Michael Symmons Roberts A Man In Pieces

(3.8 stars; 4 reviews)

Michael Symmons Roberts’s play, A Man In Pieces, looks at the effect of technology on bodies and minds, through the testing of a new sonic medical scanner. Conor volunteers to test a new medical sonic scanner which records the sounds inside the body. From this recording an analysis of the patients health is drawn. The Goldberg Scanner could revolutionise medical science. No-one knows what effect this scanner has on human health. Conor finds himself a prisoner in a secure research facility, brought back day after day to spend another hour in this massive dark metal tunnel. He gradually realises that he's being mapped, being searched so deeply that he feels he's losing his identity and being taken over by a Doppelganger released when he enters the scanner. A Man In Pieces is based on a true story, a death row prisoner was used to test the latest generation of cross-section medical scanners, and his multi-sliced body was digitised and made available to medics across the world. Conor..........................................Graeme Hawley Jen..........................................Gillian Kearney Doppelganger...................................Clive Russell Margaret.........................................Sue Jenkins Matthew......................................Malcolm Raeburn With specially composed music by John Harle. Directed in Manchester by Susan Roberts Afternoon Play: A Man in Pieces 22 April 2010 Review from The Radio Times Although based on a true story, in which a death-row prisoner was used to test the latest generation of cross-section medical scanners, Michael Symmons Roberts has steered a different course and taken this drama on a darker route. It's a psychological sci-fi play in which a stalker - or so he first appears - volunteers to try out a new sonic scanner every day just so that he can be near the lady doctor who invented it. But who is messing with whose mind here? A very clever piece of writing. -- Jane Anderson

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.