A Theater In The Dark's Live Virtual Audio Drama A WAR OF THE WORLDS To Return For Three Halloween Weekend Performances

A Theater in the Dark's live virtual audio drama A WAR OF THE WORLDS to return for three Halloween weekend performances, October 29-31

Wells' Martian invasion tale, as set in present-day Chicago and other parts of the state, was a hit of the fall 2020 virtual season Chicago - A Theater in the Dark's (formerly Theatre in the Dark) original audio drama adaptation of H.G. Wells' THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, which originally streamed in October and November of 2020, will return this Halloween season for three live performances - Friday, October 29, Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31, at 8 pm each evening.

The new production, using a streamlined script that will clock in around 70 minutes, will also be recorded and available for listeners for seven days following the three live performances. Corey Bradberry, who co-authored this new adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel with company co-founder Mack Gordon, is again directing, with most of the 2020 cast returning and performing their roles from locations across North America.

Gordon, performing from Vancouver, B.C., will again play H.G. Wells, in this version a 21st century science journalist thrust into the events of an alien invasion after a meteor from the "Red Planet" Mars crashes 70 miles outside Chicago at the start of the new decade. Elizabeth McCoy will again call in from New Orleans to play Wells' wife Isabel. Ming Hudson, who like Gordon will be performing from Vancouver, returns as Shelly. McCoy's fellow New Orleanian Robinson J. Cyprian and Chicagoan Lauren Ezzo, who were swings in the previous production, join the full cast and play multiple roles.

Bradberry and Gordon's adaptation is titled A WAR OF THE WORLDS, and while it follows the contours of Wells' story of a Martian invasion, it moves the action from 1890s England to present day Illinois, with settings in Chicago and other parts of the state. After a meteor from the "Red Planet" Mars crashes outside Chicago at the start of the new decade, the journalist Wells rushes to investigate while his wife Isabel seeks refuge in downtown Chicago. Separated from family, friends, and everything they have ever known, the eclectic cast of Chicagoland characters must do everything in their power to survive as our world comes crashing down around them. As the Martians reveal their deadly Heat-Ray and their true intentions, whirling our characters into hair-raising chases across Chicago, one question remains: is life on Earth doomed?

The three-year-old A Theater in the Dark, dedicated to making theater exclusively through sound, uses the human voice, music, and sound effects in the tradition of the great radio dramas of the 1920s through the 1950s to create this thrilling and suspenseful take on the Wells story.

Bradberry says, "Before the COVID restrictions prohibiting large group gatherings, we had initially planned A WAR OF THE WORLDS to be performed in a completely dark theatre space, as was THREE STORIES UP. Fortunately for us, our company aesthetic of audio-only drama lent itself to the online medium of Zoom-enabled performance and we began to plan the production for an online presentation, with actors and Foley artists performing via Zoom from their home studios in Chicago, New Orleans and Vancouver. A WAR OF THE WORLDS is a virtual audio drama for audiences to enjoy in their own home as people did in the golden age of radio dramas. Audiences will be encouraged to listen to the broadcast in small groups - to relax and settle in a dark space with wine and food before submitting to the horrifying thought of an invasion from another planet."

A Theater in the Dark's production again honors the legendary 1938 Orson Welles' broadcast of THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, though it updates the story, uses current production technology, and employs a contemporary aesthetic. Welles' Mercury Theater adaptation of the novel was broadcast to a national audience on a Halloween eve - October 30, 1938. Legend has it that Welles's script, structured as a series of faux news reports, led some listeners to believe the planet was under attack by aliens from another planet. The CBS radio network was flooded with calls from panicked listeners.

The CHICAGO READER's Kerry Reid called the 2020 production a "stylish and compelling adaptation." AROUND THE TOWN's Julia W. Rath said Ben Zucker's "extraordinary and distinctive sound design and music add to the overall feeling of dread." Ed Tracy's PICKS IN SIX praised it as "a fascinating and innovative approach utilizing our ever-evolving pandemic-driven virtual technology to connect us in the moment." RESCRIPTED called it "cosmic and intimate."

This will be the sixth production of the three-year-old A Theater in the Dark. Their inaugural production was Gordon's original noir mystery THREE STORIES UP, performed in person during Fall 2019. They followed that live play with several streaming productions during the pandemic shutdown, beginning with their first production of A WAR OF THE WORLDS in spring 2020 and a reprise engagement of the Wells story in fall 2020; and new productions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL IN THE DARK in December 2020 and A WHITE WHALE OR MOBY DICK in spring 2021. That adaptation of the Herman Melville novel won the top prize of the Critic's Choice Award at the 2021 Atlanta Fringe Festival.

A WAR OF THE WORLDS includes original music and additional sound design by Ben Zucker. Tickets will be pay-what-you-can ($15 suggested donation) and are on sale now at https://www.atheaterinthedark.com/

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