Tamrat in the Cyclops’ Cave

The Odyssey Project: My Name Is Nobody (BBC Radio 4): Reading The OddeeseyHomer, the poet Alemu Tebeje was struck by how much the Cyclops’ cave was like the Ethiopia that he had to leave. His poetic drama follows Tamrat as he grows up. His boyhood playing in the mountains – and a cave – is idyllic. He falls in love, but becomes involved in student protests and, hunted by a metaphoric Cyclops, the all-seeing, but narrow-sighted police, has to flee.

Tamrat in the Cyclops’ Cave is a collaboration with the English poet Chris Beckett, who speaks Amharic. It is a richly sonic piece, in both languages, performed by a cast of Ethiopians living here, with music and sound from Addis Ababa and the mountains.

Writer and Narrator Alemu Tebeje

Producer: Julian May.

(To be broadcasted 0n Tuesday, 18th of April 2017 at 09:45am)