truth about Nandira Patel's boyfriend and to solve the case of the mysterious bone. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 24 September 2004 | The Maid[8] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict | Mma Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, has good news. However, she must also face a scheming maid, find out the truth behind a doctor's erratic behaviour and take on a new case about a missing American. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 1 October 2004 | Tears of the Giraffe[9] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict | Mr JLB Matekoni has a surprise for Mma Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Meanwhile, the case of the missing American man has still to be solved. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 28 January 2005 | Folie à Trois | Sarah Wooley | Eileen McCallum, Colette O'Neil, Molly Innes and Chris Young | Three women live together in an ordinary suburb in the West of Scotland. After a chance encounter with a street evangelist, the youngest decides not to face the 21 century and the threat of imminent apocalypse, and sets out to persuade the others to join her. But how will they do it and what happens if one of them changes her mind? | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 30 August 2005 | The Chief Justice of Beauty[10] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, is worried about her fiancé, Mr J L B Matekoni. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi takes on a case for the Chief Justice of Beauty. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 6 September 2005 | The Confession[11] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict and Joseph Marcell | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, has to find two women wronged in the past by her client, Mr Molefelo. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 13 September 2005 | The Kalahari Typing School for Men[12] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, discovers that the agency has competition, and Mma Makutsi embarks on an entrepreneurial enterprise. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 20 September 2005 | The Admirer[13] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, makes an unhappy discovery and Mma Makutsi finds an admirer at the Kalahari Typing School for Men. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 18 December 2005 – 31 December 2005 | The Razor's Edge | W Somerset Maugham dramatised by Ronald Frame | Nicholas Le Prevost, John Light, Megan Dodds, Edward Petherbridge, Sam Dale, Amerjit Deu, Paul Dinnen, Philip Fox, Laurel Lefkow, Carolyn Pickles and David Bannerman | Young veteran Larry Darrell returns to Chicago after the First World War, and finds it difficult to fit back into society. To the dismay of his fiancé, Isabel he heads for Paris where he embarks on a spiritual quest to find the answers to his many questions. | BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial[14] |
| 1 January 2008 | There Is No Such Thing as Free Food[15] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Janice Acquah, Jude Akuwudike, Ayesha Antoine, Sam Dale, Maynard Eziashi, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Paterson Joseph and Kedar Williams-Stirling | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, is preoccupied both professionally and personally by the subject of food. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 2 January 2008 | The Best Profession for a Blackmailer[16] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Janice Acquah, Maynard Eziashi, Adjoa Andoh, Paterson Joseph and Alibe Parsons | Mr Polopetsi, part-time mechanic and would-be assistant detective, takes on a case of his own. Mma Makutsi finds out whether blue shoes are the key to happiness. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 3 January 2008 | A Very Rude Woman[17] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Janice Acquah, Ben Onwukwe, Adjoa Andoh, Noma Dumezweni, Maynard Eziashi, Chuk Iwuji, Paterson Joseph and Alibe Parsons | Precious Ramotswe faces change at the agency while Mr J L B Matekoni meets the rudest person in Botswana. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 4 January 2008 | Talking Shoes[18] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Janice Acquah, Adjoa Andoh, Anna Bengo, Noma Dumezweni, William Gaminara, Chuk Iwuji, Paterson Joseph, Naomi Taylor and Ben Thomas | A new detective takes on a case for the agency while Mma Ramotswe, among others, has a problem with high blood pressure. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 29 August 2008 | They Have Oak Trees in North Carolina[19] | Sarah Wooley | Alexander Morton, Ellie Haddington, Simon Harrison, Kenny Blyth and Gayanne Potter | In 1986, Ray and Eileen's five-year-old son Patrick vanishes in Florida. Twenty two years later, a good-looking American named Clay arrives in their small village, claiming to be their missing son. | BBC Radio 4 Friday Play |
| 25 December 2008 | The Miracle at Speedy Motors[20] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Janice Acquah, Jude Akuwudike, Adjoa Andoh, Anna Bengo, Noma Dumezweni, Maynard Eziashi, Emmanuel Ighodaro, Chuk Iwuji and Alibe Parsons | Precious Ramotswe, owner and founder of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, is preoccupied – by the absence of postboxes in Botswana, by an anonymous letter and by an adopted child's poignant search for her true family. Meanwhile Mr JLB Matekoni pursues an expensive cure for their foster daughter Motholeli. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 2 December 2010 | An Exceptionally Wicked Lady[21] | Alexander McCall Smith | Janice Acquah, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Sam Dale, Jude Akuwudike, Maynard Eziashi, Anna Bengo, Noma Dumezweni, Adjoa Andoh, Babou Ceesay and Nyasha Hatendi | Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi face an old adversary while a letter from America sets the agency a seemingly impossible task. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 3 December 2010 | The Double Comfort Safari Club[22] | Alexander McCall Smith | Janice Acquah, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Maynard Eziashi, Nyasha Hatendi, Obi Abili, Chuk Iwuji, Jude Akuwudike, Anna Bengo, Noma Dumezweni and Adjoa Andoh | Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi have to face the dangers of crocodiles, hippos and a tiny canoe as their case takes them to the Okovango Delta to trace a safari guide. There is also the problem of Phuti's aunt to solve, as well as the necessity of confronting their old adversary, Violet Sepotho. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 25 April 2011 – 29 April 2011 | Out of Africa[23] | Karen Blixen dramatised by Judith Adams | Emma Fielding, Tom Goodman-Hill, Beru Tessema, Maynard Eziashi and Sean Baker | Soon after Karen Blixen relocates to East Africa, she finds herself alone in a foreign land with the enormous responsibility of trying to operate a successful coffee plantation. In order to accomplish this, she must get to know the land and the East Africans who work for and with her. In the process, she learns more about herself. | BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Drama |
| 6 September 2011 | Occupation[24] | Andy Macdonald | Alexander Morton, Sally Reid, Brian Ferguson and Tracy Wiles | A fifty year old factory employee finds his own way to make a stand. With orders still on the books, Kenny Gall refuses to leave the factory he has worked in for more than thirty years. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 3 November 2011 | A Late Van Just Glimpsed[25] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Janice Acquah, Adjoa Andoh, Maynard Eziashi and Nyasha Hatendi | Mma Ramotswe makes a ghostly sighting and there is disturbing news about Charlie, Mr JLB Matekoni's wayward apprentice and the ladies investigate unexplained, violent attacks on cattle. Meanwhile, preparations are underway for Mma Makutsi's wedding to Phuti Radiphuti , but tragedy awaits outside the shoe shop. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 4 November 2011 | The Saturday Big Tent Wedding[26] | Alexander McCall Smith | Claire Benedict, Nadine Marshall, Ben Onwukwe, Janice Acquah, Adjoa Andoh, Maynard Eziashi, Nyasha Hatendi, Obi Abili, Beru Tessema, Jude Akuwudike and Gbemisola Ikumelo | The ladies solve the case of the murdered cattle. Mma Makutsi is feeling anxious about her upcoming wedding to Phuti Radiphuti and an old friend comes to the rescue. And Charlie is let off the hook. | BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play |
| 23 November 2011 | Happy Hour at the Hotel Death[27] | Colin Hough | Ralph Riach, Ann Louise Ross, Sean Scanlan and Ann Scott-Jones | Fed up with their loveless marriages, septuagenarians Avril and Nettie suggest a swinging holiday to their respective spouses. Tam and Boaby respond by planning the holiday of a lifetime. | BBC Radio Scotland Drama[28] |
Sources:
| Stage Plays Directed by Gaynor Macfarlane | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Title | Author | Cast | Synopsis | Theatre Company | Notes |
| November 1996 | Burdalane[29] | Judith Adams | Nick Fletcher, Lorraine Hilton, Dean McGuirn, Jamie Roberts, Isobel Middleton, Tracy Wiles, Lyn Christie, Rose Keegan, Kate Laurie, Raewyn Lippert, Michael Larkin and Lawrence Crawford | On a voyage to the remote island of St. Kilda in the eighteenth century, Alexander Carlisle, a scientist, is going to check the condition of a mad woman. Only she's not mad, she's angry. The woman in question is Rachel Erskine, Lady Grange, whose husband has declared her dead, staged an elegant Edinburgh funeral marred solely by the second Lady Grange's attendance, and shipped her off to St. Kilda to rot. | One Horse Productions, Battersea Arts Centre | "Burdalane's strength derives from Judith Adams' script (an outstanding first play) and Gaynor McFarlane's direction, which together bring to life a strange matriarchal society. It's enough to give historical drama a good name." Adrian Turpin, The Independent[30] |
| 28 May 1997 – 28 June 1997 | The Birds | Aristophanes | Two disillusioned people go to live among their feathered friends | Gate Theatre | ||
| 3 December 1997 – 21 December 1997 | The House of Desires | Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz adapted by Peter Oswald | 17th century Mexican comedy in which five people, madly in love with one another, are locked up in one house. | One Horse Productions | Battersea Arts Centre | |
| 1 March 2003 – 29 April 2003 | Wit[31] | Margaret Edson | Alexandra Mathie, Jonathan Battersby, James Mackenzie, Molly Innes, Joanna Tope, Natalie Bennet, Chris Young and Jessica Richards | The last hours of Dr Vivian Bearing, a university professor of English, dying of ovarian cancer. | Stellar Quines Theatre Company |
Touring
"One of the most satisfying and enjoyable evenings of drama Scottish Theatre has produced for a while." (The Scotsman)[32] |
| 3 November 2004 | Folie à Trois[33] | Sarah Wooley | Eileen McCallum, Colette O'Neil, Molly Innes and Chris Young | Three women live together in an ordinary suburban street in the West of Scotland. After a chance encounter with a street evangelist, the three decide to make a suicide pact rather than face the 21st century and the threat of imminent apocalypse. But how will they do it and what happens if one of them changes her mind? They also decide to keep the curtains open in case they miss the spectacle of cosmic disintegration. | Stellar Quines Theatre Company | Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh
In collaboration with BBC Radio 4 – see Folie à Trois broadcast on 28 January 2005 |
| 30 June 2005 | The Past is not a Place[34] | Beatrice Colin | When three female journalists arrive at a health spa on an isolated island, they expect a few days of relaxing detoxification. But this is no ordinary holiday destination, as they quickly discover. As lust, regret and betrayal all threaten to crack their fragile equilibrium, the women come face to face with what brought them there and why. | Stellar Quines Theatre Company | Tron Theatre, Glasgow | |