Songs And Lamentations

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012012061720120623 (R4)Songs and Lamentations by Michael Symmons Roberts interweaving new translations of two powerful books of the Bible: the 'Song of Songs' - the most sensual biblical love poetry; and the 'Book of Lamentations' - its most searing poetry of violence and vengeance.

Through a fresh contemporary translation working with Biblical historians, the reverberations in these texts throw light on current events in the same part of the world.

Jeremiah Peter Hamilton-Dyer

Rachel Gillian Kearney

Pashur Russell Dixon

Nathan Tom Ferguson

Zedekiah David Seddon

Thomas Henry Devas

Samuel Patrick Lally

Ana Deborah McAndrew

Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts

A powerful story of the horrific destruction of a once great city, and the love story of a couple who find hope and solace in each other offering two very different perspectives on the days leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies in 587 BC.

Set in the middle east, this poetry of violence, heat, passion and vengeance has clear resonance with the intractable cycle of violence - and the survival of love - in that same part of the world 2500 years on. The themes and wisdom of 'Song of Songs' and 'Lamentations' have never been more current or more apposite.

The two episodes mesh together to form a single drama looking at the same last days of Jerusalem from two very different perspectives.

Seen through the eyes of Jeremiah, the troubled prophet. Crippled by poverty and oppression, Jerusalem's streets are buzzing with talk of revolution. King Zedekiah needs a grand gesture to hold on to power. His advisers are urging him to raise an army to overthrow the Babylonians, but there is one siren voice against an uprising - Jeremiah. So Zedekiah has him arrested.

Drama looking at the last days of Jerusalem from two very different perspectives.

022012062420120630 (R4)Songs and Lamentations , a new translation of the two biblical books Lamentations and Song of Songs by Michael Symmons Roberts . A powerful story of the horrific destruction of a once great city, and the love story of a couple who find hope and solace in each other offering two very different, but complementary, perspectives on the days leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian armies in 587 BC.

Set in the middle east, this poetry of violence, heat, passion and vengeance has clear resonance with the intractable cycle of violence - and the survival of love - in that same part of the world 2500 years on. The themes and wisdom of 'Song of Songs' and 'Lamentations' have never been more current or more apposite.

Jeremiah Peter Hamilton-Dyer

Rachel Gillian Kearney

Pashur Russell Dixon

Nathan Tom Ferguson

Zedekiah David Seddon

Thomas Henry Devas

Samuel Patrick Lally

Ana Deborah McAndrew

Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts

2. Although left to starve by the King, the jailed Jeremiah is kept alive by the young servant girl from the palace, who brings him food, ostensibly because she wants to help him. But she has another motive.

She is meeting a man nearby, one of the King's own ministers. Love between a minister and a servant is impossible. Nonetheless they flirt and entice each other, in the poetry of the Song of Songs.

Day by day, pressure mounts on the King. The people want revolution against the Babylonians, but Jeremiah the prophet's warnings are unsettling him.

The impossible love of the couple in Song of Songs becomes an elegy for the city

And its people.

Drama looking at the last days of Jerusalem from two very different perspectives.