'Tis Pity She's a Whore

A BBC Radio Full-Cast Production

By: John Ford

Narrated by: Jessie Buckley, full cast, Damien Molony

A visceral, revamped BBC radio production of John Ford's classic play about a doomed love between a brother and sister

With its shocking portrayal of incest, intrigue and murder, this powerful Jacobean revenge drama scandalised audiences when it was first performed in the 1620s, and is still controversial today.

When siblings Giovanni and Annabella embark on a passionate affair, Annabella falls pregnant with her brother's child. Knowing she must marry to protect her honour, she chooses one of the many suitors clamouring for her hand - but when her secret is revealed, the lovers are caught up in a bloody chain of events that culminate in a poisoning, a blinding, a stabbing and a brutal massacre...

Reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, but darker and more twisted, John Ford's 17th-century tale of sex and death is restyled for radio in Pauline Harris's compassionate, disturbing adaptation. Intercut with the music of Jimi Hendrix and Nick Cave, it also features an original song, 'In Deep', composed by Jules Maxwell and sung by Jessie Buckley, Indira Varma, and Abby Andrews. The play is introduced by Professor Emma Smith from Hertford College, Oxford.

Cast
Annabella - Jessie Buckley
Giovanni - Damien Molony
Signor Florio - Niall Buggy
Putana - Fenella Woolgar
Friar Bonaventura - Oliver Cotton
Lord Soranzo - Matthew Pidgeon
Vasques - Enzo Cilenti
Hippolita - Indira Varma
Grimaldi - Gary Duncan
Cardinal - Neil McCaul
Officer - Adam Fitzgerald
Dorando - Tayla Kovacevic-Ebong

Adapted and directed by Pauline Harris

First broadcast BBC Radio 3, 7 January 2018

©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Beautifully performed but cut to the bone

The director has cut the action of the play to the bone, and while this does bring the central action into sharp focus, it also causes the play to lose some of its sense of teeming life. I especially lament the character Bergetto, who is entirely missing from this production: his death is one of the most horrifying and pathetic in English Renaissance drama. — On the other hand… Jessie Buckley.

Masterpiece of a play

Yes the play has been cut by about an hour and so there’s obviously a lot lost here - reading 'Tis Pity is better - and the play definitely deserves a production available online of its full length with an even better cast and director, but still this is a very well done radio version of 'Tis Pity. The actors get their characters right, the pacing works, the director and scene slasher (writer who cut so much out) do a good job at bringing it together. This production is also better than the drastically cut BBC radio productions of Middleton and Webster’s plays as well as a lot of Shakespeare BBC radio productions in recent years. This is especially good to listen to for folks new to the author, John Ford. Highly recommend this and if you like it, read the play in its entirety, and other plays by Ford, he was absolutely brilliant.

Too much cut out and annoying music

I was a skeptical when I saw the length of this production, but then I read all the great reviews. Honestly, I am at a loss to understand the high marks. The music was annoying, and the play was chopped to bits. Good productions of early modern drama that isn’t Shakespeare is hard to find, and this isn’t one of them