Anne-Marie Duff has narrated 6 audiobooks on Listento.it by 7 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.1★ across 74 ratings. The most-rated is The Return of the Native.
The Return of the Native
Summary
Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine) Exclusively from Audible Set on Egdon Heath, a fictional barren moor in Wessex, Eustacia Vye longs for the excitement of city life but is cut off from the world in her grandfather's lonely cottage. Clym Yeobright who has returned to the area to become a schoolmaster seems to offer everything she dreams of: passion, excitement and the opportunity to escape. However, Clym's ambitions are quite different from hers, and marriage only increases Eustacia's destructive restlessness, drawing others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness. Considered a truly modern story due to its sexual politics and hindered desires it still holds relevance to audiences today. There is a tension between the symbolic setting of the heath and the modernity of the characters that makes the listener question our freedom to shape our lives as we wish. Are we always able to live our dreams? Like George Eliot, Hardy was a Victorian realist whose novels and poetry were greatly influenced by Romanticism, especially the poet William Wordsworth. His critical thoughts on Victorian society can be seen throughout much of his work. Narrator Biography Multi-award winning actor and director Alan Rickman, famous for roles such as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films and the Sherriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), had a varied career that included performing on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company in modern and classical theatre productions. In America, he gained recognition for his Broadway appearance in Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985) and later his role in Die Hard (1988) made him internationally famous. Other notable performances included his 2001 return to the West End and Broadway in Noël Coward's Private Lives and Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman in 2010. Rickman is most remembered for his roles in films such as Love Actually (2003) and Sweeney Todd (2007) as well as voicing Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and Absalom the Caterpillar in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010).
Public Domain (P)2014 Audible, Inc.
A Streetcar Named Desire
Summary
Anne-Marie Duff stars as Blanche DuBois in BBC Radio 3's landmark production of Tennessee Williams' masterpiece.
Tennessee Williams' iconic play tells the story of a catastrophic confrontation between fantasy and reality, embodied in the characters of Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski.
Blanche DuBois arrives unexpectedly on the doorstep of her sister, Stella, and her explosive brother-in-law, Stanley. Over the course of one hot and steamy New Orleans summer, Blanche's fragile façade slowly crumbles, wreaking havoc on Stella and Stanley's already turbulent relationship....
Embodying the turmoil and drama of a changing nation, A Streetcar Named Desire strips Williams' tortured characters of their illusions, leaving a wake of destruction in their path.
Tennessee Williams' 1947 drama is one of the most loved and well-known stage plays of the 20th century. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award in 1948, and the 1951 film adaptation picked up four Oscars. In this compelling radio dramatisation, Blanche is played by Olivier Award-winning actress Anne-Marie Duff, with a stellar cast including Matthew Needham as Stanley and Pippa Bennett-Warner as Stella.
Cast: Blanche: Anne-Marie Duff Stella: Pippa Bennett-Warner Stanley: Matthew Needham Mitch: John Heffernan Steve: David Sturzaker Eunice: Sarah Ridgeway Pablo: John Dougal Mexican Woman: Leila Arias Collector: Tom Forrister Nurse: Georgie Glen
Dramatised by Sarah Churchwell.
Produced and directed by Sasha Yevtushenko.
©2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd (P)2018 BBC Worldwide Ltd
Othello
Summary
This great tragedy confronts the mystery at the heart of evil and contains some of Shakespeare's most magnificent dramatic verse. Othello, a Moorish general in the service of Venice, has married Desdemona, beautiful daughter of a Venetian senator. But Iago, Othello's malignant ensign, is determined to destroy their happiness. Cunningly bending Othello to his own purposes, Iago persuades the Moor that Desdemona is unfaithful to him. Tormented in a hell of jealousy, Othello moves inexorably toward the destruction of his innocent wife and himself. Othello is played by Don Warrington, David Threlfall is Iago, Anne-Marie Duff is Desdemona, and Jasper Britton plays Cassio.
Public Domain (P)2014 Blackstone Audio
The Absolute Book
Summary
A bewitching epic fantasy about a revenge killing, a mysterious scroll box that has survived centuries of fires, and the book that changed everything "Intricately plotted and gorgeously written, The Absolute Book is a cinematic tale that is by turns dark and dreamlike, yet ultimately hopeful." (Deborah Harkness, New York Times best-selling author of A Discovery of Witches) Taryn Cornick believes that the past - her sister's violent death, and her own ill-conceived revenge - is behind her, and she can get on with her life. She has written a successful book about the things that threaten libraries: insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring...but not all of the attention it brings her is good. A policeman, Jacob Berger, questions her about a cold case. Then there are questions about a fire in the library at her grandparents' house and an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter, as well as threatening phone calls and a mysterious illness. Finally a shadowy young man named Shift appears, forcing Taryn and Jacob toward a reckoning felt in more than one world. The Absolute Book is epic, action-packed fantasy in which hidden treasures are recovered, wicked things resurface, birds can talk, and dead sisters are a living force. It is a book of journeys and returns, from contemporary England to Auckland, New Zealand; from a magical fairyland to Purgatory. Above all, it is a declaration of love for stories and the ways in which they shape our worlds and create gods out of mortals.
©2021 Elizabeth Knox (P)2021 Penguin Audio
BBC Radio Shakespeare: A Collection of Eight Comedies
Summary
Eight full-cast BBC Radio productions of Shakespeare's best loved comedies. Full of merriment, mayhem, mischief and mistaken identity, here are eight iconic radio productions of Shakespeare's most magical comedies, featuring star casts and introduced by Sir Richard Eyre. Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare's delightful comedy sparkles with the verbal sparring of our two reluctant lovers in a world where nothing is quite what it seems. David Tennant and Samantha Spiro star as Benedick and Beatrice. As You Like It The Forest of Arden resonates with declarations of love in this joyous pastoral comedy, starring Helena Bonham Carter as Rosalind, David Morrissey as Orlando and Natasha Little as Celia. A Midsummer Night's Dream In this delightful comic fantasy, four young lovers and a troupe of actors have a bewitching encounter with Fairyland. Starring David Threlfall as Theseus/Oberon, Sylvestra Le Touzel as Titania/Hippolyta and Amanda Root as Hermia. The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare's thrilling courtroom drama explores the eternal themes of love and hate, mercy and justice. Starring Warren Mitchell as Shylock, with Martin Jarvis as Antonio, Juliet Aubrey as Portia and Samuel West as Bassanio. Twelfth Night On the night when all the world is turned on its head, girls become boys and women lust after women in this most optimistic of Shakespeare's comedies. Michael Maloney stars as Orsino and Anne-Marie Duff as Viola. The Tempest A ship at sea and an enchanted island are the settings for this allegorical tale of betrayal, sorcery, revenge and reconciliation. Starring Philip Madoc as Prospero and Nina Wadia as Ariel. The Taming of the Shrew Farce, disguise, elaborate role-playing and acerbic exchanges of wit combine to make up an extraordinary love story that still sparks controversy 400 years after it was written. Gerard McSorley stars as Petruchio and Ruth Mitchell as Katherina. All's Well That Ends Well This intriguing play tells of the questionable course of action a young woman takes to win the hand of the man she loves. Emma Fielding stars as Helena, with Siân Phillips, Miriam Margolyes, Richard Griffiths and Simon Russell Beale.
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
The Evelyn Waugh BBC Radio Drama Collection
Summary
Evelyn Waugh is one of the pre-eminent English novelists of the 20th century. This collection comprises six of his finest works, dramatised by award-winning writer Jeremy Front. Decline and Fall Paul Pennyfeather, an earnest, scholarly Oxford student, knows nothing of 1920's high-life – until one night he encounters The Bollinger Club.... This darkly comic romp set in the early Jazz Age stars Kieran Hodgson, John Sessions, Emilia Fox and Tom Hollander. Brideshead Revisited During the Second World War, a disillusioned Captain Charles Ryder finds himself posted to Brideshead Castle: the scene of the happiest years of his life and the beginnings of his friendship with Sebastian Flyte. A classic tale of life, love and a forgotten era, starring Ben Miles, Jamie Bamber, Anne-Marie Duff and Toby Jones. Scoop Hapless journalist William Boot is mistakenly sent to report on a war in Africa, where he finds love and ends up in the middle of a revolution... Waugh’s celebrated satire of newspaper life stars Rory Kinnear and Tim McInnerny. Sword of Honour (The Waugh Trilogy) This three-part dramatisation of Waugh’s satirical masterpiece follows the comic adventures of Guy Crouchbank during World War II. In Men at Arms, Guy is scarred by a broken marriage and searching for a purpose to live. When war breaks out, he feels he may have at last found a cause worth fighting for. Officers and Gentlemen sees Guy sent home in disgrace following a misbegotten raid in Dakar. But his next posting takes him somewhere totally unexpected.... In Unconditional Surrender, Guy is beginning to lose his idealism about the war – but his military career is revived with selection for a mission to Italy. Winner of Best Audio Drama (Adaptation) at the 2014 BBC Audio Drama Awards, this moving trilogy stars Paul Ready as Guy with Tim McInnerny as the Narrator, Tim Pigott-Smith as Brigadier Ritchie-Hook, Lee Ingleby as Trimmer and Lydia Leonard as Virginia. Text copyright © Evelyn Waugh 1928 (Decline and Fall), 1938 (Scoop), 1945 (Brideshead Revisited), 1952 (Men at Arms), 1955 (Officers and Gentlemen), 1961 (Unconditional Surrender). All rights reserved. Dramatised by Jeremy Front First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 27 October-10 November 2013
©2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2020 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd