Aug 19 2010 by David Williamson, Western Mail
In an era where technology dominates people’s consumption of entertainment, David Williamson looks at how the radio plays could be in for a revival
LIVE radio dramas have an intensity of emotion and excitement which can thrill audiences in an iPod age, according to fans at a Welsh university who have teamed up with a leading Hollywood scriptwriter.
The potential of plays whose only images exist in the imaginations of listeners to grip an audience was demonstrated to bold effect in 1924 with Danger, Richard Hughes’ BBC drama about a group trapped in a Welsh coal mine.
In the same decade, operas, Broadway musicals and stage plays entertained American families who clustered around radios. And Orson Welles’ 1938 War ofthe Worlds epic convinced startled listeners a martian invasion was under way.
Professor Richard Hand of the University of Glamorgan is adamant that the time has come for a revival of live drama, where actors cluster around microphones and technicians generate sound effects on the spot. The craft brings together the immediacy of theatre and conjures the imaginative magic of storytelling.
He said: “It’s about the most nerve-wracking thing I’ve ever done.”
Together with staff and students at the Cardiff Atrium campus, he helped stage a “full-blooded” radio dramatisation of the gruesome legend of Sweeney Todd, the murderous barber of Fleet St.
This was released on Apple’s iTunes and won the attention of Boston-based screenwriter Diane Lake, best known for her work on the multi-Oscar nominated 2002 drama Frida.
He said: “She got in touch and said, ‘Would you accept a script?’. We said, ‘Definitely!’”
Ms Lake, who has written for Columbia, Disney, Miramax, Paramount and NBC, created a detective drama based around the mysterious character of super-sleuth Violet Strange.
The US detective comes to England and quickly becomes embroiled in a mystery surrounding a series of thefts and a group of socialites known as the Inseparables.
In contrast with the decapitations of Sweeney Todd, Prof hand describes the tone as “very Gosford Park” – a reference to Robert Altman’s acclaimed country house drama.
The story involves Strange initially encountering barriers in a male-dominated society but gradually exploiting the cracks in the British establishment.
Prof Hand said: “She realises she can use her status as a woman to get much deeper than any man could.”
The drama comes at a time when Sherlock Holmes’ recent exploits on both the cinema screen and in a modern television adaptation have proved there is an enduring appetite for idiosyncratic investigators unravelling mysteries which reveal dark secrets in British society.
Lake crossed the Atlantic to take part in the production which was staged in front of an audience at the university Atrium.
Prof Hand was in the director’s chair and fellow lecturers Stephen Lacey and Geraint D’Arcy took roles, alongside a team of students from Glamorgan and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
This involved learning new skills and pushing the creativity of actors and technicians to new heights.
Describing the sound effects team as “heroes of live radio”, the professor said: “We were looking at getting a car sound. In the end we used a trombone, very slowly played – it worked as a car engine.”
Actors had to learn to tame some of their expressive impulses.
He said: “A lot of actors aren’t used to radio. With radio, there’s that consideration of how they use the mic and that’s incredibly difficult because they want to move and bring life to things but if you move your head six inches that sounds like you are 60 yards away...
“It’s not a form for improvising. It’s almost like a musician working with a score.”
There has been renewed interest in radio drama through epic BBC projects such as the Complete Smiley – dramatisations of all eight of John le Carré’s George Smiley novels with Simon Russell Beale in the title role.
Early American radio dramas won audiences of millions with cliffhanger endings and tales of adventure, but this tradition came to a sudden halt in the US with the advent of television.
Prof Hand said: “CBS and NBC put all their eggs in the television basket and it killed it. We are so fortunate with the BBC because the BBC [kept] on with radio and we still have 300 plays a year.”
Now that the internet means people do not need to be next to a radio at a specific time of broadcast, people are free to explore drama series at their leisure.
He said: “I’m aware some of my students and colleagues have listened to a series in one go.”
He now believes it is worthwhile taking on the extra challenge of recording the work as a live piece, despite the looming creative hurdles such a production will face.
He appreciates that universities enjoy a creative freedom to pursue such projects which is almost unique.
He said: “We can succeed and fail. The wonderful thing in an academic environment is if something doesn’t work we can co back to the drawing board...
“It’s all experimentation; it’s all adventure. We’re allowed to do that.”
These early efforts have won an enthusiastic response and he is increasingly convinced that the ubiquity of MP3 players signals people want to listen to more than just their favourite bands and that a new age of audio drama could await.
“I think music is fantastic but I think people want more,” he enthused. “People are so busy that they want to listen to stuff.
“There is something exciting about the spoken word; sometimes music is not enough.”
The role of a director in a live radio drama is more like a conductor of an orchestra than a filmmaker. Only two microphones are used in a production and actors must be in place at the precise moment they are required.
In sharp contrast with theatre, the length of a production must be strictly controlled. Finishing seven seconds early would leave a gaping moment of dead air on a radio schedule.
They abandoned the cosy confines of the Atrium’s radio studios and invited an audience of around 60. People who came to watch the performance were guaranteed a night out quite unlike any other on offer in Cardiff.
“We do dress up in the 1940s style, even though [the cast and crew] would be much more comfortable to be in T-shirts,” the professor said.
He is looking forward to further audio adventures which will stretch their creative muscles.
He admitted: “It was quite demanding, I have to say, because what we do is very rough and ready and we don’t apologise for that. Also, with post-production you can polish things and make them sound so smooth and we’re not able to do that.”
Prof Hand, whose interests include horror films, video games, Frank Zappa and Joseph Conrad, thinks Ms Lake enjoyed the rapid turnaround of the project and how this contrasts with the years spent preparing for a Hollywood blockbuster.
He said: “When she got in touch and said ‘How long will it take?’ and we said ‘two to three weeks’ she just couldn’t believe it.”
There is the potential for Violet Strange to add further mysteries to her casebook, and Prof Hand is delighted that the university now has a strong working relationship with Ms Lake, who can explain to budding scriptwriters both the principles of her craft and the machinations of the industry.
He said: “I think Glamorgan is very good at getting interaction with the creative industries... [It] was a special time to spend time with her.”
Her dramatisation of the life of the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo was named one of the 10 best films of 2002 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It was also nominated for six Academy Awards, and she has experience of nurturing students through her role as a screenwriting professor at Emerson College in Boston.
The Casebook of Violet Strange: The Inseparables, can be heard online for free from the University of Glamorgan’s channel on iTunes (http://itunes.glam.ac.uk).
