Transcendental Wild Oats

Available for over a year

Louisa May Alcott (Louisa Harland - Hamnet) immortalised herself and her sisters in her book Little Women. In Transcendental Wild Oats, she tells the story of her parents, Abigail (Rebekah Staton) and Bronson (Alistair Petrie - Night Manager 2), and her father’s attempt to found a utopia on a farm in the New England wilderness, called Fruitlands. Accompanied by a dour Englishman named Charles Lane (Mathew Baynton - Ghosts), and a small band of eccentrics, they believed Eden could be returned to Earth through veganism, celibacy and organic farming – which none of them knew how to do. What followed were six months of misadventure, with comedy gradually threatening to turn into tragedy. This adaptation combines Louisa’s original short story with historical record, drawing on the letters and diaries of the people involved, to tell the full story of Fruitlands. Dramatised by Edward Rowett Original Story by Louisa May Alcott Directed by Gordon Kennedy and Edward Rowett Cast: Louisa May Alcott and Louy Alcott - Louisa Harland Bronson Alcott - Alistair Petrie Abigail Alcott - Rebekah Staton Charles Lane - Mathew Baynton Christopher Godwin as Joseph Palmer Tom Moores as Samuel Bower Edward Rowett as Abraham Wood Patricia Rodriguez as Ann Page Jason Barnett as Ralph Waldo Emerson Victoria Rigby as Anna Alcott Production Manager - Sarah Tombling Studio Engineer, Sound Design and Editing - Wilfredo Acosta Produced by Gordon Kennedy Recorded at The Soundhouse Studios, London An Absolutely production for BBC Radio 4