Inheritors [Drama On 3]

Madeline, grandchild of 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 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

Production co-ordinator - Gaelan Connolly

Sound designer - Keith Graham

Produced and 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 has also joined the protest, during which she assaults a policeman. Her actions could mean a prison sentence, unless she claims she did not know what she was doing and uses her connections to have the charges dropped. They also jeopardize funding for the college itself, which sets Madeleine against her own uncle, the president of the institution's trustees. Madeleine 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?

Background:

Susan Glaspell's American classic interrogates colonialism, nationalism and defence of free speech. First performed in 1921, it was written against the background of aggressive anti-Communist politics, as embodied in the 1918 Sedition Act, which gave the US government a means of suppressing speech and actions that could be interpreted as disloyal. Glaspell began her working life in the 1890s in the pioneering role of newspaper reporter. She later became a playwright, novelist and actress who, with her husband, founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company.

Susan Glaspell's play about freedom of speech and the right to protest in 1920s America.

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.

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?