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The Music Lesson

Fiona Shaw plays a music teacher striving for the impossible - the perfect sound. Her chosen student cannot believe her luck. But the lesson soon becomes her worst nightmare.

Fiona Shaw plays a music teacher striving for the impossible - the perfect sound. Her chosen student can't believe her luck. But the lesson soon becomes her worst nightmare.

Mika studies the recorder at Britain's most prestigious conservatoire of music. She winds up unexpectedly staying with Isla King, a recorder teacher of legendary repute. When Isla offers personal one-to-one tutoring, Mika is elated. But as she struggles with the Bach cello suites on her recorder, she realises Isla is playing from a different score. As Mika reaches for an ever more distant point of excellence, the walls close in around her.

Fiona Shaw and Erin Doherty star in this taut, psychological drama. Set in that most private of worlds - the music lesson - we are privy to the inside workings of the musical mind.

The Music Lesson is written by poet and playwright Hannah Silva, loosely inspired by her experiences studying the recorder at a world-class conservatoire. Hannah plays all the music in the drama. In collaboration with theatre director Susannah Tresilian, they have created a real-time, stripped down, psychological journey of wounded musicianship.

Writer: Hannah Silva
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore
Director: Susannah Tresilian
Producer: Melanie Harris
Executive Producer: Jo Meek

A Sparklab production for 大象传媒 Radio 4.

44 minutes

Last on

Tue 30 Jul 2019 14:15

Credits

Role Contributor
Isla Fiona Shaw
Mika Erin Doherty
Writer Hannah Silva
Director Susannah Tresilian
Producer Melanie Harris

Broadcasts

  • Tue 11 Jul 2017 14:15
  • Tue 30 Jul 2019 14:15

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