大象传媒

Madeline, grandchild of a pioneering American family, faces a moral dilemma, when two fellow students are arrested at a college protest against British colonial rule in India and threatened with deportation.
Radio premiere of Susan Glaspell's 1921 play explores nationalism, the erosion of fundamental American rights and freedom of speech. Adapted for radio by Samina Baig and introduced by Dr Laura Rattray, Reader in American Studies, University of Glasgow.

Grandmother.....Lorelei King
Felix Fejevary......Nathan Osgood
Madeline.....Samantha Dakin
Silas and his son Ira.....Clive Hayward
Jozsef Fejevary.....Stephen Critchlow
Senator Lewis.....Colin Stinton
Aunt Isabel.....Jane Slavin
Mr Smith/Emil.....Henry Devas
Young Felix/Horace....Joshua Riley
Doris.....Elinor Coleman
Bakhshish.....Shubham Saraf
Holden.....Tony Turner
Harry.....Stewart Campbell

Directed by Tracey Neale

The play starts in 1879 in the American mid-west. Wealthy landowner Silas Morton is being pressured by a young businessman to sell his land for a good price - land his ancestors stole from the Native Americans - but instead he donates it for the founding of a college, for the good of future generations. He's a progressive and an idealist, who wants his wealth to fund the education of young men and women.

We then jump forward to 1920. When two Indian students at Morton College are arrested and threatened with deportation (a deportation likely to result in their hanging) for speaking out against British rule in India, the college authorities condemn them as foreigners and revolutionaries. These same authorities fail to see the irony in their own sentimentalism about American independence and free speech as offered by their constitution.

Silas' granddaughter Madeleine, a student at the College, faces the same conundrum as her own grandfather once did: should she choose personal profit, or should she stand up for her beliefs, in hopes of creating a better future?