I have to be clear. Clear as glass.
July 31, 2013 11:55 PM Subscribe
"Echo Point" is a chilling, sound-rich supernatural radio drama written by Australian author Louis Nowra. Originally aired on BBC Radio 4, it is now available on SoundCloud via producer/director Judith Kampfner.
Celebrated Australian author Louis Nowra sets his ghost story in a creaky rattling building with a labyrinth of rooms. On top of the misty isolated Blue Mountains, outside Sydney, stands the former glorious hotel overlooking a cliff, which creates a constant echo.
Inside Gavin, a renovator, is tearing down walls and discovering rooms of contraptions once used to cure women with nervous afflictions. His marriage to Esther is in trouble and he hopes this trip may help her calm down. For some time Esther, a brilliant pianist, has avoided touching a piano, but in the ballroom she discovers a piano as damaged as she is. As past and present merge, Esther takes control of her life. But is she becoming saner or more unhinged?
Celebrated Australian author Louis Nowra sets his ghost story in a creaky rattling building with a labyrinth of rooms. On top of the misty isolated Blue Mountains, outside Sydney, stands the former glorious hotel overlooking a cliff, which creates a constant echo.
Inside Gavin, a renovator, is tearing down walls and discovering rooms of contraptions once used to cure women with nervous afflictions. His marriage to Esther is in trouble and he hopes this trip may help her calm down. For some time Esther, a brilliant pianist, has avoided touching a piano, but in the ballroom she discovers a piano as damaged as she is. As past and present merge, Esther takes control of her life. But is she becoming saner or more unhinged?
This is really cool. I love the BBC Radio 4 radiodramas, and it is usually hard to find them after they are up for a few weeks.
This radiodrama was great and in a quest to find more stuff, I poked through the rest of Judith Kampfner's soundcloud channel and I found an updated remake of Bradbury's The Veldt.
posted by Wolfster at 1:56 AM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
This radiodrama was great and in a quest to find more stuff, I poked through the rest of Judith Kampfner's soundcloud channel and I found an updated remake of Bradbury's The Veldt.
posted by Wolfster at 1:56 AM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
Good stuff - I had to switch from headphones to speaker when it aired on Radio 4, in order to decrease the spookiness!
It's weird that productions like this, which take sound design and music as seriously as the script, performances, &c., don't appear on radio more often.
I mean, almost all Radio 4 dramas are two voices in conversation with the odd bit of clinking cups in a café/muffled train station announcement/softly lowing cow type stuff to set the scene. I don't need Radiophonic Workshop style experimental lunacy peppering every drama, but routinely not paying attention to sound on the radio is defo a bit... odd.
I suppose it's down to the fact that there's so little variety in original commissioned drama on Radio 4, where you can practically guarantee a play will be about the domestic struggles of regionally-accented working class people as imagined by RP-accented middle class people, and will feature a minimum of one moving scene involving an elderly woman being wise in the vicinity of a misguided teen. (The odds of a Radio 4 play being about Basil D'Oliveira, the popularity of womens football between the wars or someone who turns out to be a ghost are also insanely high compared to other media.)
posted by jack_mo at 3:42 AM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
It's weird that productions like this, which take sound design and music as seriously as the script, performances, &c., don't appear on radio more often.
I mean, almost all Radio 4 dramas are two voices in conversation with the odd bit of clinking cups in a café/muffled train station announcement/softly lowing cow type stuff to set the scene. I don't need Radiophonic Workshop style experimental lunacy peppering every drama, but routinely not paying attention to sound on the radio is defo a bit... odd.
I suppose it's down to the fact that there's so little variety in original commissioned drama on Radio 4, where you can practically guarantee a play will be about the domestic struggles of regionally-accented working class people as imagined by RP-accented middle class people, and will feature a minimum of one moving scene involving an elderly woman being wise in the vicinity of a misguided teen. (The odds of a Radio 4 play being about Basil D'Oliveira, the popularity of womens football between the wars or someone who turns out to be a ghost are also insanely high compared to other media.)
posted by jack_mo at 3:42 AM on August 1, 2013 [2 favorites]
It looks like Judith Kampfner has a bunch of neat stuff on her Soundcloud page, too! Thanks!
Paired with a Soundcloud downloader plugin, my commute just got a lot more interesting.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:22 AM on August 1, 2013
Paired with a Soundcloud downloader plugin, my commute just got a lot more interesting.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:22 AM on August 1, 2013
Flavors of The Yellow Wall Paper, with a touch of the Overlook Hotel. This production reminds me very much of Seeing Ear Theatre. If you enjoyed this, click that link for some more stories.
posted by Lou Stuells at 11:35 AM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Lou Stuells at 11:35 AM on August 1, 2013 [1 favorite]
Beautifully done. The sound was top-notch, and the story a nicely done haunting.
posted by doctornemo at 12:28 PM on August 1, 2013
posted by doctornemo at 12:28 PM on August 1, 2013
« Older The Commodore 64: it's a pretty good computer, it... | Porn Sex v Real Sex Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:02 AM on August 1, 2013