In Willy Russell‘s 1980 play Educating Rita, the title character (a working-class hairdresser taking Open University literature courses in London) responds to the question “Suggest how you might resolve the staging difficulties inherent in a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt” with “Do it on the radio.”
It’s hard to say with certainty what kind of digital theatrical work will survive post-pandemic, though nearly every practitioner and producer I’ve spoken to in recent months promises that digital content will always be part of their programming going forward. But one thing that has emerged this year, to my great pleasure, is a mini-renaissance of radio theater.
The latter is the first episode in 16th Street’s podcast series from the resident MC-10 Playwrights’ Collective on the theme of “Are We Alive?” In 15 minutes, Maher’s play (which is presented as if it were an actual radio broadcast) takes on nothing less daunting than the nature of narrative and human identity. Nora (note the nod to Ibsen!), voiced by Tony Award-winning Steppenwolf vet Deanna Dunagan, is the host of a call-in radio show in southern Michigan, who keeps asking her unheard engineer if her husband has called in yet.
Says Maher, “As a playwright who’s not getting much work during COVID, as most playwrights are not in the world, I was just excited by the word ‘radio’ because that actually is viable. As opposed to Zoom or podcast or whatever, it really felt like, ‘Oh, that’s quote-unquote, real theater.’ But truly, my own personal experience of listening to the radio as a kid and different radio things like War of the Worlds or just Monty Python records—audio theater experienced on your living room rug—that was every bit as satisfying as going to the theater.”
He adds, “The script is really strong and the reading was really strong. You could have just released it as an audiobook and it would have been really cool and you’d get a sense of the story and drama. But the chance to create a universe around it was a really fun opportunity to collaborate with these guys.” Still, the amount of work required for Messing to create that score and soundscape (as a sometime-collaborator with filmmakers, he says it was about the same amount of time needed for a film) indicates that creating quality radio drama isn’t necessarily less time-consuming than working on a stage play.
While his current company has kept alive the visual and sometimes-fantastical elements that Maugeri and Redmoon were famous for, he finds this new sonic experiment challenging, but promising. And he hopes the radio shows also provide a different kind of experience for audiences caught up in too much screen time.
The Cabinet, through 5/22: available for download 24 hours after purchase, cocechicago.com, $15.It Is Always Almost Upon Us, through 3/31: available online anytime, 16thstreettheater.org, F.
