Work - Writing

On May-Day:

Working in different timescales the play takes a present day tourist and a wartime Polish exile through Siberia – one on the modern Trans-Siberian Express, the other in cramped and insanitary cattle-truck conditions hauled by a steam engine. Both characters are kept largely in ignorance of goings on in the outside world and must rely on their own resources – the play compares their experiences.
The play ultimately involves the Chernobyl disaster – Paul was travelling in the then USSR during April/May 1986 – the time of the disaster and wrote the play shortly thereafter.

  • Broadcaster: BBC
  • Transmission:BBC Radio 4 Sunday Play – Tx Nov 23rd 1986 and BBC World Service Play of the Week during Jan 1987.
    Repeated 10th Anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster BBC Radio 4 29th April 1996
    Repeated 20th Anniversary BBC Radio 7 (4 Xtra) -1st May 2006
  • Cast:Natasha Pyne, Christopher Fairbank, Jan Winters and Bryan Pringle
  • Director:Ned Chaillet