Now, Love by Virginia Gilbert.  Dir. David Ian Neville.  Perf. Sorcha Cusack, Christopher Rozycki, Jack Klaff.  BBC Radio 4, 16 Mar. 2015.  BBCiPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055g1jq

Divorcee Denise (Sorcha Cusack) looks for love and finds it in Polish émigré Karol (Christopher Rozycki).  At first the affair goes well, but Karol turns out not quite to be what he pretends. 

The story is a familiar one, but director David Ian Neville transforms it into a compelling piece by focusing on Denise’s state of mind.  She knows that she might be traveling up an amatory blind alley; but the divorce has hit her hard, and she believes that being with Karol might increase her sense of self-respect.  Now, Love looks at the difficulties of cultures relating to one another, especially when Karol is part of a close-knit group encompassing buddy Mikolaj (Jack Klaff) and close ‘friend’ Magdalena (Marta Kielkowicz).  There is one particularly disturbing scene taking in a place where one of Denise’s friends offers a diatribe against the Poles as a whole, especially in the post-communist era.  His combination of ignorance, masquerading as ‘humanist’ political knowledge, is quite breath-taking.