The Penguin Podcast is back! Listen Now
Arabian Afternoons

Arabian Afternoons

Three full-cast dramas inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights

Summary

A trilogy of contemporary plays inspired by tales from The Arabian Nights

The Casper Logue Affair by Sebastian Baczkiewicz: An absurd black comedy thriller, set in Baghdad. Junior diplomat Bob Goldacre is in trouble: the American businessman he was looking after has vanished from a Baghdad street. As the suspects pile up, Goldacre is going to have his work cut out if he wants to save his career and make sure that justice is done.

The Porter and the Three Ladies by Rachel Joyce: It is time for Shahrazad to tell another tale to save her life. In this story within a story, we find out that if Joe doesn't find the exclusive to satisfy his ruthless editor, he will lose his job. He finds three beautiful women in Damascus but what is the truth behind their secret life?

A Dish of Pomegranates by Peter Jukes: Shared roots and scattered families in the melting pot of modern Jerusalem. Tired after a stressful trip, Ajib is stopped by security officers as he tries to fly out of Ben Gurion airport on his way home to the U.S. They don't think his story adds up. Can he make them believe him? And does he actually know the whole story himself?


The Casper Logue Trilogy
Written by Sebastian Baczkiewicz
Directed and produced by Abigail le Fleming

Cast
Shahrazad: Sirine Saba
Shahrayar: Kevork Malikyan
Aseera: Betsabeh Emran
Rahim: Sargon Yelda
Goldacre: Trevor White
Hammond: Bruce Alexander
Casper: Nathan Osgood
Kindermann: Rufus Wright
Carlton: John Biggins
Charlene: Alison Pettit

The Porter and the Three Ladies
Written by Rachel Joyce
Directed by Tracey Neale
Produced by Abigail le Fleming

Cast
Shahrazad: Sirine Saba
Shahrayar: Kevork Malikyan
Joe: Stephen Tompkinson
Margot: Joanna Monro
Mira: Indira Varma
Affyah: Jasmine Jones
Juliba: Melissa Advani

A Dish of Pomegranates
Written by Peter Jukes
Directed by Mary Peate
Produced by Abigail le Fleming

Cast
Shahrazad: Sirine Saba
Shahrayar / Vardan: Kevork Malikyan
Ajib: William El-Gardi
Orit: Betsabeh Emran
Rafi: Zubin Varla
Howard: Allan Corduner
Julia: Keely Beresford
Café Owner: Stefan Kalipha
Tawfik / Trader 2: Mozaffar Shafeie
Trader 1 / Flight Attendant: David Seddon
Protestor: Rufus Wright

Originally broadcast in March 2010.
©2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

About the authors

Sebastien Baczkiewicz

Learn More

Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce is the author of the Sunday Times and international bestsellers The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Perfect, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy, Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North, The Music Shop, Miss Benson's Beetle, and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other Stories.
Rachel’s books have been translated into thirty-seven languages and have sold millions of copies worldwide. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize and longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. The critically acclaimed film of the novel, for which Rachel also wrote the screenplay, was released in 2023. Miss Benson’s Beetle won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize in 2021. Rachel was awarded the Specsavers National Book Awards New Writer of the Year in December 2012 and was shortlisted for the UK Author of the Year in 2014. In 2024 she was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Rachel has written over twenty original afternoon plays and adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4. She lives with her family near Stroud.
Learn More

Peter Jukes

Peter Jukes is a British writer and journalist. Through his TV appearances and regular columns on the Daily Beast website and in Newsweek he has become one of the UK’s most authoritative commentators on the News International phone-hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry. He writes regularly for New Statesman, Prospect magazine and the Independent on the links between culture and politics and is a high-profile contributor to the US political blogs Daily Kos and Motley Moose. Jukes is also a dramatist for radio and television, whose credits include In Deep, Bad Faith, Waking the Dead and Sea of Souls. He lives in London.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more