Artangel Interaction and BBC Radio 3 – The Verb present
a radio play for insomniacs
by Janice Kerbel
Janice Kerbel’s Nick Silver Can’t Sleep tells a narcotic tale of thwarted desire for love and sleep set in an urban garden on a moonless night. Its characters are all nocturnal plants.
Nick Silver (Nicotiana sylvestris), a nocturnal subtropical perennial in bloom, longs for Cereus Grand (Selenicereus grandiflorus), an exotic climbing perennial who blooms just one night a year. The two plants are destined, botanically, never to be together.
This is a new commission for Artangel Interaction’s Nights of London series of artist-led projects exploring the city with the people who wake, work or watch over it. Kerbel has developed her project in conversation with insomniacs, sleep scientists and botanists.
The premiere of Nick Silver Can't Sleep, directed by Ariane Koek, was produced and broadcast on 28 October 2006 by BBC Radio 3 – The Verb.
The cast is led by Rufus Sewell as Nick Silver, Josette Simon as Moonbeam (Ipomoea alba) and Fiona Shaw as Cereus Grand. For the full cast list, click here.
To listen again, click on the arrow below (the play will start after a short pause). The play lasts 20 minutes, just longer than it takes to fall comfortably asleep.
To read Janice Kerbel's character notes, click here.
Image from Giambattista della Porta’s Phytognomonica (Naples: Orazio Salviani, 1588). By permission of the Gray Herbarium Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
Artangel Interaction is funded by The National Lottery through Arts Council England, John Lyon’s Charity and the generous support of Elizabeth and Vincent Meyer. Janice Kerbel thanks the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Canada Council for their support. With grateful thanks to those who have volunteered their stories, experience and expertise to enable this project.
Artangel’s programmes are made possible through the generous support: of Arts Council England, London; Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; The Company of Angels; Artangel International Circle. Artangel is a registered charity no. 292976.
