Review of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: H.P. Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror

SFFaudio Review

The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society - Dark Adventure Radio Theatre - H.P. Lovecraft's The Dunwich HorrorSFFaudio EssentialDark Adventure Radio Theatre: The Dunwich Horror
Adapted by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman; from the story by H.P. Lovecraft;
Original music by Troy Sterling Nies; Performed by a full cast
1 CD or MP3 download – 75 Minutes [AUDIO DRAMA]
Publisher: HPLHS
Published: 2007
Themes: / Horror / Fantasy / Weird Tales / New England / Cthulhu Mythos / Yog-Sothoth / Degenerated Backwater Communities /

After their first venture into Lovecraftian audio theatre with At the Mountains of Madness in 2006, the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society have recently increased their efforts to bring Lovecraft back, if not to the airwaves than at least to our CD players and iPods.

The Dunwich Horror is one of the best known Lovecraft stories set in the Miskatonic Valley with its degenerate backwater folks and cultists, Lovecrafts fictional literary playground, and was first published in 1929 in Weird Tales. There is a classic 1940s radio drama version around – an episode of the famous Suspense show, now in the public domain and freely available on the internet.

The first Dark Adventure Radio Theatre production, At the Mountains of Madness, showed some dramatic weaknesses, however,  The Dunwich Horror provides a thoroughly enjoyable audio drama experience. Whilst most Lovecraft fans would want it to be as close to the original as possible (which it is) it does take into account that an audio drama has to follow different dramatic conventions to keep its listeners entertained for more than an hour. Don’t expect an action packed audioFX orgy, though. It’s a Lovecraft story after all, so there will be lots of monologues and narrated bits, all adding to the charme of the original and the faux old time radio show format that this audio drama is presented in. Incidentally, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre has refreshingly politically incorrect fake advertizing (for cigarettes!) The cast does a great job of bringing to life the varied range of characters – from backwater farmers, to New England academics. Production values are overall good and fortunately they did not go wild with freely available sound effects as some other dramas of the semi-professional kind sometimes do. A commercial publisher with bigger budget might have been able to do better, but the guys from Dark Adventure Radio Theatre did a great job with a lovingly rendered version of the Dunwich Horror that shows an eye for detail.

The Dunwhich Horror: All the goodies

As the HPLHS started off by producing Lovecraft collectibles and high-quality “authentic” props, for the Call of Cthulhu pen & paper and live roleplaying games, it is not surprising that the CD contains a lot of goodies. Namely, a map of the Dunwich area complete with a note stapled onto it, a page from the dreaded Necronomicon and one from Whateley’s diary plus a clipping from the Arkham Advertiser showing Wilbur Whateley himself – all of which are of superb quality. Whilst no one really needs any them, these props make nice gimmicks nevertheless.

For anyone who does not need a physical audio storage medium or shies the shipping and duty costs involved with a mailorder from the USA, an MP3 download is available for about half the price. The file is properly tagged but it does not contain the cover art – this is a minor flaw in all of the HPLHS’ audio dramas downloads.

Another nice extra is the freely available script which helps learners of English to follow the show (download available from the HPLHS website as a PDF)

Posted by Carsten Schmitt

Yog Radio: Interview with Charles Stross

SFFaudio Online Audio

Yog Radio PodcastPaul Maclean (aka Paul Of Cthulhu) kindly wrote in to say that he’s got An interview With Charles Stross up and ready for listening over on Yog-Sothoth.com. It was recorded at a EasterCon 2009. Here’s the |MP3| or you can subscribe to the Yog-Sothoth podcast feed:

http://www.yog-sothoth.com/podcast.xml

Posted by Jesse Willis

Recent Arrivals from The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

SFFaudio Recent Arrivals

The Dunwich Horror by H.P. Lovecraft
H.P.Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror
The Shadow Out of Time by H.P. Lovecraft
H.P.Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out of Time
 
Shadow Over Innsmouth by H.P. Lovecraft
H.P.Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth

These three recent arrivals, along with At the Mountains of Madness |SFFaudio Review|, have great packaging. All kinds of stuff are included with these CD’s, like maps scribbled on the back of a scrap of paper, news clippings, a matchbook with a single match from Arkham’s finest hotel.

Click here to visit and explore the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, who published these excellent editions.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #021

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #021 – Jesse and Scott are joined new SFFaudio contributor Carsten Schmitt! It’s a show full of participatory enjoyment and less about equipment love.

Talked about on today’s show:
Macmillan Audio, Halo: The Cole Protocol, Tobias S. Buckell, METAtropolis (now is a paperbook), Subterranean Press, Canadia: 2056 – Season 2 now on CD, The indefensible Zombie Astronaut, livejournal sucks, The unofficial podcast feed of Canadia 2056, radio drama, Steve: The First, Steve: The Second, Matt Watts, post-apocalypse, C.H.U.D., H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society‘s audio theatre At The Mountains Of Madness |READ OUR REVIEW|, The Dunwich Horror, Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, digital downloads vs. CDs, The Shadow Out of Time, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Call Of Cthulhu Role Playing Game, Yog Radio, The Dragonships Series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Dragonlance, Brilliance Audio, DoOon Mode, Piers Anthony, On A Pale Horse, George Guidall, Recorded Books, The Dolphins Of Pern, Anne McCaffrey, Phantoms, Dean Koontz, The Dean Koontz Companion (a paperbook), small towns in fiction, Salem’s Lot, German radio drama, Gabriel Burns, Vancouver, Seeing Ear Theatre, we need an unofficial podcast feed for Seeing Ear Theatre, J. Michael Straczynski, Tales From The Crypt, City Of Dreams, Neil Gaiman, Secret Army, ‘Allo ‘Allo!, WWII evasion lines, Louis de Funès, tea for two and two for tea, Yog Radio, Charles Tan (Bibliophile Stalker blog), actual play session podcasts, Wil Wheaton plays D&D 4th Edition (to Carsten’s dismay), celebrity RPG play session (Vin Diesel etc.), Fallout 3 vs. Age Of Conan, The Scarifyers, BBC 7, Rich Carlson, RadioArchive.cc, Billy Boyd, pirate radio, Sealand, what Jesse fears most (finger losses).

Posted by Jesse Willis

BROKEN SEA: 31 Nights Of Horror

SFFaudio Online Audio

Broken Sea Audio Productions HALLOWEEN 2008 - Season Of Screams

Broken Sea AudioBrokenSea Audio Productions is following up their 2007 Halloween Season special with a second month long audio release schedule that is proving popular with audio fans. This year’s season is called: 31 Nights of Horror

BSAP is releasing new AUDIO material (short stories, poems and audio drama) every day on their website, and via podcast. Included are classic tales from authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Joseph Conrad and Edgar Allan Poe, full cast audio drama and readings of great new horror tales by authors who have contributed works to the project. The season runs from October 1st to the 31st. With a major event planned for All Hallows Eve itself – think undead, think cheerleader.

Posted by Jesse Willis