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The Strangers' Will by Sarah Hall and Dominic Power

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Drama on 3 on BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3, 17 February 2013
 
Lovers Charlie (Nigel Lindsay) and Ellie (Emily Raymond) leave for a weekend at a remote Cumbrian hotel, where Ellie had spent some of her youth with her father, a member of the clergy.  They experience a frosty reception; despite the claims of the hotel to offer an unrivalled service, the two protagonists feel as if they have intruded into something that no one wants to know about. 
 
The action is further complicated by some mysterious voices, one of them being Ellie's ex-husband (another member of the clergy) who cannot leave her alone despite being separated from her for over twelve months.  There are other unidentified voices whose presence becomes more and more threatening as the drama unfolds.
 
As the play unfolds, we understand how both Charlie and Ellie are taunted by memories of the past, as well as macabre dreams involving possession, abduction and sexual jealousy.  The drama contains numerous unsettling twists, where the combination of music - an eclectic combination of pieces old and new - and overlapping voices becomes genuinely shocking.
 
The drama has been bolstered by a series of notable supporting performances: Jacqueline Pearce's Gwen, ostensibly a writer with a story to tell Ellie, turns out to be someone completely different from what we (and Ellie herself) expected.  The director was Lawrence Jackson.