Roots in Water

"ROOTS IN WATER is a series of 12 short plays, ranging from five to 15 minutes in length. Some have already been staged at a small theater in Woodstock, but the new radio production is the first time they have been performed as a whole. Richard calls the plays `a fragmented portrait of a generation' -- his generation, the `baby boom' children of the 1950s who came to adulthood in post-Vietnam America. All the characters are American, though not all the plays take place in the USA. The drama spans the years 1976 to 1988 and the plays were written over the past eight years. Stylistically different -- some are funny, some satirical, some moving -- they focus on a disparate set of characters including a Vietnam pilot, former anti-war campaigners, teachers, politicians, and lawyers. Nelson sees the series as being `like a volume of collected stories'." Radio Times

"A tapestry of American society." Sheridan Morley, The Sunday Telegraph

"Something of the spareness and the ability to set up slow-burning trains for thought which mark out Raymond Carver's short stories" Robert Hanks, The Independent