The War of the Worlds

Isley Lynn

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781350269934
• eBook ISBN: 9781350269958
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

No-one would have believed in the early years of the twentieth century that this world was being watched... There is nothing more alluring than a good story. When Orson Welles adapted The War of the Worlds, he wanted to create a thrilling radio drama that would 'feel' real. In fact, it felt so real that it caused hysteria amongst a public just getting used to the outside world invading their living rooms via the radio. Fast forward to 2016, and the internet has replaced the radio as the medium through which we make sense of the world. We remain just as susceptible … Inspired by H.G. Wells' sci-fi novel and Orson Welles' classic radio play, this legendary science fiction thriller is playfully reimagined as a play by Isley Lynn for our era of Fake News and 'alternative facts'.

Act One

A space which is, for now, a sound studio.

An imposing CBS microphone centre stage.

A 1930s wooden radio, playing as the audience enter.

AnnouncerThe Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the air in The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells.

Mercury Theatre musical theme.

AnnouncerLadies and gentlemen: the director of the Mercury Theatre and star of these broadcasts, Orson Welles . . .

Sound stops.

Four Orsons enter.

They approach the microphone together.

OrsonWe know now that in the last years of the twentieth century this world was being watched, closely, by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own.

OrsonWe know now that as human beings busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied,

OrsonPerhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.

OrsonWith infinite complacence people went to and fro over the earth about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small spinning fragment of solar driftwood,

OrsonWhich by chance or design man has inherited out of the dark mystery of Time and Space.

OrsonYet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and unsympathetic,

OrsonRegarded this earth with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

Beat.

Orson (Sigh.)Of course nobody heard my wonderful speech at the beginning.

OrsonWonderful speech.

OrsonIt really was.

OrsonNo, most listeners were tuned into a ventriloquist.

OrsonEdgar Bergen.

An Orson turns on the radio – it plays a ventriloquist act.

OrsonYes, a ventriloquist, on the radio.

OrsonAnd by the time the listeners tuned into my broadcast everything was out of context.

OrsonThey believed that Martians were mercilessly attacking this small, sleepy town in New Jersey.

OrsonThey believed that journalists died and the army was deployed.

OrsonThey believed it all.

OrsonOh yes. I’ve been told many times since that my broadcast turned grown, intelligent men into quivering infants.

OrsonI know what you’re thinking: stupid Americans. How could they believe that aliens had invaded the United States of America?

OrsonBut that was the power of radio.

OrsonImagine a time where fact can turn to fiction, and fiction to fact.

OrsonWhere at the centre of every home is a portal to the outside world.

OrsonThis machine could put Roosevelt in your favourite armchair.

We hear Roosevelt.

OrsonChamberlain in your kitchen.

We hear Chamberlain.

OrsonHitler in your living room.

We hear Hitler.

OrsonThe Hindenburg Zeppelin in flames over your rooftop.

We hear Herbert Morrison.

OrsonAnd aliens just outside your door.

A cacophany of sound.

We snap to the sound studio.

One Orson oversees the performances of three actors.

AnnouncerGood evening, ladies and gentlemen. From the Meridian Room in the Park Plaza in New York City, we bring you the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra. With a touch of the Spanish, Ramón Raquello leads off with ‘La Cumparsita’.

Music.

The actors silently check in with each other, secretly prepare for the next segment, scurrying around the imposing Mr Welles.

AnnouncerLadies and gentlemen, we interrupt our programme of dance music to bring you a special bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. The Mount Jennings Observatory, Chicago, Illinois reports observing several explosions of incandescent gas, occurring at regular intervals on the planet Mars. Due to the unusual nature of this occurrence, we have arranged an interview with noted astronomer Professor Pierson, who will give us his views on the event. We return you until then to the music of Ramón Raquello and his orchestra.

Music.

AnnouncerWe are now ready to take you to the Princeton Observatory at Princeton where Carl Phillips, our commentator, will interview Professor Richard Pierson, famous astronomer.

Change in background sound.

PhillipsGood evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Carl Phillips speaking to you from the observatory at Princeton. Professor, may ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Biographies
• Contents
• Introduction
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• The War of the Worlds
• Notes
• Act One
• Act Two
• eCopyright