The Painted Ladies, the first story in Janis Spence's collection of short fiction
on the beach in spanish room (
Rattling Books) will broadcast on the National CBC Radio program
Between the Covers, January 25 - 26, 2007
on the beach in spanish room by Janis Spence
Six otherwise unpublished inter-connected short stories follow the lives of a group of friends from early childhood through a rebellious and sometimes catastrophic young adulthood and on into an unsettled middle age. Written and performed by veteran actor, playwright and stage director Janis Spence, this collection garnered Rattling Books an Earphones Award from the US magazine AudioFile.
"What an unassuming but brilliant little gem this recording is. Set in Newfoundland, all six stories stand proudly on their own, but together they have the sweep of a novel. The reason is Janis Spence's marvellous characters, "who wore their lives as casually as big sweaters." ... Spence gives a masterful performance of all the roles she's created - and it doesn't hurt that she's got that incomparable Newfoundland accent."
- AudioFile Magazine, Earphones award winner
"Oh, it’s black. And sometimes bleak, yet amazing in its ability to lift the characters above it through irony, humour and the character’s own sense of the absurd. "
- The Current
"...without sounding the least bit over-the-top, she shifts from hearty priest to ancient crone to drugged-out con artist in the blink of an eye. And she is funny! "
- Northeast Avalon Times
Listening Clip 1: Listening Clip 2:
