Saturday Play - The White Chameleon

A witty and sad memory play by Christopher Hampton, set in Alexandria in the years up to and during the Suez invasion. It is about his father, in Egypt working for Cable and Wireless, his mother, also from a Cable and Wireless family, and Ibrahim, the Egyptian servant who has been running the house for 20 years and who helps 10-year-old Chris, the future playwright, make up dramas for homework. As it turned out, his first play was on in the West End when he was 20. His best-known plays include Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Total Eclipse, The Philanthropist and Tales From Hollywood. His films include Carrington, which he wrote and directed and which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, and Dangerous Liaisons for which he won an Oscar. This autobiographical play is about the sense he has of his roots in this particular place, his early realisation that he was born to be a writer and also of the experience in his own life, as a child in Egypt, of the sudden dislocations that marked the end of Empire. Alex Jennings plays Chris's father, Amanda Root his mother and Mido Hamada the redoubtable Ibrahim. The play is narrated by Christopher Hampton himself. Narrator ... Christopher Hampton Father ... Alex Jennings Ibrahim ... Mido Hamada Mother ... Amanda Root Chris ... Harvey O'Neil Guard/Fouad/Basso/Stockman/Shoes-shine man/Egyptian boy ... Ayman Hamdouchi Albert ... David Annen Edward ... Harrison Charles Paul ... Harry Manton Schoolboy ... Josef Lindsay Egyptian singers: Tony Kandel Yazid Eid Robert Hannouch Pianist: Michael Webborn Director: Polly Thomas Producer: Ann Scott A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.