Photo by kevin dooley

Yuletide greetings dramatites! We’re delighted to share with you a 2008 retelling of a treasure from the golden age of radio, Norman Corwin‘s “The Plot to Overthrow Christmas,” revamped for you by our good friend Richard Fish.

This 35 minute romp of rhyming verse introduces us to Nero, violining in hell, and co-opted into a plot to assassinate Santa Claus. Except Santa Claus is not all as it seems, and sometimes the cold can do more to warm the heart than the flames of hell…

We give time to celebrate the spirit of Christmas (and please, I hope you laugh as much as I did during the section about the congressional body in hell) and also think about the passing of audio great Norman Corwin, who passed to the next world this year at age 101. His work is as heartwarming about Christmas and as indicting of the odious as it was 73 years ago.

We also have a very special review from comrade Captain Radio, who reviews a suite of retellings of A Christmas Carol – the new Blackstone Audio production (with sound design by We’re Alive‘s co-creator Shane Salk), Quicksilver Radio Theatre‘s, Voices in the Wind and even Lifehouse Theater. It is indeed a classic tale! And the Capt’s splendid review gives you tastes of the range of them, from the rich and embellished, to the spare and haunting.

Finally, we launch a new donation program – FinalRune Fivers (won’t you consider donating $5 to this show?) – and give a special shout-out to our friends at the Wireless Theatre Company. Their ever increasing library of top-notch audio drama this year features some fantastic Christmas radio plays.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast258.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 258

This week we have the second installment of the classic The Count of Monte Christo by Alexander Dumas, dramatized for you by Lifehouse Theatre on the Air.

With origins in California-based community theatre, LifeHouse Theater On-The-Air is a new effort to create dynamic audio drama to entertain and educate audiences of all ages and walks of life. They produce classic stories from literature, history, the Bible, and the biographies of quotable notables. Visit their website for over a half-dozen exciting titles.

In Count, we meet Edmond Dantes, a naïve youth whose promise to his dying mentor sends him to stony imprisonment on Château d’If. In our previous installment, he met “The Mad Priest” who taught him to read and to fight… skills which allow him to escape his prison and sail the seas in search on a fortune on the island of Monte Christo – a fortune which allows him to enact his vengeance. But as we learn, vengeance comes at a high, high price.

First up, a delicious Captain Radio review of the new post-apocalyptic sci-fi audio serial, Our Fair City, which combines campiness and cartoonish characters to paint a tainted picture of corporatism.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast257.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 257

OK, so we’re not quite edging into what would be traditionally called “Holiday Programming” here, but we do have a wonderful treat – the swashbuckling classic The Count of Monte Christo by Alexander Dumas, dramatized for you by Lifehouse Theatre on the Air.

With origins in California-based community theatre, LifeHouse Theater On-The-Air is a new effort to create dynamic audio drama to entertain and educate audiences of all ages and walks of life. They produce classic stories from literature, history, the Bible, and the biographies of quotable notables. Visit their website for over a half-dozen exciting titles.

In Count, we meet Edmond Dantes, a naïve youth whose promise to his dying mentor sends him to stony imprisonment on the Isle of Monte Christo.

First up, a delicious Captain Radio review of the fantastic (in the truest sense of the word) Fruits Baskets radio drama based on the manga.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast256.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 256

This week we are thrilled to be featuring work by Grammy-nominated dramaturge Yuri Rasovsky, whose 2012 production The Mark of Zorro is up for Best Spoken Word Album of the Year. We hear a teaser from that new work available either through Blackstone Audiobooks or on Audible.

Also in this edition is Captain Radio, with a taste of Lifehouse Productions’ Count of Monte Christo.

And then week 4, the bloody culmination of Yuri’s 2007 production, Sweeney Todd and the String of PearlsSweeney Todd and the String of Pearls. Week 4 runs a starving pie shoppe baker, a curious kid and the gallant Martin Gestry into diabolical confrontation – and conclusion. The sensation of 19th century London has returned in plays, film, and now, audio drama, in this masterful rendering by radio great Yuri Rasovsky.

Yuri proves that audio drama offers storytelling tools unavailable in any other medium, mixing in grisly violence, unsettling performances, and sonic interludes.

With permission from the producer, here is Blackstone Audio‘s release of . If you like what you hear, find almost 2 dozen other titles by Yuri also available through Blackstone.

Part 4 of 4

Download audio file (rdr-podcast255.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 255

Week 3 continues our foray into 19th century London, where Fleet Street is home to the “Demon Barber” Sweeney Todd, a snickering, dour man whose customers mysteriously disappear, only to reappear in pies at the neighboring pie shoppe. But when a man bringing word of Martin Gestry – a lovesick sailor – disappears along with a string of precious pearls, inquiring minds look deeper into the goings-on of Sweeney’s shop.

The sensation of 19th century London has returned in plays, film, and now, audio drama, in this masterful rendering by radio great Yuri Rasovsky.

Yuri proves that audio drama offers storytelling tools unavailable in any other medium, mixing in grisly violence, unsettling performances, and sonic interludes.

With permission from the producer, here is Blackstone Audio‘s release of Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls. If you like what you hear, find almost 2 dozen other titles by Yuri also available through Blackstone.

Part 3 of 4

Download audio file (rdr-podcast254.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 253

We return again to 19th century London, where Fleet Street is home to the “Demon Barber” Sweeney Todd, a snickering, dour man whose customers mysteriously disappear, only to reappear in pies at the neighboring pie shoppe. But when a man bringing word of Martin Gestry – a lovesick sailor – disappears along with a string of precious pearls, inquiring minds look deeper into the goings-on of Sweeney’s shop.

The sensation of 19th century London has returned in plays, film, and now, audio drama, in this masterful rendering by radio great Yuri Rasovsky.

Yuri proves that audio drama offers storytelling tools unavailable in any other medium, mixing in grisly violence, unsettling performances, and sonic interludes.

With permission from the producer, here is Blackstone Audio‘s release of Sweeney Todd and the String of Pearls. If you like what you hear, find almost 2 dozen other titles by Yuri also available through Blackstone.

Part 2 of 3

Download audio file (rdr-podcast253.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 253

Well, they call it Greek tragedy for a reason – and we have it in full force this week with the conclusion of Roger Gregg’s The Stuff of Myth. Orpheus finally gets his chance to plead for his Eurydice back and – by God – he gets her! But whatever you do, dude… don’t look back. Phil Proctor and Melinda Peterson truly shine in their unforgettable renditions of Hades and Persephone.

This great production won a Gold Ogle in 2007 and has gotten rave reviews as a stage play. After many times trying to schedule this into the show and failing, for May 2011 we’ll be featuring all four episodes of “The Stuff of Myth” plus a bonus mythological encounter as part of RDR’s spring festival of Bacchus.

First up, Captain Radio focuses on emerging producer Tanja Milojevic, whose Lightning Bolt Theater of the Mind production has a new original tale out, “The Swamp.” Don’t get sucked down.

We wrap with Cables to the Ace: 83 from Roger Gregg

Download audio file (rdr-podcast227.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 227

Cables to the Ace: 83 by Thomas Merton, from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THOMAS MERTON, copyright 1968 by the Abbey of Gethsemani.
Music, Sound Design, Production & Direction by Roger Gregg. Crazy Dog Studios. 2011.
Voices: Jamie O’Neill & Alicja Ayres
Voice Recording by Colm Coyne.
Video by John Merriman.

This video is from ‘Selections from Cables to the Ace by Thomas Merton’ – a concept album by Roger Gregg, made with the Gaiety School of Acting Class of 2011.

Cables To The Ace can be found in The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton.

The seductive backdrop of Ancient Greece returns in sticky sweet splendor in round 3 of Roger Gregg’s The Stuff of Myth. Orpheus recounts the journey to find – and lose – his one true love, Eurydice. In this installment Orpheus finally meets, and loses, his one true love. Tragedy at its funniest!

This great production won a Gold Ogle in 2007 and has gotten rave reviews as a stage play. After many times trying to schedule this into the show and failing, for May 2011 we’ll be featuring all four episodes of “The Stuff of Myth” plus a bonus mythological encounter as part of RDR’s spring festival of Bacchus.

First up, Captain Radio‘s tribute to the prolific production prowess of Pendant Productions, an audio house that has released a staggering 800+ dramas over the years from dozens of podcasts. And a bonus treat from Roger Gregg, a sample of his new poetry/music montage Cables to the Ace!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast226.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 226

Cables to the Ace: 19 by Thomas Merton, from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THOMAS MERTON, copyright 1968 by the Abbey of Gethsemani.
Music, Sound Design, Production & Direction by Roger Gregg. Crazy Dog Studios. 2011.
Voice: John Merriman & Tiernan Kearns.
Voice Recording by Colm Coyne.
Video by John Merriman.

This video is from ‘Selections from Cables to the Ace by Thomas Merton’ – a concept album by Roger Gregg, made with the Gaiety School of Acting Class of 2011.

Cables To The Ace can be found in The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, – get a copy!

The saucy splendor of Ancient Greece heats up this week as Orpheus recounts the journey to find – and lose – his one true love, Eurydice. In this installment we meet some nymphs, a romping satyr, and a career on the road that ends in a doozy.

This great production won a Gold Ogle in 2007 and has gotten rave reviews as a stage play. After many times trying to schedule this into the show and failing, for May 2011 we’ll be featuring all four episodes of “The Stuff of Myth” plus a bonus mythological encounter as part of RDR’s spring festival of Bacchus.

First up, Captain Radio‘s review of a hilarious satire of television news, Too Much of a Good Thing. And a bonus treat from Roger Gregg, a sample of his new poetry/music montage Cables to the Ace!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast225.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 225

Cables to the Ace: 50 by Thomas Merton, from THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THOMAS MERTON, copyright 1968 by the Abbey of Gethsemani.

Music, Sound Design, Production & Direction by Roger Gregg. Crazy Dog Studios. 2011.
Voice: Cillian O Gairbhi.
Voice Recording by Colm Coyne.
Video by John Merriman.
A Gaiety School of Acting production as part of Gregg’s course on Acting In Audio 2011.

Special Thanks to Dr. Pearson & The Thomas Merton Center. See: www.merton.org

Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

This video is from ‘Selections from Cables to the Ace by Thomas Merton’ – a concept album by Roger Gregg, made with the Gaiety School of Acting Class of 2011.

Cables To The Ace can be found in The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, – get a copy!

Ahh, ancient Greece. Hot nymphs, raging orgies, much wine, song, and occasional transformations into livestock. All well and good, right?

Well things are more wacky than ever in the sizzling and scandalous interpretation of the myth of Orpheus done by Roger Gregg, The Stuff of Myth.

This great production won a Gold Ogle in 2007 and has gotten rave reviews as a stage play. After many times trying to schedule this into the show and failing, this month we’ll be featuring all four episodes of “The Stuff of Myth” plus a bonus mythological encounter as part of RDR’s spring festival of Bacchus.

First up, Captain Radio‘s review of the terrific Saki satire, the Quail Seed, adapted by 19 Nocturne Boulevard.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast224.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 224

You may recall (and how could you forget?) Chatterbox’s award-winning mini series The Dead Girl, which we played back in . That series won a well-deserved Ogle, in no small part due to the taut and suspenseful writing of writer-in-residence Kyle Hatley.

So it’s with great pleasure I get to bring something new by Chatterbox and penned by Hatley onto the show… it’s Pinocchio! Oh, but cute little noses and brightly colored boys are nowhere to be found in this dark tale.

Just in time for Halloween, our trip of Transcontinental Terror brings us to Memphis, Tennessee. Enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast196.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 196

Audiofile Magazine does it again – a great free audiobook and behind-the-scenes audiobook narrator features, this time focusing on the delight of Alice in Wonderland!

Check out their Alice in Wonderland audio special page for:

• A free download of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland read by Michael York (courtesy of Blackstone Audio)
• Recorded conversations with narrators Michael York and Jim Dale and audio producer Gabrielle de Cuir
• Editors’ reviews of recommended Alice audiobooks and links to additional online resources for fans.
• Three different readings (Michael York, Jim Dale, and Christopher Plummer) of the Mad Tea Party passage together for a side-by-side comparison.

Fantastique!  It could be interesting to hear what a dramatized version of Alice would sound like, but Michael York does a tremendous job of voicing the different colorful characters of Carroll’s adventure.

Here’s the link again: http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/event/0310_landingpage.html

Don’t be late!  The free audiobook is only available until March 16.

This week we begin an outer space motif with an interesting new podcast – Transmissions from Escape Pod X. The podcast features short original works and old time radio retellings received from the archives of an escape pod lost somewhere beyond the horizon.

We feature the tale “I Saw Myself Running,” a retelling of the OTR tale that originally aired on Escape! Starring Jessie Gurd and Derek Long, directed by Stefan Claypool.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast156.mp3)

Download Radio Drama Revival – Episode 156

Today we feature the final installment in FinalRune’s 2009 project of old time radio re-creations with the Mad Horse Theater Company.

The tale is the classic “Three Skeleton Key,” recorded many times, no doubt, but never before (we suspect) in a genuine Maine lighthouse.

The tale?  Three lighthouse keepers find themselves the prisoners of their charge once an ill-fated derelict vessel runs aground, unleashing a plague of devilish rats.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast155.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 155

The writing of James Joyce is as much known for how challenging it is to decipher as for its portraits of humanity in a difficult world. Its hard enough to find audiobooks of his work (could you imagine a single-voiced reading of Ulysses?), and it seems that most audio dramatists have steered clear.

Not so for Chatterbox Audio Theater, who bring us a profoundly moving story of people reflecting on the simple challenges of life. The story, Dead and Gone, is based on James Joyce’s story of The Dead – but the setting, rather than Ireland, is the American South.

I gushed about this inspired retelling in a review a few months ago – now, enjoy the audio.

Ah, but first! A special treat – the Drabblecast audio fiction podcast reveals to us how close Santa Claus came to the edge – and who really saved Christmas.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast154.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 154

This week we feature the conclusion to Quicksilver Radio Theater‘s adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes Tale, The Blue Carbuncle.

Last week we found a precious gem lodged in the gullet of a Christmas goose, which led Sherlock and Watson on a quest to find its owner – the goose that is, not the gem. The goose’s owner was happy with any cooked goose, making the detective duos realize they would need to hit the streets to learn the origin of this mystery foul…

Listen to the conclusion of this fun adventure, plus a bonus, the “Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes.”

Enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast153.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 153

P.S. – A reminder that Audiofile Magazine and Naxos Audiobooks are still offering three free Sherlock Holmes audiobooks until December 29… So go load up your new iPod with great tales of the detective!

This week we bring back the Quicksilver Radio Theater in a most peculiar of Sherlock Holmes tales set during the Christmas season.

A fat goose, a random mugging, and a precious gem. How do all three relate, and who committed this most unusual crime?

Enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast152.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 152

P.S. – If you enjoy tales of the great detective, Audiofile Magazine and Naxos Audiobooks have a wonderful Christmas gift for you: three free Sherlock Holmes audiobooks.

You can also see behind-the-scenes YouTube videos and hear interviews with Holmes narrators. A holiday treasure! Hopefully AudioFile continues offering these great treats throughout the new year.

Eek!  How does one of the most popular tales from radio drama’s golden age make it onto a modern audio drama podcast?  When that tale has been re-envisioned by a modern group, as has been done again by Mad Horse Theater Company and FinalRune Productions.

You know it, you love it.  A bedridden neurotic woman dials a number and is accidentally connected to a call between two men who are plotting a murder. She becomes increasingly frantic as no one takes her fright seriously and time begins to run out.

Prepare to be spooked all over again!

Download audio file (rdr-podcast145.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 145

Art by Kerry Gammill

Trick or treat?  No, treat!

Today’s bonus episode is from Quicksilver Radio Theater, a tremendously great group based out of New York City who have brought us such gems as Good Friday, 1865, Lincoln’s Last Day, The Speckled Band, Julius Caesar, and, of course, this one: a true-to-the-text version of Frankenstein.

Yes, it’s the classic tale of a creature that turns against its creator after the creator realizes the horror of playing god.  Forget the movies, and give you ears a treat!

Download audio file (rdr-bonus-quicksilver-frankenstein.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Bonus Episode: Quicksilver’s Frankenstein

Credits:

Directed by JAY STERN (Independent Feature, “THE CHANGELING”), and faithfully adapted by Producer CRAIG WICHMAN from Mary Shelley’s novel, this drama explores the story’s themes of responsibility and obsession – perhaps even more relevant in our day than in the author’s.

JOSEPH FRANCHINI is Victor Frankenstein and MR. WICHMAN (“TWILIGHT ZONE” radio dramas) is his Monster, with (in alphabetical order), CLYDE BALDO, JODI BOTELHO, ROBERT HESS, VITO LaBELLA, SUSAN MUIR, and JOHN PRAVE.

Sound by DAVID NOLAN, with effects by MR. BALDO. Music is by TONY AWARD-Winner MARK HOLLMANN.

This week we welcome back The Wireless Theatre Company, a splendid UK-based audio production group who just keeps getting better… can you believe they’ve only been around for three or so years?  They have close to a hundred radio plays produced now but I have a special heart for their more controversial fare (which is most of it), such as the play we’re about to hear today, Medusa on the Beach.

I previously reviewed this piece in my column, Fred’s Fuze, so I need not laden this entry with more praise.  Enjoy this awesome re-envisioning of the Greek tale of Medusa.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast138.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 138

Title: Dead and Gone
Author: Adaptation of James Joyce
Producer: Chatterbox Audio Theater
Type: Audio Drama
Genre: Drama
Availability: Forthcoming download

My Two Cents: If you’re a loyal listener to the show, you’ve heard me rave about the Chatterbox Audio Theater, a Memphis-based audio theater group who have brought us excellent adaptations (Kafka’s In the Penal Colony) as well as stunning originals (The Dead Girl, anyone?). Their latest, “Dead and Gone,” does not disappoint.

“Dead and Gone” is a Southern retelling of the James Joyce tale, “The Dead.” Yes, you heard me right.

Not only does Chatterbox have the guts to take on James Joyce, but they transpose wintry and gloomy Dublin with Memphis. F–in brilliant! The adaptation is right-on, from the transposition of an ill-fated love from Galway to New Orleans, to the accusation of misplaced loyalties from “West Briton” to “Scallywag.”

Good, good, good.

My hat also goes off to the great cast of Chatterboxers, who put umph and vitality into every ounce of their performances. The production is serious drama, and while the sound effects and music are understated, they fit this terse and introspective story well.

As far as listening to this fabulous production? It’s not available for public consumption from Chatterbox’s website just yet. I caught one of their notices to hear it live on WKNO in Memphis. The next opportunity is Sunday, August 16 on KUNM-FM, 6PM MDT (8PM for us in the East). Here’s the live listen link: http://kunm.org/listen/. If you miss the live event, you’ll be able to hear it from Chatterbox’s website, eventually.

Serious drama in audio is about as hard as it gets. But Chatterbox pulls it off with the hardest artist there is, and in spades. Bravo!

Great news.  Back in December we played chunks from The Shadow of the Bear, while our good friends at The Sonic Society played the whole durn thing!

That show has now gone on to win a listener’s award from The Sonic Society… well, let them speak for themselves:

Based on the book by Regina Doman, The Shadow of the Bear audio drama has won the Sonic Society’s 2009 Uni Award for Best Audio Drama Show … At the end of May 2009, the Sonic Society invited its 50,000 listeners world wide to nominate their favorite show for its 2nd Annual Uni Awards.

The finalists in seven different categories were chosen by popular vote and announced on the Sonic Society’s blog on June 9. The listeners then voted on the finalists. After all thevotes were in, Jack Ward of the Sonic Society said, “The Shadow of the Bear won by a clear majority the ”Best Audio Drama Show”.

Congrats, Andrew and Regina, “Bear” was a great production.  If you want to hear more, check out our original podcast on it, download the award show from Sonic Society, or maybe just listen to the interview with Andrew and Regina.  Finally, check out Regina’s website and Chesterton Productions.

This week kicks off a new feature for Radio Drama Revival called Fred’s Fuze. Recognizing that there’s a TON of great stuff I listen to that doesn’t make it on the show (or takes months to get there) I’ve decided to start this to share my love of listening. And to see how shocked or surprised you are at some of the picks!

Why Fuze? Because I do not own an iPod. There, I said it. I also never read Harry Potter or watched Titanic. Once I see where the crowd is going, I go the other way. So it was with the iPod, and let me say, I’m pretty happy with my Sansa Fuze.

So, lest this turn into a product review let’s get into the first installment of Fred’s Fuze – Medusa on the Beach.

***

Title: Medusa on the Beach
Author: Marty Ross
Producer: Wireless Theater Company
Type: Audio Drama
Genre: Modern Retelling of a Classic
Availability: Free Download

My Two Cents: I’ve been listening to the Wireless Theater Company’s work since they kicked off in 2007. Several things have impressed me — one, how deftly they jump from comedy to drama and back again, and two, how much the quality of their work has increased. Not that the first works weren’t good — they’re all solid listens — but they’ve obviously been studying their craft and learning from everywhere they can the last two years. They also seem to be getting access to more resources, which certainly doesn’t hurt!

Medusa on the Beach, I’m happy to say, is really quite a strong statement in audio. I’m a sucker for retellings of Greek myths (a retelling of Orpheus, after all, is what got me into audio drama to begin with) so I couldn’t click the download button fast enough when I heard about Medusa on the Beach.

I wasn’t disappointed. Medusa is a refreshingly original story. The plot has only so many twists — a disparaged small-town woman goes on a killing spree upon discovering Medusa’s head washed ashored — but man is this thing funny and a joy to listen to. Funny? A Greek tragedy? Well, you have to hear it to believe it. As I said, Wireless jumps back from comedy to drama with deft, even cheeky, precision.

Since it’s a free download, do feel free to check it out, just don’t be surprised if you hear it on the show sometime down the line!

Ahh, ancient Greece. Hot nymphs, raging orgies, much wine, song, and occasional transformations into a goat. All well and good, right?

Well things are more wacky than ever in the sizzling and scandalous interpretation of the myth of Orpheus done by Roger Gregg, The Stuff of Myth.

This great production won a Gold Ogle in 2007 and has gotten rave reviews as a stage play. Now hear what the buzz is all about in the first bonus episode… and stay tuned the rest of the month for more!

Download audio file (rdr-bonus-01-stuff-myth-1.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival Bonus Episode – Stuff of Myth 1 of 4

This week we feature Roger Gregg’s smokin’ adaptation of the Greek myth of Marsyas. Marsyas was just an average satyr, drinkin’, screwin’, sleepin’ and generally carrying on with the band of Dionysus… until he fights a magical horn which changes his life (and attitude) forever.

Off the Audio Gothic collection, which just about finishes this excellent series that I’ve trickled out on Radio Drama Revival for about a year now… The festival of Dionysus continues next week with “The Stuff of Myth!”

Download audio file (rdr-podcast120.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival Episode 120 – Marsyas, the Hippest Satyr

Congratulations to Eric Benson, a listener in Canada who wins our “Name the Theme” contest. He gets a copy of Crazy Dog Live on CD!

Well, today might be traditionally when we think about the birthdays of Presidents, but thanks to our friends at the Quicksilver Radio Theater, we’ll be solemnly aware of the death of great Presidents, in this case that of honorable old Abe.

In Good Friday, 1865: Lincoln’s Last Day, we encounter Abraham Lincoln, the man, with all of his strength and vigor, as well as doubt and humanity. Enjoy this utterly memorable portrait of the legend.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast-presidents-2009.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival 2009 President’s Day Special

This week we move from the world of the macabre to that of the fantastic, with a contemporary fairy-tale retelling by Chesterton Productions – The Shadow of the Bear.

Based on Regina Doman’s novel of the same name, this epic audio adventure follows two cultured sisters living in New York City as they encounter a mysterious stranger named “Bear” who becomes their friend, and unwitting entry into a dark mystery which they may not survive.

As ominous as that sounds, this is appropriate for all ages and MUCH lighter than the fare we’ve been covering since October.

Enjoy the first hour of about four-and-a-half. If you like it, do check out the affordably priced MP3 Download.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast099.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 99

P.S. Episode 99 already? Holy Cow! Wish the cold meds didn’t have me sounded quite as dazed and confused for this one…

We continue this week with the dastardly Sherlock Holmes tale, “The Speckled Band” performed by our friends at the Quicksilver Radio Theater.? Holmes and Watson are on the hunt of the mysterious killer behind deaths at a remote estate in the English countryside… but will they be in time to stop the next death?

Download audio file (rdr-podcast087.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 87

Oh, Holmes, strongman of logic, consumer of sensitive substances and eyes that make a hawk look blind… and an audio theater regular, much, unfortunately, to the abuse of the fine British detective. Forget all the hack-job Holmeses you’ve heard today as our friend at the Quicksilver Radio Theatre delight us again with the diabolical tale on “The Speckled Band.”

Holmes and Watson are awoken in the middle of the night to a frightened young girl who talks of an abusive stepfather and a strange murder… but as clues lead up towards what invariably will be another slaying, can Holmes and Watson act in time to stop it?

Part 1 of 2. Enjoy.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast086.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 86

10 out of 10

This week Malleus kicks off a 3-part look at ballads that blur the boundaries between song, storytelling, and the spoken word. First up is the bad man, Black folk anti-hero Stagolee, in what I guarantee is the best and most wildly imaginative retelling of his legend that you are ever going to hear.

Julius Lester’s “Stagolee” is lightning in a bottle: drink deep, and be electrified.

“Stagolee”
Written and performed by Julius Lester.

First released by Vanguard Records on the LP “Julius Lester”, 1965.
Re-released by Ace Records on the CD “Dressed Like Freedom”, 2006.

Language: English.

“Stagolee” is 13:27 minutes long.

Availability: The LP has been out of print and hard to find for decades, but Ace records recently came to our rescue with their excellent CD retrospective, “Dressed Like Freedom”, compiled from Lester’s two Vanguard albums, “Julius Lester” (1965) and “Departures” (1967). Although Ace’s compilation lacks one of my favorite tracks, “You can’t make me doubt it”, it does contain all the spoken word material from the two LPs. “You can’t make me doubt it” and the other omitted tracks (actually, all the tracks) can be downloaded from itunes.
“Dressed Like Freedom” is a British release, currently available as an import through Amazon.com and other sellers. It’s a solid album that is well worth the price.

You may be the Sheriff, and you may be White, but you ain’t Stagolee.

Now deal with that.

- Stagolee

Pete, looks like I’m going to have to use one of my giant death thunderbolts to get that Stagolee.

- The Lord, to St. Peter

Excerpts from the book Black Folktales by Julius Lester, 1969.

By any measure, Julius Lester (b. 1939 – ) is a fascinating figure.

Emerging during the Civil rights era as an activist, Lester made his mark working with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Over the course of the long career that followed Lester became a radio announcer, a university professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and ultimately a celebrated children’s book writer, authoring among other works the award-winning To Be a Slave. I had the great good fortune to experience his wry eloquence directly when Lester, a convert to Judaism, gave a frank and penetrating lecture on “Blacks and Jews” at my college back in the 90′s.

But when I first discovered him in the mid 80′s I had no idea Lester was anything but a great Blues singer. I was working as a sound engineer for the children’s radio drama workshop at KOPN, a community radio station in Columbia, MO. A curious white boy exploring the Blues for the first time, I’d browse the station’s collection when I got a break and listen to old records in the editing studio. I didn’t know Julius Lester from John Lee Hooker back then, and I count that ignorance a very good thing. Otherwise I might have overlooked the lesser-known Lester’s debut, “Julius Lester” (1965), and missed one hell of an album.

Although all the songs on “Julius Lester” were accomplished, it was “Stagolee”, an inspired blend of Blues singing and spoken word storytelling, that captured my imagination. “Stagolee” was a real-life St. Louis pimp named Lee Shelton, who was tried and convicted for murdering William Lyons on Christmas Eve back in 1895. A legend grew up around the deed and the man, and it took such vigorous root that this minor criminal ended up becoming a major archetype in African-American folklore. Stagolee’s crime also inspired popular songs, and countless versions of them have been and continue to be performed. After Lester’s, my personal favorite is Taj Mahal’s hauntingly delicate tribute. Most performers focus exclusively on the events leading up to the murder, a card game gone wrong, and finish with the cold-blooded execution of Lyons.

According to the liner notes, Lester used to sing “Stagolee” to his one year old daughter, improvising spoken word segments between verses. Not a song I’d sing to a baby (although Taj Mahal’s version sounds so sad and sweet it could be mistaken for a lullaby), but I’m glad Lester did: it unleashed his febrile imagination, and he built up an elaborate mythos from this simple tale.

Lester’s version begins like standard Blues renditions of “Stagolee”, but things take a turn for the fantastic after Stagolee is hung by a Sheriff’s posse. Stagolee is so bad that his neck refuses to crack, and the lawmen are forced to let him go. Stagolee goes on to live a seemingly immortal life of sin until he attracts St. Peter’s attention, and St. Peter takes the case straight to the Lord. Sitting in a “red rosy rocking chair” that conceals a stack of “giant death thunderbolts”, Lester’s Lord is a cross between your irascible grandmother and Zeus. The Lord summons Death from the stables and sends him to collect Stagolee, but Stack isn’t impressed by the pale-looking white man and waves his gun in the Grim Reaper’s face. Flustered, Death rides off, and it falls to God Himself to settle Stagolee.

Which He does. With a thunderbolt.

BOOM!
Can’t mess with the Lord too much, you know that.

But you can’t keep a bad man down. Worried that Gabriel can’t swing, Stagolee refuses to wait for judgment day and crawls out of his grave, headed for Heaven . . .

The Stagolee story traditionally veils resistance to white oppression beneath a thin covering of Black-on-Black crime. The songs are superficially disapproving, but subtly admiring; Stagolee murders a black man, but he is so bad that corrupt white law can never have him. And Lester’s song gives Stagolee’s resistance a Southern, Civil Rights era spin. The real Stagolee murdered Billy Lyons in St. Louis. Most songs about Stagolee don’t mention where the story takes place. But Lester relocates the Stagolee legend to the town of “Hang-a-N*gg*r, Georgia” where all trials are “conducted Southern style, ‘N*gg*r you guilty’.” ?After this article first went up, Julius Lester emailed me a response. ?His comments on the song’s placement were interesting, and he’s kindly permitted me to share them here:

It’s a Jim Crow world so racially bleak that Stagolee’s criminality is almost incidental – justice only exists for those bad enough to make it or take it. Traditionally the Stagolee ballad carries a mournful air, but despite the dark setting and theme, this “Stagolee” is anything but depressive. Here sadness is replaced with the sizzling Black outrage of the 1960s, balanced but not watered-down by Lester’s razor-sharp wit.

That wit combines with a syncretic dash of Greek myth, a side of Christianity, and a heaping helping of African-American oral tradition to raise Lester’s “Stagolee” to a new level. Lester sends Stack on an Odyssey through Heaven and Hell, both of which turn out to be just as segregated as Georgia. A sheepish St. Peter tells Stack why there are no black people in Heaven, hemming and hawing:

“Well, I tell you how it goes. You know, we had to get rid of ‘em. You know, they’s up here playin’ the Blues on the harps, you know, and flattin’ thirds in the hymns, and flattin’ fifths and all that – we couldn’t have ‘em up here. All we got now is white folks and some middle-class Negroes, you know, some of the bourgeoisie, you know, we had to send all the, you know, bad colored folks down to Hell.”

Stagolee didn’t wait for another word, he took off goin’ down to Hell.

And how does Stagolee’s descent into the Inferno turn out? Let’s just say Milton’s adage from Paradise Lost, Book I holds true: “Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.” Thus Lester’s afterlife narrative is at once entirely new and entirely in keeping with Stagolee’s subversive appeal: “Better a bad life, than a life serving corrupt White masters.”

Julius Lester’s “Stagolee” is like no other, taking off where most versions end. The vividly re-imagined story is ably served by Lester’s voice, strong when singing, loose and sharp and full of sly humor when narrating. His guitar playing is solid rather than virtuoso, but he makes simple chords ring out with languid, insouciant honesty. There are some minor flaws – Stagolee’s gun seems to change from a .41 to a .44 depending on which rhymes better at the time, and Lester flubs one line (“Now Bill-Stagolee . . .”). But for comic timing that goes right for the gut and a story that intoxicates the mind, you really can’t get much closer to perfection.

All in all, this Civil Rights era take on one of Black folklore’s darkest archetypes is a jagged tour-de-force. My highest recommendation.

And if you like the recording, check out Lester’s Black Folktales (1969), which takes the story even further. It’s a bit less angry – no “Hang-a-N*gg*r, Georgia” – but more developed. And after hearing this song, you’ll relish the opportunity to walk a few extra miles with Stagolee on his Dantesque journey between Heaven and Hell.

10 out of 10

In a subtle and varied presentation, actor Fred Morsell brings the full force of statesman and former slave Frederick Douglass’s eloquence to bear on the issue closest to him: slavery. Re-enactment at its finest, Morsell’s performance confirms both the classic status and contemporary relevance of Douglass’s legendary 5th of July speech. Yes, 5th of July. Read on!

An abridged performance of Frederick Douglass’s July 5th, 1852 speech to the Rochester (New York) Ladies Anti-Slavery Society, “The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro.”

Adapted and performed by: Fred Morsell.

TBM Records, 1992.

Language: English.

CD or audio cassette, 46:56 minutes.

Availability: In print and available from the publisher. Two other recordings of Douglass speeches, “The Lesson of the Hour” and “Why I Became a Woman’s Right’s Man” are also available. An order form can be found here.

The publisher recommends calling this number to place orders: (800) 965-3347.
Chances are good that you will talk with proprietor Tanya Bickley, who is a Douglass enthusiast with a genuine passion for his work. If you share that passion, please encourage her to record Douglass’s autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), with Mr. Morsell. It’s high time this American classic was released as an audiobook!

Try before you buy: RealAudio clips from this and other speeches by Douglass can be found at the publisher’s website here.

I discovered A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave sitting on a study hall bookshelf in junior high school. I’d read books about slavery before, but none written by former slaves. Curious, I cracked the book open and read a few pages. Soon I couldn’t put the book down. Douglass’s harrowing story of escape from bondage and rise to national prominence was compelling, but his power as a storyteller was even more so. Having fought tooth and nail for his literacy as a slave, Douglass wielded words with more fierce eloquence than I’d ever encountered. I’d been looking for history, but Douglass’s autobiography opened my mind to the beauty of language and the importance of reasoned argument to the pursuit of justice, and ultimately to the realization of self. For this I’m grateful to him, and while I’m not given to citing personal heroes, I make exception for Douglass. A few years ago I paid my respects at his stolidly prosaic grave in Rochester, New York.

Over a century and a half earlier on July 5th, 1852, Frederic Douglass appeared before the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society to present “The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro.” That’s right, July 5th. The date was his choice, for as he explained, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.”

Douglass’s voice, unlike his words, is sadly lost to us now, but he was accounted one of America’s greatest orators, and his performance before the abolitionist group that day is legendary. So it was with no small excitement that I learned actor Fred Morsell, who has been performing his inspirational one-man show “Presenting Mr. Frederic Douglass” before audiences in the manner of Hal Holbrook’s “Mark Twain Tonight!” since 1988, had recorded this speech for TBM records. For those of us (like myself, to my regret) who have not been fortunate enough to see Mr. Morsell perform live, this recording offers a chance to experience one of Douglass’s most famous works as it was originally intended, in the grand tradition of 19th century oratory.

The CD begins with a banjo playing the refrain from “Acres of Clams” (Francis Henry, 1874), presumably in reference to the line “and I have been frequently sold”. Despite its apparent relevance, this post-civil war ballad of the Northwest doesn’t address slavery but the hardships of white settlers. While placing it before Douglass’s speech certainly invests the song with new significance, there’s no shortage of great anti-slavery ballads that might have been used. Admittedly, this is a minor historical quibble.

We are brought into the proceedings shortly after they’ve begun. A stately male voice thanks Reverend Raymond for his reading of the Declaration of Independence and introduces Miss Julia Griffiths, Secretary of the Anti-Slavery society. Griffiths takes the podium before the assembled crowd (the recording was conducted before a live audience), expressing her admiration for the founding fathers. This preamble contains a preponderance of words you would expect: great, magnificent, hero, patriot, heritage, freedom, sacred, genius, glorious, and of course, pride. Griffiths is so proud, in fact, that her grandiloquence nearly renders her a caricature. She proceeds to introduce Douglass with great fanfare.

Douglass, wise strategist that he is, takes the stage with humility. He is at pains to point out the weightiness of speaking about the 4th of July (“This certainly sounds large, and out of the common way for me”) and confess a nervousness that Morsell’s steady voice cleverly belies.

Douglass establishes a dual relationship to the nation he celebrates right from the beginning. Although he addresses his audience of “my fellow citizens” inclusively, he also invokes “your fathers” and “your nation” rather than “ours” with quiet firmness. Laying the groundwork for the argument to come, he persuasively frames the founding fathers as bold challengers of the status quo, champions of a radical vision who were ready to sacrifice every comfort. They were “dangerous men”, Morsell intones, lingering provocatively over the words. Morsell lends Douglass’s words increasing weight throughout this passage, audibly capitalizing key phrases and engraving them in his listeners’ minds. “The principles contained in that document are SAVING principles. STAND by those principles. Be TRUE to them.” Even though we know a counter-thrust is coming, it’s hard not to be moved by Morsell’s sonorous delivery of this tribute.

Then Douglass leaves the glories of the past behind. We reach the turning point of the speech as Morsell levels his voice with sober calculation: “My business, if I have any here today, is with the present.” There is a new current pulsing through Douglass’s rhetoric now. “Men seldom eulogize the wisdom and virtues of their fathers but to excuse some folly or wickedness of their own,” Morsell states, going on to parody the slave traders who lay claim to Washington’s legacy even as they defile it. As with so many of Douglass’s pointed critiques, the broad import of this statement is sadly just as relevant today as when it was written. Morsell concludes in a frank whisper, “Alas it should be so, but so it is.”

Oratory is an art of persuasion, but it is equal parts theater, and at its finest, music as well. Morsell delivers Douglass’s words with the intelligent nuance they demand, his cadences sweeping from a righteous thunder that scours the flesh from your bones to burgeoning deliberation and everything in between.

Douglass patiently built his speech like a fortress: brick by brick, word by word. After erecting these battlements, Morsell stands atop them to unleash a former slave’s hard truth like a hail of arrows. “There is not a man under heaven who does not know that slavery is wrong – FOR HIM!” As Morsell’s voice reaches furious crescendo, he calls upon the elements themselves: “At a time like this light, fire, scorching irony not convincing argument is needed. Not the gentle shower, but Thunder! Storm! Whirlwind and Earthquake!”

Then, like Zeus casting a thunderbolt, Morsell hits us with the full force of Douglass’s judgment:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I ANSWER; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers, hymns, sermons and thanksgivings are to him, mere bombast, fraud, and hypocrisy ? a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. Here in America, the home of the Declaration of Independence and a Bastion for Human Rights, you will see men and women reared like swine for the market.

It’s one of the most famous passages of the speech, and Morsell does it passionate justice. He does not, however, deliver precisely the same words that Douglass did:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy ? a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Morsell has edited Douglass’s speech, partly in the interest of time (the full text would last well over the length of a CD, Morsell’s version lasts 46 minutes), partly in the service of tempo and delivery. I can’t say I agree with all of Morsell’s choices: Douglass’s original concluding sentence to the paragraph above strikes me as more powerful, for example. But as any good actor does, Morsell makes his adaptation work. I think it fair to say that despite Morsell’s abridgments and artistic license, he remains true to the spirit of Douglass’s text.

For the remainder of the speech Morsell flays the mind with vivid imagery of the slave trade’s consequences, cracking his voice like a whip. He turns his unsparing eye on the collusion of the church, citing theologian and Presbyterian minister Albert Barnes, “There is no power out of the church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained in it.” He rakes the fugitive slave law across the coals. Finally he concludes with human exhaustion, “My spirit wearies of such blasphemy.” But his final message is one of hope. “The doom of slavery is certain,” Douglass states, due to an inevitable, expanding globalization of knowledge that resonates deeply with his own life-long struggle for access to education. This passage sounds profoundly contemporary; you’d almost think he was praising the internet.

In closing, Morsell / Douglass offers a reverent farewell to his audience that is almost a prayer.

At the time Morsell made this recording he had already been playing Douglass for four years, and the passionate, critical intelligence driving that commitment illuminates his performance. While the world of theater is in many ways the world of quick studies, you can’t achieve this kind of unity between actor and material in the short term. I listened attentively at the beginning, but by the middle of Morsell’s rendition of Douglass’s speech I was riven by every word, subsumed in the enclosed universe created between audience and performer. As I said in the beginning, reading Douglass is transformative. Hearing him performed like this gives his words new immediacy and invests them with the living, vocal power they were intended to have.

As incredible as his escape from slavery and subsequent rise to success were, it is perhaps more remarkable that Douglass did not lose heart in America. Douglass believed that the Declaration of Independence was not an antique monument at which to lay flowers, but a testament that Americans of every race and creed are called to live every day, whatever the personal cost. He proved himself the truest of patriots by his willingness to condemn his country for its iniquities in order to save it from them. If we would honor the memory of one of our greatest citizens, we should take that lesson to heart this 4th (and 5th) of July.

Next week: I’ve posted this review early because I’ll be taking a short vacation next week. Expect Malleus to resume its regular schedule on July 11.

4 out of 10

A flawed curiosity, the Mind’s Eye production of Kafka’s surreal, tragicomic tale of the salesman-turned-cockroach is notable for a striking voice effect and an outstanding performance by Erik Bauersfeld. Listening to him, you’ll believe a cockroach can talk and shudder with disgust and sympathy. It’s a shame the rest of the cast doesn’t measure up.

From the short story “Die Verwandlung” by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915.

Adapted and directed by: Erik Bauersfeld

The Mind’s Eye, 1982.

Language: English.

Availability: Out of print and difficult to find. Try Ebay, Amazon.com sellers, or Abebooks.

Cassette, 40 minutes.

What will they say when they see me?
- Gregor Samsa

Well, what can they say? If they get upset then it’s no longer your problem, if they take it calmly then all you have to worry about is catching the 8 o’clock train.
- the Voice

Now that the company and its works have all but vanished, it’s hard to believe there was a time in the 1980s when The Mind’s Eye was one of America’s biggest audio drama producers. They had mainstream distribution through chains like Waldenbooks and catalogs like Wireless, and they published an expansive, ambitious catalog of adaptations of classic stories. Their flagship title was a 12 cassette production of The Lord of the Rings, which aired on NPR. Since the BBC drama wasn’t available Stateside for years, the Mind’s Eye version was the only game in town for American Tolkien-lovers. This was very fortunate for The Mind’s Eye, because their low-rent edition of the fantasy epic was much inferior to the BBC’s. (But if the idea of Sam Gamgee sounding like Smurfette appeals, by all means seek it out. Yes, they actually cast Lucille Bliss, the voice of Smurfette, as Sam.) Unfortunately, the same can be said about most of their output. The Mind’s Eye routinely produced mediocre work marked by low calibre performances.

Although I was already underwhelmed by the Mind’s Eye back in the 1980′s, I became intrigued by their decision to adapt Franz Kafka’s classic tale, The Metamorphosis. The story of salesman Gregor Samsa waking up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant cockroach seemed an unlikely choice for audio drama. So much of the story depends on narration, after all, since the protagonist is more fixated on family and duty than describing his strange condition.

But if anyone could pull it off, it would be writer / director / actor Erik Bauersfeld, who produced many adaptations of strange tales for his Black Mass radio series. Bauersfeld has had an extensive career in audio drama, anchored by a long tenure from 1962 to 2004 with Pacifica Radio’s KPFA in Berkeley, California. Much of his radio work is frustratingly difficult to get a hold of, since many of his works have never been published. Given my own interests in the German scene, I’m particularly intrigued by a crossover German / American series that he spearheaded called the H?rspiel/USA Project. (If anyone knows how to obtain copies, please let me know.) Most would probably recognize Bauersfeld for voicing Jabba the Hutt’s toadie Bib Fortuna and Arabic-amphibian Admiral Ackbar in the Star Wars films. Apparently Bauersfeld was also the first voice to be recorded for Yoda. ?(Bauersfeld has since informed me that although he was recorded for Yoda, a role he enjoyed because the character was a philosopher, Frank Oz was recorded first. ?I gather Bauersfeld’s version was more sage and less comic.)

Bauersfeld has worked closely with some of the best in the audio business, including sound design legend Randy Thom. Outside of his own work, Bauersfeld is notable for mentoring a young Tom Lopez (“Meatball Fulton” of ZBS fame). See Roger Gregg’s NATF interview with Lopez for more on the ZBS director’s relationship with Bauersfeld. Hats off to Bauersfeld for that. If only more elder statesmen of audio drama would follow his example and encourage proteges; too many seem content to whine narcissistically about the low quality of young writers and the dire future of the field. Holding the occasional “master class” is fine, but nothing beats sustained mentoring.

With a pedigree like that (and this bio is much abbreviated), you would expect Bauersfeld to turn in an excellent performance as Gregor Samsa. And he does. His nervous, hesitant voice captures Samsa’s guilt, self-effacement, and Kafkaesque anxieties about being the sole provider for his ungrateful family. Interestingly, Samsa is a composite character in this production. The sagely British Bernard Mayes plays “The Voice”, a blend of conscience, omniscient narrator, and interlocutor who accompanies Samsa throughout the play. In addition to providing description “the Voice” converses directly with Samsa, who takes it for granted. Purists might scoff, but “the Voice” proves to be an elegant solution to traditional narration. In fact, Bauersfeld and Mayes’ interactions are easily the highlight of the drama. The conversing personae effectively take us inside Samsa’s mind as he muddles through his new situation.

The third element in bringing Gregor Samsa to audio life is the remarkable effect used to process Bauersfeld’s voice, giving it a bizarre, chittering echo. Creating effective and truly unique “creature voices” is a surprisingly subtle art. For novices, lowering / raising pitches or adding a metallic reverb is enough to make something sound monstrous, but these tired devices generally produce homogeneous results. Managing to find that sweet spot between keeping an actor’s voice understandable and giving it a truly unique, alien quality is a difficult feat. The Metamorphosis manages it handily: Bauersfeld’s insectile Samsa sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before, at once repulsive and sympathetic.

Bauersfeld’s performance is the best thing going for this production. Unfortunately, things go rapidly downhill once the rest of the cast appears. Kafka’s tragicomic, surreal story presents a significant challenge for dramatic interpretation. Should it be played straight? As a horror piece? As a black comedy? The Mind’s Eye players opted to treat it as a melodrama. This works to a degree for Robert Elross, who manages to wring some rough comedy out of Samsa’s overbearing father. Kenna Hunt, Beth Sweeney, and Priscilla Alden fare less well. Hunt overacts every line as Gregor’s stressed out mother, and sister Grete’s (Sweeney) histrionic fits are forced and exaggerated. Alden oddly chose to give the maid a comically heavy German accent, even though the entire story presumably takes place in Germany and the rest of the cast speaks standard English. Alden’s character plays to the stereotype of Germans being obsessed with order and cleanliness (believe me, it’s no stereotype), and it’s awkward and heavy-handed. Frankly, the poor quality of the acting had me convinced I was listening to community theater sunday players. I was wrong, but that doesn’t change the fact that the professional supporting cast turns in a sloppy, amateurish performance.

Bauersfeld and Mayes bring across some of the pathos and dark humor of Kafka’s melancholy tale, but as soon as the drama steps beyond the salesman’s lonely room into the lives of his dysfunctional family, the dysfunctional cast turns it into farce. A flawed curiosity, The Metamorphosis might be worth a listen for Bauersfeld’s stand-out portrayal of Samsa if you can find an old copy in your library or get it cheap.

Next: Fred Morsell brings a classic speech to life in his rendition of Frederick Douglass’ “The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro.” (English) Tune in for the Malleus review of a true American classic written by one of the country’s greatest orators.

9 out of 10

An audio drama adaptation of Bram Stoker’s little-known prelude to his famous horror novel. The Good, the Bad, and the Vlad face off in one of old Germany’s forgotten valleys for the soul of a very foolish Englishman. Ironically, only the use of classical music mars Titania Medien’s otherwise classic production.

Adapted from the short story “Dracula’s Guest” by Bram Stoker, published posthumously in Dracula’s Guest and other Weird Stories in 1914.

Written by: Marc Gruppe.

Directed by: Stephen Bosenius and Marc Gruppe.

Titania Medien, 2007.

Language: German.

Availability: In print. Draculas Gast can be purchased either singly or as part of Titania’s 4 CD box set of Dracula. Amazon.de is a good source for German-speaking U.S. citizens and Canadians, since they accept credit cards and ship to the U.S.A. and Canada. (Many German sellers do not.)

Over 45 minutes.

Try before you buy: A short excerpt featuring Jonathan Harker making his colossally stupid decision to tour a spooky, abandoned town on Walpurgisnacht can be heard at the link below.
Dracula’s Gast Homepage

Es ist Walpurgisnacht! Bedenken sie! Walpurgisnacht!

It’s Walpurgis’ Night! Think about it! Walpurgis’ Night!

- Johann the coachman, to an unbelieving Jonathan Harker

I’ll be frank: I’m tired of Dracula audio dramas. There have been plenty of English and German productions already, and I’d bet my not-very-sharp canine teeth that more are on the way. Sigh. The only thing less original than adapting Dracula is reenacting, “modernizing”, or parodying Orson Welles’ one trick pony, The War of the Worlds. It’s been done, folks. Hell’s bells, even I did one for my local station back when I was a teenager. I have nothing against amateurs doing War of the Worlds riffs – I have nothing against amateurs doing whatever they want, so long as they don’t charge for it – but for professionals, it’s well past time to move on.

But Dracula’s Guest? Now this is more like it. Bram Stoker’s neglected little gem relates the story of what happened to Jonathan Harker en route to his fateful first meeting with Count Dracula. Some scholars believe this short story was supposed to be the first chapter of Stoker’s famous novel, others disagree. Titania Medien has sided with the first group, making Dracula’s Gast the opening act of its Dracula adaptation. In doing so they’ve finally given this short, atmospheric work its due.

Stopping in Munich on his way to Transylvania, Jonathan Harker (Simon Jaeger) decides to take a day off to enjoy the German countryside. Innkeeper Dellbrueck (Heinz Ostermann) nervously assents, assigning Harker his faithful coachman Johann (Christian Rode), and urging that he return before night falls. There’s a hint of snow in the air, you see. It also happens to be Walpurgisnacht, that Pagan holiday when the dead rise from their graves.

Things go well until Harker notices a charming path leading down into a picturesque valley. Enticed, Harker asks his coachman to take the detour. The affable Johann strangely refuses. When Harker presses him, the coachman tells him that the trail leads to an abandoned town. It seems the former residents fled seeking a new home where “the Living live and the Dead remain dead and not something frightfully different.”

Harker responds with a young man’s impetuousness and an Englishman’s skepticism. He dismisses Johann’s backwoods superstitions, saying he’ll tackle the valley on foot and return in his own good time. Reluctantly the coachman takes his leave, asking God and Mary to watch over Harker. Someone is indeed watching over Harker, but it isn’t God. A dark silhouette observes him from afar, and a strange white wolf tracks his every move through the valley.

Of course, things get worse from there in this cautionary tale. The weather turns, and the sky darkens with the onset of a sudden winter storm. Harker is haunted by disembodied female laughter. Seeking shelter from the cold, he makes his way into the abandoned town and is inexorably driven into the mausoleum of Countess Dolingen. Her malevolent presence teases and drives him on, and Harker seems doomed to reawaken the Countess and become her first meal. But Harker is working for an extraordinary patron, and Dracula is not one to cross.

Titania Medien has set out to create the definitive hoerspiel library of horror classics through its Gruselkabinett line, of which Dracula’s Gast is the 16th release. I’m fond of the line for its high standards and its willingness to tackle titles that are off the beaten path (like Dracula’s Gast) in addition to more well-known material. Although not every production has been stellar, Dracula’s Gast has all the hallmarks of Gruselkabinett’s strongest releases.

The casting is rock-solid, filled in the German manner with actors known and advertised by the American and British Hollywood stars they dub. The CD’s back cover tells us that the all-star cast of Dracula’s Gast features the German voices of Heath Ledger, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Christopher Lee, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson. Simon Jaeger (the Heath Ledger guy) gives Jonathan Harker, a vanilla character at the best of times, the bravado and vulnerability of youth. This is really Harker’s story, saved from being a monologue only by numerous flashback scenes that detail the origin of his business trip and his relationship with Mina Murray (Tanja Geke). Everyone performs well in these supporting roles, but Juergen Thormann’s (the Michael Caine guy) Peter Hawkins was particularly memorable for the naturalness of his fatherly warmth for Harker. Joachim Hoeppner’s courtly, hard voice makes him a fine Dracula, but those wishing to hear the Count in action would be better served by Gruselkabinett’s full Dracula adaptation. The Count’s appearance in Dracula’s Gast accomplishes all it needs to, but fans are duly warned that it is brief.

If the production has one flaw, it is its use of classical music. Bosenius and Gruppe opt to use Paul Dukas’ well-known “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” as a leitmotif, weaving snatches of it throughout the drama, right up to the famous BUM BUM BUM BUM! of the finale. The supernatural aspect of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” would seem well suited to a play about vampires, and Paul Dukas is almost certainly a more accomplished composer than Titania could have hired. So why doesn’t it work?

Audio dramatists would do well to remember that music is a storytelling device, not just an atmosphere generator. This is particularly the case for works like “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, which was written as a musical adaptation of Goethe’s 1797 poem, “Der Zauberlehrling”. The true genius of “Apprentice” is how Dukas caught the spirited, macabre humor of Goethe’s poem and put it into his music. Walt Disney’s Fantasia segment with Mickey Mouse didn’t put any comedy into the “Apprentice” that wasn’t already right there in the musical notation. Quite the opposite; Mickey’s battle with the brooms works because it draws its jaunty horror straight from Dukas’ score.

Unfortunately, Goethe’s / Dukas’ humor really has no place in the humorless Dracula’s Gast. Placing the wry concluding beats of “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” at the end of Stoker’s tale makes it sound as though Bosenius and Gruppe are winking at the audience, turning the macabre tale into a weird jest. Since the dark events of Dracula’s Gast immediately precede those of Dracula, a chill of foreboding would have been more appropriate. Gruppe and Bosenius didn’t overlook this problem entirely, because they used dark, synthesized tracks for the play’s more overtly sinister scenes. While this original music is aesthetically unremarkable, unlike Dukas’ famous work it fits the story Dracula’s Gast actually tells. In short, Dukas’ “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” is musically superior but dramatically out of context.

I’m hardly the first person to say this: many German fans have complained about the jarringly inappropriate use of classical music in the Gruselkabinett line. And in all fairness, Dracula’s Gast is more successful in its implementation of classical music than other releases have been. In Titania’s Dracula adaptation, for example, the vampiric resurrection of Lucy Westenra is accompanied by Claude Debussy’s 1894 Pr?lude ? l’apr?s-midi d’un faune, which, like “Apprentice”, was based on a poem (by St?phane Mallarm?, c. 1876) with a very different theme. Although both works concern supernatural creatures and have sexual overtones, the horror of Lucy’s return fits poorly with the benign wonder of Debussy’s light reverie. Quite simply, the script and score tell different, incompatible tales. Rather than lending their dramas a patina of class, Gruselkabinett’s line-wide use of classical music feels unnecessary, distracting, and ingratiating.

Classical music aside, ultimately Dracula’s Gast succeeds on sheer atmosphere. Stoker’s tale is as much about Winter’s sudden power to transform the familiar into the foreign as it is about the undead. As such, Dracula’s Gast is genuinely “unheimlich”. This German word literally means “un-home-like” (as homes are what are most familiar to us, and most disturbing when they are rendered alien), but it is generally translated in English as “uncanny”. In the later pulp circles of Lovecraft this kind of story would be coined “the weird tale”. Dracula’s Gast may not have the same strong characterization, clever plotting, or even stark chills of Stoker’s more famous novel, but it still appeals to our terror of what is both ever-present and ever-strange: the land of the dead we coexist with every day.

Later this week (sorry for the delay): What would be an even more unlikely, uncanny audio drama adaptation than Dracula’s Gast? How about Erik Bauersfeld’s 1982 production of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis? (English)

Well, tis’ time to let slip the dogs of war again in an event that’s WAY more intoxicating than St. Patrick’s Day… it’s the Ides of March! To celebrate, we have a bonus presentation of the uncut Tragedy of Julius Caesar by Quicksilver Radio Theatre. Hope you enjoy!

Download audio file (rdr-bonus-julius-caesar.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Bonus Presentation of Julius Caesar

No, we’re not referring to eerie references to Santa Claus, but to the megalomaniac loose in the streets of London in this week’s tale, “The Confessions of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” We’d actually just reached the “confession” portion of the program last week, and now we learn all about the darker half of London’s fair doctor and see what chance he has at redeeming himself from the evil he’s unleashed.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast046.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival – Episode 46

Wow, what a hell of a week for Radio Drama Revival! I got interviewed by Justin Ellis of the Portland Press Herald for the NXT Podcast, a youth culture column, and my chat with him made it on the NXT Halloween Special… thanks Justin for a great chat and for being interested in what this audio thing is all about. If you were referred to this site by listening to that podcast, I’d love to hear from you — email fred@ the domain of this site.

Also a shout-out to the Strange Maine blog, an ongoing insight into the spooky and dark crevices of Maine, who did a great write-up for the special… And if you haven’t heard it, yeah, the Halloween special was a hell of a hit! So much, in fact, that radiodramarevival.com went down for a couple of hours last night… that technical issue’s been sorted out, and I apologize if you had trouble getting the stories. It’s now all cool so hit that button going on your podcast player!

In general, this month of horror has DOUBLED the amount of people visiting the site… So hey, lots of love to the loyal listeners, and very very welcome to those who are just checking this out for the first time. Hope you stick around for a bit, and drop me a line on what you think, what you’d like to see happen, and why not comment on a story?

And finally… to today’s show. We leave the dark and twisted corners of the human imagination (for a little while) to head to New Orleans, land of dreams, land of the dead… It’s my true pleasure to play the very first piece I ever did, for the holiday that bears its name — Day of the Dead.

A young man heads to New Orleans in search of his missing lover… He finds much more than he expects, and is changed in ways he could never imagine. A tribute to a beautiful, strange and magnificent city, with a story inspired by my own strange journey and the myth of Orpheus.

Enjoy.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast042.mp3)

Radio Drama Revival! Episode 42

The body of Caesar lies dripping in the palace’s chambers, as Brutus steps out to speak to the chaos of the street to answer for the conspirator’s deeds. But the dogs of war have slipped, and good-intentions might fulfill the prophecy they feared.

The exciting conclusion to Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” by our friends at the Quicksilver Radio Theater.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast019.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival! Episode 19

Lend me your ears… and let slip the dogs of war!

Tragedy, betrayal, power lust and vengeance collide in this fresh contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar,” rendered in livid sound by our friends at the Quicksilver Radio Theater. Enjoy the first half of the drama, with the bloody conclusion next week.

2008 Ides of March Special! Hear the two halves of “Julius Caesar” in one show.

Download audio file (rdr-podcast018.mp3)
Radio Drama Revival – Episode 18