desperate nothings

Intermission is a very short radio play I wrote in 2015. It recently passed the tenth anniversary of its broadcast on RTÉ Radio 1—Ireland’s national broadcaster—and I thought I’d mark the milestone with a short post about how the play came to be produced, and how it felt to hear it broadcast live over the internet from the other side of the world.

This is the only radio play I’ve ever written. All my other plays have been for the stage. But when I finished this one, I felt strongly compelled to try and get it in front of an audience. There was something about it I was genuinely satisfied with—especially its slightly meta quality, which I’d aimed for and, I think, achieved. It felt like something that deserved to be heard.

I did some research into production companies and broadcasters who might take it on. RTÉ Radio 1 was clearly at the top of the list. I knew the play was very short, but I believed in it. I printed out a copy, found the right address, and sent it off to Ireland.

A week or two later, I was out walking my dog one night when my phone rang. The number wasn’t Australian—I nearly didn’t answer, assuming it was spam. But I picked up, and a thick Irish accent introduced herself as Goretti Slavin, producer at RTÉ Radio 1. She was warm and charming. She told me that most people in the office had read my play—and they loved it. They wanted to produce it. Would I be okay with that? And how did one thousand euro sound as payment?

It was, without exaggeration, the best phone call I’ve ever received.

Soon after, I signed the contract and Goretti began updating me on the production. It came together in about two weeks. There were no rewrites—just some subtle additions: sound design, background effects, a little music. The actors (there are only two characters) were excellent.

I wanted to hear it live, not as a replay. The show it aired on—Drama on One—broadcasts Sunday nights in Ireland, which meant a 5:00am Monday start here in Brisbane. I set an alarm, plugged headphones into my laptop, and lay there in the dark, wide awake and listening.

Hearing it go to air live was one of the best moments of my creative life.

Intermission is still available online. If you’d like to listen, here’s the link:
👉 https://www.rte.ie/radio/podcasts/20795788-intermission-by-peter-ayscough/

I hope you enjoy it.

The stories are varied—some of them seem to riff variously on themes of control and escape, both successful and unsuccessful. A few are just strange. They don’t necessarily tie together in a neat bow, or maybe they do.

Publishing this feels a bit like letting go of something I’ve been carrying for a long while. If you end up reading it, I’d love to know which story stayed with you—or which one didn’t.

The paperback is now available on Amazon here, with an ebook version to follow soon.

I’ve just put out a small collection of one-act plays. Some were written a while ago, one was produced for radio, and one is new. They’ve been sitting around in various forms for years, and I wanted to get them together in one place.

The plays include:

• Final Performance – A burnt restaurant, a broken life, a bar and lots of grasshoppers.
• Over the Rainbow – A bush school reunion. Power, abuse and escape.
• Greener Pastures – Two paths challenged, and an unlikely alliance formed.
• Intermission – Originally written for radio. Recursive.
• The Flood – Pithy and Pinteresque.

The book’s called Intermission and Other Short Plays. It’s available now as a paperback and Kindle eBook on Amazon.