Episode 8 • What of the Night, by Djuna Barnes

What of the Night was adapted for radio by Cyrus Lillian from Djuna Barnes’s novel Nightwood.

Featuring Amanda Davies as Fiona, Norbert Weisser as Felix, William Wintersole as Doctor O’Connor, Marlene Silverstein as Nora, Valerie Snyder as Robin, Frederic Downs as The Priest, and Bill Hunt and Paul Vangelisti in miscellaneous roles.

Directed by William Wintersole and Paul Vangelisti, with engineering by Ed Hammond.

This performance was first broadcast on KPFK on January 12, 1982. Special thanks to Pacifica Radio Archives for their generous support. Explore their extensive collections here: https://www.pacificaradioarchives.org

Brought to you by Magra Radio, an infrequent broadcast experiment of Magra Books.

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Djuna Barnes

The American author Djuna Barnes is perhaps best remembered for her novel Nightwood, a modernist classic that depicts a complex sapphic affair. Despite this impression, it is as a working artist, playwright, poet, editor, and journalist where she offered a range of cultural contributions while battling a long-simmering rage and often passionately holding contradictory positions on topics inclusive of but not limited to lesbianism, literary taste, and legacy.

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Episode 8 • What of the Night, by Djuna Barnes