Live-streamed until November 21, 2020
Pay what you can; reservations and information at theatreinthedark.com
Posted October 22, 2020
Like Mary Shelley’s 1818 Frankenstein, H.G. Well’s 1898 The War of the World’s just keeps spawning revivals and adaptations. Perhaps the most infamous adaptation was a radio play by American writer Howard Koch that aired on CBS on October 30, 1938. Listeners, who took the imagined invasion of New Jersey by Martians as the real thing, panicked. Orson Wells, the narrator, was, I suppose, thrilled that the broadcast had seemed so real as to strike terror into hearts in radio land.
It’s unlikely that this latest incarnation by Theatre in the Dark will cause panic; with Covid-19 raging, invasion from outer space just doesn’t seem so scary. Or realistic.
But this production is way out there when it comes to innovation: the show originates simultaneously from Vancouver, Chicago and New Orleans. Actors who have never met each other read the script, co-adapted from the original by Mack Gordon and Corey Bradberry (who also directs); it’s musically stitched together by composer/musician Ben Zucker. Every night, through the magic of technology, A War of the Worlds reaches you via Zoom. It’s live every night. There are no visuals, just audio and you do not participate except to sit back and listen; a darkened room and a beverage are recommended. This is theatre between the ears.
Bradberry and Gordon shift the action from Surrey, England to somewhere near Chicago and from 1898 to October 2021. Well’s original unnamed brothers become reporter/journalist H.G. Wells (Mack Gordon) and his photographer wife Isabel (Elizabeth McCoy); the astronomer Dr. Ogilvy (Alex Morales) is still Dr. Ogilvy and he still gets snuffed by the Martians as he peers into the crater made by the giant spacecraft that has smashed into our planet. And then HG and Izzy, as they are known, are on the run: pursued by giant, blood-sucking ‘tripods’ HG and Izzy flee for their lives, get separated and (hardly a spoiler alert) are reunited. Invasion literature meets romance novel.
So, what’s the experience like? For starters, it starts at 8PM Central Standard Time which converts to 6PM Pacific Daylight Time: it’s still daytime here so sitting spookily in the dark doesn’t happen out here in PDT land. And technically, it’s challenging: getting the cross-continental volume levels is tricky and they don’t always get it right. No actor can afford to let his/her voice drop – even when they’re supposed to be whispering.
For those among us who remember and loved radio drama, this A War of the Worlds reminds us of that golden era. Writers like Pinter and Stoppard cut their teeth writing radio dramas for BBC; radio drama, before TV, was Big. But that was then and now is now.
The question arises, therefore, as to why Theatre in the Dark has gone to such technically difficult ends to produce this live performance/radio drama hybrid. Perhaps it’s as simple as: if we CAN do, why not? And they certainly have fun with it. The press releases and pre-show information, including a recipe for a tequila old-fashioned to be enjoyed during the zoomcast, and five reasons why you should ‘hear’ the show, are almost as engaging as the show itself. Theatre in the Dark is a company that is pushing the boundaries of traditional theatre while, ironically, harkening back to a pre-TV era when all we had in our own homes was radio.
The greatest irony of all is that in all the versions of Well’s The War of the Worlds, the Martians meet their end not by guns or bombs but by bacteria. In the midst of a worldwide pandemic, that’s a really, really scary thought.