BBC Radio 4: Orwell Vs. Kafka

Opening Lines is the weekly programme in which producer and writer John Yorke unpacks the themes behind the books and stories adapted for Radio 4's weekend dramas. In this special event for Hay, he explores the work of two of the most influential novelists of the twentieth century: George Orwell, whose Nineteen Eighty-Four was published 75 years ago and Franz Kafka, who died 100 years ago. Why do their dark ideas about the individual and society – the Orwellian and the Kafkaesque - still resonate so powerfully with us today?
Joining John Yorke on stage to discuss these essential writers are award-winning playwright Ed Harris, who has adapted Kafka’s The Trial and The Man Who Disappeared in new dramatisations for Radio 4 broadcasting in June, as well as a brand new play about Kafka called Franz and Felice. And Robin Brooks, one of the most experienced radio dramatists in the business, who has recently abridged a special reading of Nineteen Eighty-Four for Radio 4 and who was responsible for a day-long version of James Joyce’s Ulysses, as well as versions of classics like Boccaccio’s Decameron, Robert Graves’ I Claudius, the novels of Raymond Chandler, and many others.