Audio Drama – Page 77

Review of At the Mountains Of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

SFFaudio Review

Dark Adventure Radio Theater: At the Mountains of Madness
Adapted by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman from H.P. Lovecraft’s original novel
1 CD – 75 minutes
Publisher: The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society
Published: 2006
Themes: / Science Fiction / Horror / Elder Things / Antarctica / Cthulhu Mythos /

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society brought us a film last time, the 47 minute long The Call of Cthulhu. That film gained acclaim for adapting a renowned H.P. Lovecraft story into a silent-film, black and white style that was the type of films that Lovecraft watched in the 1920s. This time they have given us another classic in the form of a radio broadcast of At the Mountains of Madness in the style of the 1930s. This is brilliant work and every Lovecraft fan should buy the CD and enjoy it.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is one of the premiere horror writers of the Twentieth Century. His dense prose, written in a style a century out of date, told stories of cosmic horror in which people often lost their sanity. At the Mountains of Madness is Lovecraft’s longest work, just topping 40,000 words, which makes it a novel, just barely. It is his favorite of mine because of the sense of wonder it evokes. Written in 1931, his normal publisher, Weird Tales, rejected it, and five years passed before Astounding Stories published the novel. The tale describes an expedition from Miskatonic University to the Antarctica which finds the ruins of an ancient civilization and flees awful horrors that should remain undisturbed.

This radio adaptation is eerily true to the original, even though the story had to be truncated to fit the radio form. The main plot points are all included, the flavor of Lovecraft’s writing is included with direct quotes from the original, and the overall effect of reading the original is maintained. They even used the word “cyclopean” twice, always my favorite Lovecraft adjective, along with “singular.” The faux radio broadcast is authentic in even including advertisements by the sponsor, a cigarette manufacturer, Fleurs-de-Lys. Three extra items are included with the CD: a newspaper clipping about the expedition, two reproductions of photographs taken by the expedition, and a reproduction from an expedition sketchbook.

Rumors from Hollywood whisper that Guillermo del Toro (director of Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and the upcoming The Hobbit) is also making a movie of our story. Sean Branney and Andrew Leman have set the standard, albeit in a different medium, that del Toro must live up to.

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society has also just released another radio drama, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror.

Posted by Eric Swedin

CBC’s new Radio Drama series: World of Mystery

Aural Noir: News

There are 12 new shows in CBC Radio One’s “Radio Summer 2008” lineup. And one of them is a new Mystery radio drama anthology series…

“International radio drama at its most mysterious. We share mysteries from the BBC World Service, Radio New Zealand, Ireland, Australia and the U.S.”

But, at least so far, it isn’t being podcast! And, it’s also the only one without an audio preview. If any CBC show is going to be podcast it should be the radio dramas! Still, World of Mystery airs twice a week, first on Wednesdays at 11pm and then it repeats Fridays at 11:30am.

Here are the episodes:

From ABC (Australia)…
“Concerto for Humans and Semtex”
Broadcast: Part One airs on July 9th, Part Two airs on July 16th
Four intricately interwoven stories, each featuring a conversation between two people with opposing attitudes who have been affected directly by the aggression, explore the bigger questions of war and terrorism. Reading through each story separately gives the impression that the “war on terror” is a drawn-out, tragic and futile exercise fuelled by hypocrisy, self-interest and hidden agendas.

From Radio New Zealand…
“The Moehau”
Broadcast: Part One airs on July 23rd, Part Two airs on July 30th
A young woman hiker lies in a psychiatric hospital, traumatised, babbling in a language she has never learned, and refusing to open her clenched eyes. Has she unwittingly awakened something dark, primitive and unspeakable in the mountains and ravines of the Moehau Range, or did she herself commit an unspeakable crime? The Moehau stirs up mythological undercurrents from New Zealand’s ancient past, disturbing the placid surface of our beliefs and fears.

From BBC Worldwide…
“The Black Cat Murder Mystery”
Broadcast: Part One airs on August 6th, Part Two airs on August 13th
London 2008. A comic murder mystery set in an apartment block in Fitzrovia: a cosmopolitan neighbourhood a step away from the BBC’s famous Broadcasting House. Featuring a corpse in flat 6; a mysterious hermit in flat 12; a cognitive neuroscientist looking for love in flat 3; a Russian businessman in flat 11; a Japanese bassoonist in flat 8; a seductive blonde in flat 5 – and an extremely unusual detective.

CBC Radio One…
“The World According to Charlie D: Long Time Listener/First Time Caller”
Broadcast: Part One airs on August 20th, Part Two airs on August 27th
The brilliant and disfigured late night radio show host Charlie D is a regular in Gail Bowen’s best-selling Joanne Kibourn mystery series. In this play, we have Charlie D and his faithful producer Nova, trying to figure out if one of his devoted, demented fans is also a killer…

Posted by Jesse Willis

BBC Radio 4 dramatizes John Cheever’s The Enormous Radio

SFFaudio Online Audio

Roy, our spy in the U.K. (informed and undercover) reports in his latest dispatch that John Cheever’s short story The Enormous Radio is getting a 45 minute dramatization on BBC R4! Roy sez this is at least the 4th audio dramatized version of this literary tale. It had previously been adapted in 1956 for the CBS Radio Workshop, in 1978 for Mindwebs, and in 1985 Vanishing Point!

The text version of The Enormous Radio first appeared in the May 17, 1947, issue of The New Yorker. Wikipedia describes it as a a “Kafkaesque tale about a sinister radio that broadcasts the private conversations of tenants in a New York apartment building.”

The Enormous Radio
By John Cheever; Performed by a full cast
Radio Broadcast – Approx. 45 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: BBC Radio 4 / Afternoon Play
Broadcast: Wednesday July 16th 2008 @ 14:15 (U.K. time)
Irene Westcott’s marriage is under strain. When her husband, Jim, brings home a new radio set to keep her company during the day, she soon finds her life unraveling around her. At first repulsed by the size and ugliness of the new set, Irene soon discovers to her delight that instead of the normal stations, it is picking up sounds from the other apartments in her New York block. Without telling her husband, she begins to listen in secret, eavesdropping on private displays of carnal love, vanity, faith and despair.

This should be available via the Afternoon Play “Listen Again” feature shortly after the broadcast.

Here are the |MP3| 1956 version done for the CBS Radio Workshop and the Mindwebs version |MP3| of this tale.

Posted by Jesse Willis

Canadia 2056 and the joys of time-shifting

SFFaudio Commentary

One of the most compelling reasons to listen to podcasts is the ability to enjoy programs where and when you want them. I’ve been listening to The Zombie Astronaut‘s unofficial podcast feed for Canadia: 2056. This is a radio drama written by comedy genius Matt Watts. The show just wrapped up its second season on CBC Radio One. The podcast feed for the show has made Canadia 2056 completely accessible on my schedule. And like any podcast the show is now completely pause-able, rewindable, and re-listenable. I had to do all three this morning!

I was listening to episode 19 of the show and I was laughing so hard I had to pause it. About three minutes later, after the convulsions had stopped, I rewound and listened to what I’d missed. Here’s the scene that got me…

But first some background… the ships’ surgeon, Doc Gaffney, attends to a suicidal crew member named Skip Connors (she’s suicidal because she’s become a mere brain in a jar), just prior to the scene’s opening she’d been left alone in the Captain’s quarters with a obedient robot and a jealous computer |MP3|.

Like I said, I had to pause it, rewind, and listen again. Because it was a podcast, I could.

My enjoyment of all 24 episodes of Canadia: 2056 would be almost impossible without the podcast feed. And I’m not alone in this. I’ve read threads all over the net about the show, and the people who’ve heard the show. The people who heard it on the radio keep saying how much they like Canadia: 2056. But, I’ve also read about how these same folks ‘missed an episode’ here or there. People wanted to catch it when it was on, but just couldn’t. They can’t re-arrange their lives to listen to the radio, that’s really not how radio works. Even if radio is not appointment listening, Canadia 2056‘s podcast is well worth listening to. Give yourself a treat, go subscribe to the unofficial podcast of Canadia 2056. It’s so kruckin’ awesome!

Subscribe via this feed:

http://thezombieastronaut.com/podcasts-only/rss2.aspx

Posted by Jesse Willis

WFMU is looking for RADIO DRAMA

SFFaudio News

The listener supported New Jersey radio station, WFMU, is looking for a few good radio dramas…

WFMU is looking for Radio Plays for a possible weekly program of radio theater to start this October. Lo-fi, do-it-yourself stuff is OK. It should be suitable for broadcast, which means that it should be FCC-friendly, and you should be able to clear the rights yourself, or it should be in public domain. It should also be somewhat short, from 1-55 minutes.

Listeners Karinne Keithley, Danny Manley and Jason Grote are attempting to put together a radio play program for WFMU, and are looking for *recorded* radio plays and monologues, weird interviews, rants, found audio, etc. The more idiosyncratic the better.

They’ll consider everything, but they’re not after 1920s nostalgia acts so much as sound-driven art that redefines and expands the idea
of what radio theater can be. If you’re unsure whether or not what you’ve got is a legitimate radio play, it probably is what we’re
looking for. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR RECORDED AUDIO MATERIAL ONLY.

Lo-fi, do-it-yourself stuff is OK. It should be suitable for broadcast, which means that (1) it should not contain any obscenities as defined by the FCC, (2) you should be able to clear the rights yourself, or it should be in public domain, and (3) it should be somewhat short, from 1-55 minutes. Under 20 minutes is ideal. Most but not all silence is generally to be avoided.

We are not looking for unsolicited scripts at this time but we’ll let you know if that changes.

Submissions:

Mp3/Zip/other files should be posted to Divshare, Sendspace, or whichever such site you prefer, and links emailed to:

jason [at ] jasongrote.com

CDs or other recorded materials should be sent to:

Jason Grote – WFMU radio theater project
c/o New Dramatists
424 West 44th Street
NYC, NY 10036

Deadline: if you’ve got something, please send it immediately, but if you’re looking to prepare something: July 8, 2008.

Somebody send them some SFF content! I’m pointing at you Bill Hollweg.

[via Steve of the Modern Audio Drama Yahoo! Group]

Posted by Jesse Willis

Review of The Red Panda Adventures – Season 3

SFFaudio Review

Superhero Audio Drama - The Red Panda Adventures - Season Three The Red Panda Adventures – Season 3
By Gregg Taylor; Performed by a full cast
12 MP3 Files – Approx. 6 Hours [AUDIO DRAMA]
Podcaster: Decoder Ring Theatre
Podcast: September 2007 – May 2008
Themes: / Fantasy / Superheroes / Mystery / Adventure / Magic / Time Travel / Robots /

“None of the other heroes kiss their sidekicks!”

You’d think after thirty-six episodes The Red Panda Adventures would have become formulaic – to have settled into a well-worn style. It sure doesn’t feel that way, RP shows no signs of becoming anything like a mere dry routine. The familiarities are only in the iconic lines of character dialogue that are heard in every episode – bits like: “Kit Baxter, behave yourself!” and “He’ll face justice at the hands of The Red Panda!” If there is a formula, it must be a magic one secretly possessed by Gregg Taylor and the Decoder Ring crew. There’s really no other way to explain how bloody wonderful this show really is.

Plotlines from Season 3 still obviously follow the ‘heroes fight injustice’ thread, but other than that the storytelling is extremely varied. In one show the story is told very heroes-light, with the twin leads barely showing up, in another it’ll be very hero-heavy with barely another actor on the stage. One show will showcase a new villain up to old tricks, another will offer an old villain up to very new tricks. Injustices too run the gamut: from arson, to bootlegging, to racketeering, to pickpocketing, to mysterious and seemingly profitless industrial accidents. Heck, there was even a Christmas show performed entirely in rhymed verse (“Tis The Season!”). Other favorite episodes from Season 3 included the locked room style “A Midwinter’s Murder,” the series of three short adventures chronicled in “Now, The News,”. Scenes too standout, there was a certain scene on Sunnyside beach in “The Rat Lord.” that is utterly classic. And finally, there is the shocking (and I do mean shocking!) season ender – “The Field Trip.”

Voice talent abounds in the Decoder Ring troupe, there’s hardly a performance that isn’t spot on. Although, I should say, there was one actor, who obviously wasn’t very experienced, as he was playing a kid, and obviously was a real kid! But this is an aberration, normally, the child characters are played by female adult actors (as is done on The Simpsons). My favorite returning villain for Season 3 was the Mad Monkey (voiced by Christopher Mott). But this time he’s returned with his own assistant, but just like RP, he can’t seem to wrap his mind around an aggressive female sidekick. New characters like The Red Squirrel (played by Denise Anderson) also charm – I do hope to hear more of her! One thing I’d been missing from the show by listening to the podiobooks collections in the past, was the wonderful commercials. Every episode in the regular Decoder Ring feed has some sort of commercial endorsement. This could be from a website or a company, but often they are just the cutest little skits paid for by family members wishing each other a ‘happy birthday’, or ‘happy anniversary.’ How cool is that?

In the final episode of Season 3, old villains like Professor Von Schlitz are aligning themselves with new enemies like the Third Reich (!) but that isn’t the half of it. See, on the personal front, the blossoming romance between Panda and Squirrel is brought to the fore in the last epsiode. I imagine every longtime listener to the show who’s heard it is just freaked-out to the max about the final scene. Will where the show has now gone ultimately bring the end of the show? We’ll have to wait about two more months to find out.

Happy Canada Day everybody, go celebrate with some RED PANDA!

Posted by Jesse Willis