vegetable stall
Listening to a favourite book adapted for the radio can be a bit hit and miss: it depends entirely on the skill of the dramatist. When I found out that Timberlake Wertenbaker had adapted Elena Ferrante’s Neopolitan Quartet, for radio, I was intrigued.
Broadcast as part of the Reading Europe season, this BBC Radio 4 production explores Europe in books. The first, (which I missed), My Brilliant Friend was aired in summer 2016.
I was transported to Naples, Italy, listening to the performances in the second novel, The Story of a New Name. Wertenbaker, the acclaimed dramatist, keeps us grounded in the realist and at times brutal story world of Ferrante’s work.
Lena (Elena) and Lila the two protagonists are dual narrators in this re-imaging of Ferrante’s story. Thus, the same event is seen from two different points-of-view. In less capable hands, this would be a device, but Wertenbaker does this beautifully.
Not everyone listening will warm to the decision by the producer to relocate Naples to Manchester. I can understand that a Southern British accent would be wrong, but Naples, a working class port city, has more in common with Liverpool or Newcastle. There is a disconnection between the opening Neopolitan theme music, (reminiscent of an advertisement for pasta sauce), segueing into broad Mancunian. But once you get over that, the actors do a fine job, particularly Monica Dolan, who plays Lena and Anastasia Hill, who is Lila.
These two hour-long episodes were broadcast over two Sundays, 15 and 22nd January, but you can listen to them on IPlayer Radio until 14 February 2017. Catch them while you can.