I have recently started listening to Radio Drama and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. In terms of wellbeing, it was nice to sit back, close your eyes and just listen. It can in my opinion, be very rewarding, and it is a good workout for your imagination.
The quality of the dramas is excellent in most cases, and I highly recommend RTE Drama on 1, the BBC drama and The Truth podcasts.
Most people have probably listened to at least one podcast, or have tried audiobooks, so it is not a big leap to try radio drama. Most of the programmes are around forty minutes or less.
To capture your attention and imagination, by just using audio, is an underappreciated skill and I suppose the best example of the power of radio drama was Orson Welles famous alien- invasion radio drama.
One has only to think of the great furor caused by his “War of the Worlds” drama in 1938, based on the H. G. Wells story. It happened over eighty-five years ago, and people still write about it. To listen to it just click the link above.
Welles himself introduced the drama and clarified that it was a work of fiction, however that was of no value to the people who tuned in late.
On Halloween morning, Orson Welles, who was only 23 years old at the time, awoke to find himself the most talked about person in America. He had used fake news bulletins to help tell the story of a Martian invasion and unfortunately some listeners mistook those bulletins for the real thing.
Newspaper offices and police were contacted by anxious people, and this added to the national hysteria. There were reports of mass stampedes, and stories of suicide.
Police who had been contacted, went to the CBS studio, and tried to gain entry during the show, and ended up in a struggle with radio executives.
By the next morning, fear had turned to anger as Orson Welle’s picture was on the front page of most newspapers. Some angry listeners, calling the radio stations, even threatened to shoot him. Orson Welles quickly arranged a press conference, and claimed total innocence and that it was never his intention to upset or frighten so many people.
There were threats of lawsuits but ultimately the Federal Communications Commission investigated the incident and concluded no law had been broken, but the networks agreed they would be more cautious with content in future.
His attempts to make the show as interesting as possible succeeded, almost by accident, far beyond his wildest expectations.
There are still some people who believe that Orson Welles deliberately wanted to cause a stir.
It certainly did not end his career, in fact it was the opposite, as he ended up in Hollywood and was in great demand. Two years later, he directed and starred in Citizen Kane, often cited as the greatest film of all time.
Orson Welles was born in 1915 but it could be said that he was reborn in 1938, the year that immortalized him forever as the “the Man from Mars”.
If you decide to give radio drama a try, I recommend “Morning Coffee” on RTE drama on One, written by Dermot Bolger, as a good starting point. The story is about a stranger from the past who drives into the yard of an elderly couple. Was this a benign visit or was he going to wreak havoc on the lives of the couple? Well, you can find out by clicking on the link above.
References
Image by Freepik
