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Performance Season 4 Episodes
Season 4 Episode Guide
5 Episodes 1994 - 1994
Episode 1
Message for Posterity
97 mins
A Parliamentary committee decides to commission a portrait as a memorial to an ageing Conservative, wartime ex-Prime Minister, Sir David Browning. Bizarrely, they choose anarchic, anti-establishment and equally ageing artist James Player, who appears to stand for the very opposite values and positions to his prospective sitter. During sittings the two men find many opportunities to score political and social points off each. Screened with an with an introduction by Brian Walden, a contemporary of writer Dennis Potter at Oxford and an old Oxford political sparring partner.
Episode 2
Measure for Measure
Modern dress version of Shakespeare's "problem comedy" emphasizing the darker elements of the play and eliminating most of the humor, as Claudio is dragged to the police station on charges of fornication, and given a rectal exam in front of a window.
Episode 3
The Deep Blue Sea
100 mins
A woman unhappy in her passionless marriage leaves her husband for a younger and more ardent lover.
Episode 4
The Mother
Mon, Oct 24, 1994
Paddy Chayefsky's 1954 play set in the Bronx tells the story of a recently widowed 66-year-old seeks a job after 40 years if being a homemaker.
Episode 5
Summer Day's Dream
105 mins
It is 1975. The third world war happened soon after the second ended and Britain was devastated by nuclear weapons. The largest town is Shrewsbury and the country is entirely pastoral. After an important mineral is found in the South Downs, the three great powers, USSR, America and India send representatives to organize the mining of the mineral. Due to travel problems in this non-industrial country they have to stay with a local family for much longer than expected. During the stay they are each asked difficult questions about their lives and the societies they come from. The inhabitants of the now non-industrial Britain have no dislike of their pastoral existence. The title of the play comes from a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that is being produced by two members of the family.