Audio Drama – Page 35

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant

Aural Noir: Online Audio

Sometimes titled “The Diamond Necklace” this story is a 3,000 word short story that is often upheld as a tale at, or very near, the pinnacle of ironic fiction. Guy de Maupassant’s short story La Parure is usually given the English title “The Necklace” – despite “La Parure” literally translating into English as “The Finery”.

The Necklace has been reprinted hundreds of times, in books, textbooks and newspapers. It has been collected volumes of “mystery or detective” stories – which is pretty damn odd considering that it has neither a detective nor a mystery in it. And stranger still, it has been anthologized in collections with titles like Masterpieces Of Terror And The Unknown and Isaac Asimov Presents The Best Horror And Supernatural Of The 19th Century.

How does this modest little tale, featuring a Parisian couple, and their acquaintances, a story with no supernatural elements at all qualify as a “supernatural” tale?

How can a story, like The Necklace, in which nobody dies, or is even physically injured, be considered ‘a tale of terror or horror’?

Perhaps the mystery lies not within such questions, but instead with one’s interpretation. Perhaps, just as with the translation from one language to another, there are kinds of horrors, kinds of terrors, indeed kinds of fates which can only be classified as a moral horror, a social terror, or one of life’s little mysteries that leaves us asking questions like the ones above.

Guy de Maupassant has created a story for the ages, a mystery story in which you, the reader, are the detective. Your job is to solve the case of…

The Necklace (La Parure)
By Guy de Maupassant; Read by Patti Cunningham
1 |MP3| – Approx. 19 Minutes [UNABRIDGED]
Publisher: LibriVox.org
Published: November 21, 2009
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Mathilde is a beautiful bride of a mid-level Parisian bureaucrat. Her natural elegance and grace seem somewhat out of place with her husband’s junior position. This is the story of a beautiful woman who works hard and gets everything she wants. First published in the February 17, 1884 issue of Le Gaulois (a French daily newspaper).

Here’s the cover illustration (artist unknown) for La Parure from the October 8, 1893 issue of Gil Blas (a Parisian literary magazine):

The Necklace (La Parure) illustration from Gil Blas, 1893

The most evocative illustrations I’ve seen for The Necklace are by Gord Rayner- they accompany an uncredited radio style play adaptation (for four actors) in the 1960s Canadian textbook entitled Sense And Feeling edited by R.J. Scott. Here’s the 12 page play |PDF| and here are the illustrations:

THE NECKLACE - Illustration by Gordon Rayner from SENSE AND FEELING

Update:

Here’s a wonderful radio dramatization that keeps most of the tale intact:

Favorite Story – The Necklace
Adapted from the story by Guy de Maupassant; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 27 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: KFI
Broadcast: October 7, 1947
Cast:
Heather Angel … Mathilde Loisel
Hans Conried … Pierre Loisel

Posted by Jesse Willis

19 Nocturne Boulevard: An adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s The Thing On The Doorstep

SFFaudio Online Audio

19 Nocturne Boulevard, created and run by audio dramatist Julie Hoverson, features original and adapted “strange stories” – the podcast alternates between completed productions, like the one below, and diary entry style production notes. I was mightily impressed by Hoverson’s adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s Science Fiction short story The Leech when I heard it back in February! It’s a terrific production by a talented cast. Hoverson has crafted her skill to a keen edge. I was jazzed to hear that she’d undertaken a new production of an H.P. Lovecraft classic, The Thing On The Doorstep which is a novelette first published in the January 1937 issue of Weird Tales.

I’m a sucker for stories with “Thing” in the title. A THING is not a he or a she. It isn’t a describable something – in fact, it’s very indescribability makes it damn intriguing – you, and the characters in the stories, ask questions “What the hell is that thing?!?!?!”

Now DC Comics had the Swamp Thing (a plant elemental) and Marvel had the Man-Thing (a “slow-moving, empathic, humanoid” that had once been a man). But it’s in short fiction especially that I find THINGS compelling. And when you start looking for these THINGS you’ll find dozens and dozens of stories with THING in the title. A couple of other good ones include The Damned Thing by Ambrose Bierce and The Thing On The Roof by Robert E. Howard. And in movies, of course, there is John Carpenter’s The Thing.

Now the particular THING in on this particular doorstep in Julie Hoverson’s adaptation is a whole other thing. I won’t give away, but I will say it certainly lives up to the mysterious nouny goodness of the title.

Lovecraft’s tales can be difficult to adapt, as they’re unusually wholly bereft of actual dialogue between characters (if there is even more than one character!). Julie Hoverson dramatizes the story’s form, which is a kind of confession/statement to police, using a combination of flashbacks and interrogation room scenes to tell the tale. The sound design is good, allowing us to tell who is who and where is where. The acting is also pretty solid with most of the lines coming off as if recorded live on set. Have a listen!

The Thing On The Doorstep
Based on the story by H.P. Lovecraft; Adapted by Julie Hoverson; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 33 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: 19 Nocturne Boulevard
Podcast: August 15, 2011
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What does a man do when his new bride really, really wants his body?.

Cast:
Dan Upton – Mark Olson
Officer Flatbush – Reynaud LeBoeuf
Officer Malone – Danar Hoverson
Edward Derby – Paul Cram (imdb)
Asenath Derby – Angela Kirby
Jean – Julie Hoverson
Clerk – Suzanne Dunn
Orderly – Gene Thorkildsen
Dr. Castle – Marshal Latham
“Roman” girl – Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard

Music from the first soundtrack album from the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast

Editing and Sound – Julie Hoverson
Cover Design – Brett Coulstock

Podcast feed: http://nineteennocturne.libsyn.com/rss

Posted by Jesse Willis

Neuromancer BBC audio drama online

SFFaudio Online Audio

I found the classic Neuromancer BBC Audio drama hosted online recently, with an easy to use flash play button:

http://bluesuncorp.co.uk/article/neuromancer-bbc-radio-play

First broadcast on BBC World Service in 2003. Also available through RadioArchive.cc. You maybe be suprised to find seeds of The Matrix as you listen. If you think it sounds like noir, it’s because that was the original intention of the book.

|MP3 1| |MP3 2|

Posted by Tamahome

X Minus One: A Pail Of Air based on the short story by Fritz Leiber

SFFaudio Online Audio

Here’s an adaptation of a science filled Science Fiction story (about climate change) that I’ve posted about previously – I’m quite fond of it. Check out the wonderful original magazine illustrations to go with it!

X-Minus One A Pail Of Air
Based on the short story by Fritz Leiber; Adapted by George Lefferts; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx. 30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: March 28, 1956
Provider: Internet Archive
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The dark star passed, bringing with it eternal night and turning history into incredible myth in a single generation! First published in the December 1951 issue of Galaxy magazine.

Illustrations by Ed Alexander:

A Pail Of Air by illustrated by Ed Alexander

Posted by Jesse Willis

X Minus One: A Gun For Dinosaur based on the short story by L. Sprague de Camp

SFFaudio Online Audio

I was surprised to learn this X-Minus One audio drama had never been posted to SFFaudio before. We’ve talked about L. Sprague de Camp’s A Gun For Dinosaur on the SFFaudio Podcast a couple of times (episodes #055 and #035), but for some reason it had never actually been posted on the website!

Now that I’ve got a copy of the original magazine where the short story was first published, and I’m looking at the fantastic illustrations by Ed Emshwiller, I think I’ve found the perfect time!

X-Minus One – A Gun For Dinosaur
Based on the short story by L. Sprague de Camp; Performed by a full cast
1 |MP3| – Approx.30 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: NBC
Broadcast: March 7, 1956
Provider: Internet Archive
In the bloodiest and most ferocious arena of all prehistoric Earth, hunting reptile heavyweights isn’t for human lightweights. First published in the March 1956 issue Galaxy magazine.

A Gun For Dinosaur illustrated by EMSH

And here’s the cover and splash page for Marvel Comics’ Worlds Unknown, which featured a 14 page adaptation of the story:

Worlds Unknown #2 - A Gun For Dinosaur - COVER

Worlds Unknown #2 - A GUN FOR DINOSAUR Adapted by Roy Thomas, art by Val Mayerik and Ernie Chua - Page 1

Posted by Jesse Willis

The Redneckula Saga (a redneck vampire drama)

SFFaudio Online Audio

I don’t think I know any rednecks and I suspect they may be completely mythical creatures, like fairies or elves. But maybe they’re real. This audio drama, The Redneckula Saga, doesn’t help me answer that question. It may be a bit of anthropological weirdness or it may be a factual history, either way it that makes me smile widely. It’s kind of rural fantasy comedy musical with beer (I think).

And the voice acting accent sounds like Hank Hill from King Of The Hill.

<a href="http://gunters-chain.bandcamp.com/track/the-redneckula-saga">The Redneckula Saga by Gunters-Chain</a>

[Thanks to Rob Gunter for gettin er dun!]

Posted by Jesse Willis