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Marathon Tales by Hannah Silva and Colin Teevan

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BBC Radio 3, 11 August 2012
 
This play ingeniously combined the stories of different marathon runners ancient and modern, ranging from Pheidippides (Alex Lanipekun) to the Erhopian runner of the 1960s Abebe Bikila (Richie Campbell), the British runner accused of shamateurism John Tarrant (Sam Alexander), and the American runner breaking convention by running the Boston marathon in the late 1960s, Kathrine Switzer (Susie Riddell).
 
The play itself suggested that marathon runners across history have experienced similar emotions: the opportunity to reflect on their status in life, as they traverse the distance of 26 miles, 385 yards; the need to overcome obstacles, both human and institutional, in the desire to accomplish their tasks; and the pain involved in actually completing the run, both emotional and physical.
 
Sometimes the interior monologues tended to become rather verbose, holding up the progress of the plot; but the play itself depicted the stresses experienced by marathon runners past and present, as they tried to complete the gruelling course in spite of impossible odds. Authors Silva and Teevan drew on a great deal of archival research to produce a play that showed just how far individuals were likely to go in pursuit of their objective - to complete the run, so that they could say they had accomplished it in spite of impossible odds. The director was David Hunter.