John Steinbeck - East Of Eden

(4.7 stars; 76 reviews)

John Steinbeck's epic tale exploring the nature of good and evil, inspired by the story of Cain and Abel. Starring Holliday Grainger, Robin Laing and David Yip. Dramatised in three parts by Donna Franceschild. Director: Kirsty Williams Episode 1 Cathy Ames is a young woman who has always filled her parents with a deep sense of unease. Adam and Charles Trask are brothers whose relationship veers dangerously between love and hate. Their lives are about to collide in a dark and febrile drama about familial love. Cyrus….. Jimmy Chisholm
 Charles…..Steven Duffy
 Cathy …..Holliday Grainger
 Adam ….. Robin Laing 
Mr Edwards ….. Gavin Mitchell 
Mr Ames…..Nick Underwood 
Mrs Ames…..Anita Vettesse
 Narrator….. David Yip Episode 2 Adam has fallen under the spell of the enigmatic Cathy – a woman who has murdered her parents and now, on the run, has married Adam. He’s captivated by her. But on their wedding night it was Adam’s brother Cathy slept with. The newly-weds are about to start a new life in California, but it’s not the one Adam imagines. Samuel….. Jimmy Chisholm
 Cathy …..Holliday Grainger 
Cal ….. Alasdair Hankinson Faye…..Kathryn Howden 
Aron ….. Samuel Keefe
 Adam ….. Robin Laing
 Abra ….. Gemma McElhinney
 Dr Tilson…..Nick Underwood
 Ethel…..Anita Vettesse 
Lee….. David Yip Episode 3 Adam Trask has been raising his twin boys with the help of his cook, Lee. His estranged wife -the enigmatic Cathy - has taken over a brothel after murdering its previous owner. In order to protect the twins, Adam has always maintained that their mother is dead, but Cal, after listening in at a door, now knows the truth. That knowledge is set to destroy the Trask world. Judge..... Jimmy Chisholm Cathy .....Holliday Grainger Cal ..... Alasdair Hankinson Aron ..... Samuel Keefe Adam ..... Robin Laing Abra ..... Gemma McElhinney Joe ..... Gavin Mitchell Will.....Nick Underwood Ethel.....Anita Vettesse Lee..... David Yip Three episodes from: First broadcast: Sunday 3rd Jan 2016, 15:00 on BBC Radio 4 FM In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness. First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis. [GoodReads]

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.