When "Jude the Obscure" was published in 1895, the criticism Thomas Hardy received was so harsh that he vowed never to write another book. And he didn’t. Time has ushered this novel into the English canon, and now the Burning Coal Theatre is resurrecting it for the stage as a two-part musical. Host Frank Stasio talks to the play’s director, Jerome Davis, and playwright Ian Finley to discuss the relevance of Hardy’s work more than a century after it was published. Actors Stephen Letrent and Alice Rothman-Hicks, playing Jude and Sue respectively, join to perform scenes from the play.
Shawn Wen joined the staff of The State of Things in March 2012 and served as associate producer until February 2014.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.