Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Berlin Alexanderplatz. Part 1

Starring Claes Bang and Lee Ross a dramatization by Simon Scardifield of Alfred D枚blin's modernist masterpiece set in the ruthless underworld of 1920s Berlin

A dramatisation by Simon Scardifield from Michael Hofmann's landmark translation of Alfred D枚blin's modernist masterpiece - a novel that exploded into 1929 and changed urban writing forever.

Ex-convict, Franz Biberkopf, is back on the streets of Berlin determined to go straight. But Berlin has other ideas.

Narrator ..... Claes Bang
Franz ..... Lee Ross
Mack ..... Samuel James
Reinhold ..... David Hounslow
Eva ..... Clare Corbett
Herbert ..... Mark Edel-Hunt
Pums ..... Neil McCaul
Franzi ..... Ria Marshall
Lina ..... Jasmine Hyde
Henschke ..... Michael Begley
Eliser ..... Justice Ritchie
Cilly ..... Grace Cooper Milton
Speaker ..... Chris Jack
Alice ..... Christine Kavanagh

Produced by Emma Harding and Marc Beeby
Directed by David Hunter and Gemma Jenkins

Published in 1929, Germany is on the brink of fatal change. D枚blin throws everything at us, like a radio tuner going up and down the dial: weather reports, historical trivia, adverts, sporting results, this is a world where buildings come alive and beer and Schnapps conduct conversations with us. Berlin itself is as much a character as Biberkopf, it鈥檚 like a vast pinball machine through which our protagonist ricochets. We're looking down on the city through God's eyes one moment and feeling the grittiness and grime of Franz's reality the next.

Germans still consider Berlin Alexanderplatz one of their most important - and most loved - literary works. This is Germany's Ulysses, playful in its form and as alluring as the modern city it both invents and immortalizes.

1 hour, 57 minutes

Last on

Sat 5 Feb 2022 14:30

Broadcast

  • Sat 5 Feb 2022 14:30

Opening Lines

Opening Lines

John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the stories in Radio 4's weekend afternoon dramas.

The Shakespeare Sessions

The Shakespeare Sessions

Immerse yourself in Shakespeare鈥檚 world