An adaptation of Matt Haig's book, this radio play is the life of Tom, a man born in the 1500s, who from the onset of puberty ages approximately one year for everyone else's fifteen. Tom is an "albatross", compared to the "mayfly" of most of the rest of humanity. His condition is hereditary, and even though his wife Rose didn't share it (dying unpleasantly of plague in the early 1600s), his daughter does.
Unfortunately, she is lost during the plague years, and Tom has spent 400 years trying to find her, with the help of the Albatross society. This shadowy organisation keeps the Albas hidden from public knowledge, assisting (and also enforcing) a change of identity every eight years. And ensuring that its members never fall in love.
The old "I live forever but my lovers keep dying" is a bit of a blow to morale, generally. This society is run by Hendrich, a man who looks in his seventies and so must be into his second millennia by now. He has immense wealth and power, but insists on the members performing "favours" for him between each life.
The programme runs on two plot threads, one present day, as Tom seeks a return to the past, with a new life in London, once again seeking his daughter in the part of the world she was born, and feeling the loneliness that comes from centuries spent in solitude. The second thread is flashback, to his early decades in a more superstitious time, where a young man who never ages attracts the attention of Witchfinders.
It's a mostly sedate, measured piece, spoken with a quiet voice that gives a good feeling of the age that would be involved. Similar to Pilgrim in its way. The action never gets terribly exciting, but it's a very soulful telling, full of an impressive level of tortured existence and yearning for better.
Was originally a Book at Bedtime, but definitely works better as an omnibus, which is how I listened to most of it, as it's thankfully now available. It's a couple of hours of your time, and I don't think you'll consider them wasted, even if you don't have 400 years to spare.
Recommended.
Tagged: Radio Drama Monologue Fiction Magical Realism