Janice Kerbel: Nick Silver Can't Sleep

A play for insomniacs performed by Rufus Sewell, Josette Simon and Fiona Shaw, and produced by BBC Radio 3 - The Verb.

Janice Kerbel’s Nick Silver Can’t Sleep tells a narcotic tale of thwarted desire for love and sleep set in an urban garden on a moonless night. Its characters are all nocturnal plants. Nick Silver (Nicotiana sylvestris), a nocturnal subtropical perennial in bloom, longs for Cereus Grand (Selenicereus grandiflorus), an exotic climbing perennial who blooms just one night a year. The two plants are destined, botanically, never to be together.

Kerbel developed her project in conversation with insomniacs, sleep scientists and botanists. The premiere of Nick Silver Can't Sleep, directed by Ariane Koek, was produced and broadcast on 28 October 2006 by BBC Radio 3 – The Verb.

The cast is led by Rufus Sewell as Nick Silver, Josette Simon as Moonbeam (Ipomoea alba) and Fiona Shaw as Cereus Grand.

This project was supported by Arts Council England, Artangel International Circle, Special Angels and The Company of Angels