Audio Drama – Page 18

The SFFaudio Podcast #185 – AUDIO DRAMA: ESCAPE-SUSPENSE

Podcast

Escape The SFFaudio Podcast #185 – Jesse, Tamahome, and Christine A. Miller (of Escape-Suspense.com) talk about the two CBS radio drama anthology series, Escape and Suspense. But first we play two shows: From the series Escape – Treasure, Inc., and from Suspense – Always Room At The Top.

Talked about on today’s show:
Escape-Suspense.com, adapted scripts vs. original scripts, Escape vs. Suspense, John and Gwen Bagney, layer upon layer of double-cross, the hopeless ending, what is Clive’s motivation?, a femme fatale, exotic locales, these shows still work 50+ years on, Christine is an episode historian (not a radio historian), Pursuit, Romance, are you looking for Three Skeleton Key?, the use of radio drama in middle schools, The Most Dangerous Game, Archive.org, Edgar Allan Poe, The Hitchhiker, Lucille Fletcher, the Mercury Theatre, Sorry, Wrong Number, running out of shows, San Francisco, the Field Trip app, a lonely workplace is great for radio drama, “don’t think about it at all, just do it”, bad episodes, the movie star connection, Vincent Price, Lux Radio Theater, anthology series, an anthology mystery vs. Law & Order, the format, killing characters, ripped from the headlines, Earth Abides (was done as a two part adaptation), George R. Stewart, The Scarlet Plague, Jack London, San Fransisco as a setting, Man Alive, the Ferry Building, is Always Room At The Top set in New York?, La Mirada, “it could only happen in the world of Suspense?”, Jack Webb, Wally Maher, Anne Baxter, pacing like The Front Page, “business workplace episodes”, mistreated employee episodes, reaching for the 47%, An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge (Ambrose Bierce), remakes remakes remakes, appointment radio, The Country Of The Blind (H.G. Wells), Favorite Story, Plunder Of The Sun (David F. Dodge), Hard Case Crime, Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Rim Of Terror, The Killer Mine (Hammond Innes), “Nancy Drew with adults”, those impossible to get books, The Quick And The Dead by Vincent Starrett (Arkham House), Cornell Woolrich.

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBCR4+RA.cc: Metropolis (2006) RADIO DRAMA

SFFaudio Online Audio

Ace Books F-246 - Metropolis by Thea Von Harbou

The Tower of Babylon in Metropolis I wrote about it airing six year ago, but I’ve just now heard it.

Metropolis, an astoundingly great radio dramatization of a famous novel that was turned into a famous movie, is nuanced, deep, surprising, and totally, idea based.

I’m astounded, really and truly astounded and amazed too at the depth and power an hour long program is able to achieve.

The script has humor, skepticism, cynicism, hope, sex, romance, informative infodumps, and a city full of pathos.

The production, acting, pacing, and composite audio experience is completely awe inspiring.

What gets me most is that even though it is based on a 1926 novel by Thea von Harbou, this version of Metropolis is, arguably, even more relevant than either Brave New World (1931) or 1984 (1949).

Those two classics don’t feel wholly and completely modern – this production of Metropolis does. It’s modernity is ripe, it’s like an episode of Black Mirror, and it should be on your radar.

Still not sold? Then imagine a Science Fiction version of Fight Club but set in the world of The Space Merchants or Judge Dredd and imagine it written by either Philip K. Dick or Frederik Pohl.

Here’s a review by Elisabeth Mahoney of The Guardian:

An audacious portrayal of a futuristic city as much as a state of mind, and an iconic film to boot, Metropolis (Radio 4, Friday) doesn’t exactly scream radio adaptation. But writer Peter Straughan and director Toby Swift, who won the Prix Italia in 2004 for their adaptation of Fritz Lang’s M, clearly aren’t put off by such hurdles. Their Metropolis was all deliciously claustrophobic intensity and dark interiority; their mega-city full of bubbling, menacing sounds you soon wanted to shut out. Without the famous visuals, you never really got a sense of the scale of Lang’s vision – you didn’t believe in the 62 million workers in Metropolis – but you did get the chilling psychological dimension of the dystopia. Edward Hogg, as Freddy, though sounding like a young Woody Allen at times, convinced as the alienated, lonely outsider who manages to subvert the mega-state from within. There were laughs, too, at least early on. “When was the last time you slept?” a therapist asks a suicidal Freddy. “About eight years ago,” says Freddy. “No,” the therapist concludes, “I don’t think that’s significant.”

Peter Straughan, the adaptor, and Toby Swift, the director, have achieved a classic for our time and for the ages – this is highly, highly recommended!

Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis SFFaudio Essential
Adapted by Peter Straughan; Performed by a full cast
MP3 via TORRENT – 57 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 (Friday Drama)
Broadcast: March 24, 2006
Available via RadioArchive.cc
Freder, the protagonist of Metropolis is an underworked “captain” in a high level position in the futuristic consumer society of the mega city named Metropolis. Feeling suicidal, but unable to understand why, Fredor switches identities with a low level “product insertion” – a kind of telemarketing – but failing at that Fredor soon finds himself working for Maria, an imperfect beauty with all the answers. Maria plunges Fredor into the depths of her underground conspiracy to disrupt the workings of society.

Directed by Toby Swift

Cast:
Freder – Edward Hogg
Maria – Tracy Wiles
Josaphat – Damian Lynch
Schmale – Peter Marinker

Michael W. Kaluta illustration of Maria and Freder

Posted by Jesse Willis

[Use Omitron! Omitron, use it! Use Omitron, it’s great!]

Earbud Theater: Clang! by Casey Wolfe AUDIO DRAMA

SFFaudio Online Audio

Earbud Theater has a new show they want you to hear. Written by Casey Wolfe, it’s entitled CLANG! and it features a cast you may recognize from other podcasts and movies and elsewhere around the universe.

Have a listen: |MP3|

Here’s the official description:

As any parent knows, balancing work and family can be difficult to say the least. For Gern and Betty Steadfast the two are about to slam together with a great… big… CLANG!

Cast:
Stephen Tobolowsky as Gern Steadfast
Meeghan Holoway as Betty Steadfast
Sean Keller as The General & Gabriel Edgar Wech
Alex Wagner as Jenni & Ellie
Lindsay Zana as Tyler & Jack

Earbud Theater - CLANG! - illustration by Megan Hutchinson

Posted by Jesse Willis

BrokenSea: 2109: Black Sun Rising [AUDIO DRAMA]

SFFaudio Online Audio

My friend, Bill Hollweg, has posted the first episode of his new original Science Fiction audio drama series 2109: Black Sun Rising. Produced for BrokenSea Audio Productions, the show makes extensive use of the stereo format (so be sure to use headphones or widely spaced speakers while listening). Also present are a many allusive character names, a plethora of familiar voice actors, and a teensy bit of harsh language.

Here’s the 2109: Black Sun Rising – Episode 1 |MP3|

Posted by Jesse Willis

Stephen King’s The Mist in 3D Sound

SFFaudio News

The Mist, a legendary audio dramatization based on a 1980 Stephen King novella, is available from Simon & Schuster Audio. It’s actually been available since the mid 1980s. It started on LP, being released by it’s producers at ZBS Foundation, then was acquired by Simon & Schuster to be released on cassette and later CD. Today it’s still available on CD, as well as a Audible.com download. Every time it has been re-released I’ve been reminded of how astoundingly great an audio drama it really is.

Here’s the official description:

After a mysterious mist envelops a small New England town, a group of locals trapped in a supermarket must battle a siege of otherworldly creatures . . . and the fears that threaten to tear them apart.

Stephen King's The Mist in 3D Sound - various releases
And here’s the text from the back of the first CD edition:

Sound so visual you’re literally engulfed by its bonechilling terror! Stephen King’s sinister imagination and the miracle of 3-D sound transport you to a sleepy all-American town. It’s a hot, lazy day, perfect for a cookout, until you see those strange dark clouds. Suddenly a violent storm sweeps across the lake and ends as abruptly and unexpectedly as it had begun. Then comes the mist…creeping slowly, inexorably into town, where it settles and waits, trapping you in the supermarket with dozens of others, cut off from your families and the world. The mist is alive, seething with unearthly sounds and movements. What unleashed this terror? Was it the Arrowhead Project—the top secret government operation that everyone has noticed but no one quite understands? And what happens when the provisions have run out and you’re forced to make your escape, edging blindly through the dim light? The Mist has you in it grip, and this masterpiece of 3-D sound engineering surrounds you with horror so real that you’ll be grabbing your own arm for reassurance. To one side—and whipping around your chair, a slither of tentacles. Swooping down upon you, a rush grotesque, prehistoric wings. In the impenetrable mist, hearing is seeing—and believing. And what you’re about to hear, you’ll never forget.

The Mist in 3-D Sound (BACK)

ZBS Stephen King's The Mist

The YouTube version, below, is NOT in stereo. Stereo is ESSENTIAL to the experience, but if you want to get a sense of the story and how it plays out, have a look:

Here are two illustrations from the Dark Forces: The 25th Anniversary Special Edition , which came out 25 years after the original publication of the original Dark Forces anthology that included The Mist:

The Mist - illustrations from Dark Forces 25th Anniversary

And of course there was a film adaptation which was, surprisingly, great too:

Posted by Jesse Willis

Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper

SFFaudio Online Audio

Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper - illustrated by Vincent Napoli

Time and Time Again was H. Beam Piper’s first published story. It first appeared in the April 1947 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Time and Time Again features many of the themes of Piper’s later writing, including time travel, evidence of his electric reading habits, and a love of firearms.

Set in part during both WWII and WWIII Time and Time Again features time travel of the type made famous in both Back To The Future and Quantum Leap.

Time And Time Again
By H. Beam Piper; Read by Bellona Times
1 |MP3| – Approx. 45 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: August 09, 2010
To upset the stable, mighty stream of time would probably take an enormous concentration of energy. And it’s not to be expected that a man would get a second chance at life. But an atomic might accomplish both— First published in Astounding, April 1947.

For some reason the ending to the X-Minus One version has been changed – to it’s determent in my view.

X-Minus One – Time And Time Again
Adapted from the story by H. Beam Piper; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: January 11, 1956
A soldier is wounded in a future war and is transported back to 1945 when he was thirteen years-old with his future memory and past memory intact.

Here’s a |PDF| made from its appearance in Astounding.

Time And Time Again by H. Beam Piper - illustrated by Vincent Napoli

One other interesting bit from the original story is the mention of a B-25 bomber crash into the Empire State Building, here’s a contemporary newsreel about that:

Posted by Jesse Willis