Category: Audio Drama

With Blooms day fast approaching I thought it would be a good time to highlight some of the James Joyce adaptions that I’ve worked on.

Ivy Day In The Committee Room
In a committee room, Mat O’Connor, a canvasser for Richard Tierney, a candidate in an upcoming municipal election, discusses child-rearing with Old Jack, who tries to keep a fire going. Joe Hynes, another canvasser, arrives and needles O’Connor on whether he’s been paid for his work yet. He proceeds to defend rival candidate Colgan’s working class background and maintains that Tierney, although a Nationalist, will likely present a welcome address at the upcoming visit of King Edward VII. When Hynes points out that it is Ivy Day, a commemoration of Charles Stewart Parnell, a nostalgic silence fills the room. Another canvasser, John Henchy, enters and derides Tierney for not having paid him yet. When Hynes leaves, Henchy voices a suspicion that the man is a spy for Colgan. Henchy badmouths another canvasser, Crofton, just before Crofton himself enters with Lyons. Crofton had worked for the Conservative candidate until the party withdrew and gave their support to Tierney.

The talk of politics drifts to Charles Stewart Parnell, who has his defenders and detractors in the room. Hynes returns and is encouraged to read his sentimental poem dedicated to Parnell. The poem is highly critical of those who betrayed him, including the Roman Catholic Church, and places Parnell among the ancient heroes of Ireland. All applaud the performance and seem to forget their differences for the moment.

A Painful Case
Mr. Duffy, a middle-aged bank cashier, deliberately lives in an isolated suburb of Dublin. He is characterized as very meticulous and ordered and has little social contact. At a concert one night, Duffy makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Emily Sinico, a married mother. They start up a relationship that is innocent enough to be condoned by Mrs. Sinico’s husband, who believes the two’s discussions revolve mostly around his daughter and the possibility of a relationship between her and Duffy. The two draw closer together, and one night Mrs. Sinico impulsively takes his hand and presses it to her cheek, but Duffy is not pleased at the development and ends their meetings. Four years later, he reads that Mrs. Sinico has been struck by a train and killed. The newspaper article, the title of which provides the title of the story, contains an account by her husband, who states that she began drinking two years ago. The details of the accident suggest that she may have committed suicide. He reacts at first with revulsion, concluding that some inherent weakness led to her drinking and the accident, but he slowly comes to believe that it was his rejection that condemned her to solitude and death. He reflects on his own loneliness: “No one wanted him; he was outcast from life’s feast.” The story ends with Duffy listening to the silence of the surrounding night atop a hill overlooking Dublin where he and Sinico used to sit down and talk, where he realizes just how lonely he really is.

‘The St. James Rejoice Boarding House’ by Jack Byrne
A half hour radio drama adaptation of James Joyce’s ‘The Boarding House’ from Dubliners, this years Dublin City Libraries ‘One City, One Book’ choice. The storyline is original and deals with the tribulations of a male boarder in the titled boarding house. The house is run by an old haridan and her flighty daughter who eventually beguiles the boarder into bed and an unwanted pregnancy.

by HENRY HUDSON Directed by BERNADETTE FORDE

New Year’s Eve, 2007 and the family of Mick ‘The Mixer’ Murtagh gather at his home for their annual New Year’s Eve party. Mick’s construction company, Murbuild, is valued at one hundred million euro but Mick craves more. He plans to go ‘international’ and become one of the great movers and shakers of the Celtic Tiger age. The clock ticks towards midnight. The champagne flows. The Murtaghs believe that 2008 will be their best year ever.

Then a phone rings… and nothing will ever be the same again.

SEAN O’CASEY THEATRE, St Mary’s Road, East Wall.

Tuesday 20^th– Friday 23^rd May  *Nightly at 8pm * Ticket €10 * Theatre Box Office 01 850900

See www.seanocaseycommunitycentre.ie  for directions/public transport.

Below are some of his audio dramas:

Playing for Time

Black Monday

Twin Candles

Another dramatic adaptation of a James Joyce short story. ‘A Painful Case’ from his book ‘The Dubliners’ was produced as part of the Reading Together series on Near FM.

Mr. Duffy, a middle-aged bank cashier, deliberately lives in an isolated suburb of Dublin. He is characterized as very meticulous and ordered and has little social contact. At a concert one night, Duffy makes the acquaintance of Mrs. Emily Sinico, a married mother. They start up a relationship that is innocent enough to be condoned by Mrs. Sinico’s husband, who believes the two’s discussions revolve mostly around his daughter and the possibility of a relationship between her and Duffy. The two draw closer together, and one night Mrs. Sinico impulsively takes his hand and presses it to her cheek, but Duffy is not pleased at the development and ends their meetings. Four years later, he reads that Mrs. Sinico has been struck by a train and killed. The newspaper article, the title of which provides the title of the story, contains an account by her husband, who states that she began drinking two years ago. The details of the accident suggest that she may have committed suicide. He reacts at first with revulsion, concluding that some inherent weakness led to her drinking and the accident, but he slowly comes to believe that it was his rejection that condemned her to solitude and death. He reflects on his own loneliness: “No one wanted him; he was outcast from life’s feast.” The story ends with Duffy listening to the silence of the surrounding night atop a hill overlooking Dublin where he and Sinico used to sit down and talk, where he realizes just how lonely he really is.

This a dramatic adaptation of James Joyce’s short story ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ from his book ‘The Dubliners’ it was produced as part of the Reading Together series on Near FM.

In a committee room, Mat O’Connor, a canvasser for Richard Tierney, a candidate in an upcoming municipal election, discusses child-rearing with Old Jack, who tries to keep a fire going. Joe Hynes, another canvasser, arrives and needles O’Connor on whether he’s been paid for his work yet. He proceeds to defend rival candidate Colgan’s working class background and maintains that Tierney, although a Nationalist, will likely present a welcome address at the upcoming visit of King Edward VII. When Hynes points out that it is Ivy Day, a commemoration of Charles Stewart Parnell, a nostalgic silence fills the room. Another canvasser, John Henchy, enters and derides Tierney for not having paid him yet. When Hynes leaves, Henchy voices a suspicion that the man is a spy for Colgan. Henchy badmouths another canvasser, Crofton, just before Crofton himself enters with Lyons. Crofton had worked for the Conservative candidate until the party withdrew and gave their support to Tierney.

The talk of politics drifts to Charles Stewart Parnell, who has his defenders and detractors in the room. Hynes returns and is encouraged to read his sentimental poem dedicated to Parnell. The poem is highly critical of those who betrayed him, including the Roman Catholic Church, and places Parnell among the ancient heroes of Ireland. All applaud the performance and seem to forget their differences for the moment.

‘The Reading’ by Helen McNamara.

This play examines the position of a so-called ‘common law wife’ when it comes to wills and the law. This radio play examines the plight of such a woman and how she can be cast aside despite caring for a man whom she loved and was mot his wife in legal terms. It graphically portrays the raw greed of some people when property is involved. This a bleak look at the nasty side of life.

‘Poodles’ by Denis Byrne

This play explores the haphazard effort of young drug addict aided by his hapless girlfriend from well-to-do families to rob a small cafe to get money to feed their habit. The play breaks through the veneer of respectability and what goes on in these families. However, the cafe owner, whose own nephew died from drugs, saves the day by forcing the young man to fight his demons, re-discover his artistic abilities and start on the road to recovery.

‘Black Monday’ by Henry Hudson.
This is a most unusual play as the main characters are presented by the voices of a bowler hat worn by a stockbroker and a greasy cap worn by a down and out. The play is set in 1987 and examines the destruction of the stockbroker by the utter collapse of the stock markets. This is a bleak look back at that time, which was never supposed to happen again. But it reflects, in an ironic way, of what is happening in the current turmoil on stock markets today.

This programme was made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

Below you can hear a preview of ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’

In a committee room, Mat O’Connor, a canvasser for Richard Tierney, a candidate in an upcoming municipal election, discusses child-rearing with Old Jack, who tries to keep a fire going. Joe Hynes, another canvasser, arrives and needles O’Connor on whether he’s been paid for his work yet. He proceeds to defend rival candidate Colgan’s working class background and maintains that Tierney, although a Nationalist, will likely present a welcome address at the upcoming visit of King Edward VII. When Hynes points out that it is Ivy Day, a commemoration of Charles Stewart Parnell, a nostalgic silence fills the room. Another canvasser, John Henchy, enters and derides Tierney for not having paid him yet. When Hynes leaves, Henchy voices a suspicion that the man is a spy for Colgan. Henchy badmouths another canvasser, Crofton, just before Crofton himself enters with Lyons. Crofton had worked for the Conservative candidate until the party withdrew and gave their support to Tierney.

The talk of politics drifts to Charles Stewart Parnell, who has his defenders and detractors in the room. Hynes returns and is encouraged to read his sentimental poem dedicated to Parnell. The poem is highly critical of those who betrayed him, including the Roman Catholic Church, and places Parnell among the ancient heroes of Ireland. All applaud the performance and seem to forget their differences for the moment.

he adaptions of ‘Ivy Day in the Committee Room’ and ‘A Painful Case’ will air soon on Near FM.

I’m back in the studio this week to start recording a new 3 part anthology series. I’ll be aiming to document the production of the new series on here.

 I wanted to write a little bit about the work I do in producing a radio drama.

Currently I’m working on an anthology series of 3 radio dramas from local writers in North Dublin. As it happens two of these productions are related to James Joyce and I’ve just finished production on two other radio play adaptations of James Joyce short stories. (You can hear a preview here)

All of these dramas are funded under the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound and Vision scheme, which was established to provide funding in support of high quality programmes on Irish culture, heritage and experience, and programmes to improve adult literacy.

The St. James Rejoice Boarding House

The first play in the new 3 part anthology series is ‘The St. James Rejoice Boarding House’ by Jack Byrne. It is a semi-adaptation and interpretation of ‘The Boarding House‘ by James Joyce.

Director Declan goes over the scenes with the actors before the recording session.

The Near FM Drama group actors have been busy rehearsing the play for a month or so now. We have a sort of in house drama group in the radio station comprised of actors from several local drama groups. They would primarily be coming from a stage acting background but many of them have been working on radio dramas with us for several years now and have gained a lot of experience in acting for radio.

The play has 5 main characters in total. I’d generally recommend keeping radio play casts as small as you can. If a scene in a radio play has a huge range of characters then it can be hard for a listener to keep track of which voice belongs to who. I like to ask writers to review their scripts and see if characters can be merged without harming the overall story. The script in this play works well as while it has 5 characters, rarely do you have more than 2 characters speaking in any given scene.

Setting Up

Microphones, Headphones, Mic Stands & XLR cables.

The radio drama recording equipment is separate to the radio stations ‘on-air’ equipment. We have a little cabinet located in the studio where we can neatly store all of the necessary equipment.

I record the radio dramas using a multi-track recording system. This means I’ll be able to isolate each actors voice in post production and play around with the levels and apply effects where needs be. We have the facility to record up to 8 different actors at the same time but as I’ve said keeping casts down makes for a easier time for the listener so a 4 mic set up is generally our maximum.

The 4 mic set up

The mics are arranged in a manner to minimize bleed from the other actors. Each mic will pick up some amount of the other actors voices but arranging the mics back to back to each other in a circle like this cuts down on how much creeps over.

Samson Q7 Microphone with Pop Shield

We’re currently using Samson Q7 microphones. This is an affordable dynamic vocal microphone. I’m hoping to upgrade to the superior Rode NT1-A later this year though.

Volume on this device actually goes all the way up to 11!

All 4 mics are set up in studio 2 and connected to studio 3. (Studio 1 is our on-air studio)

All the audio is recorded directly onto a PC. The 4 XLR lines are taken into the PC via a Presonus Firepod and the audio is sent to the PC over a Firewire cable (IEEE 1394).

I have a 5th mic plugged directly into the Firepod here in studio 3 which allows me to talk back to the actors in the studio 2.

The actors perform a scene

Adobe Audition CS6

The software I use for recording and post production is Adobe Audition CS6. This is the latest version in the Audtion series and is a big step up from previous versions. I’ve been working with this software since before it’s acquisition by Adobe when it was Cool Edit Pro so I’m very comfortable with using it.

You can see in the above screenshot that 3 actors voices each get their own track of audio. Some of the lines of dialogue are in the main characters head, with the voices broken into separate tracks like this I’ll have a much easier time of applying an echo type filter to the voices to give the impression that they are interior voices.

Taking notes as I go

As we record I follow along with the script and make notes listing time indexes where I’ll have to make edits or cuts later on. This could range from where I might have heard a slight bang on the mic stand to an actor needing to repeat a line they didn’t get right the first time.

The play had been very well rehearsed in this case and recording was a very smooth process. The actors will have scripts in front of them on the day, so memorising the lines isn’t something the actors need to spend time on, but they do have to put in the rehearsal time in getting used to the dialogue.

That’s all I can think of for now. If you have any questions then get me on twitter @monkeyfudge

I’ll do a follow up post once I start the editing process and layering the sound effects.

Also you can find some of the previous radio dramas we’ve made here.

Here’s a short video I shot recently of the Near Drama group working on a play:

The play in question was ‘Juno and the Paycock’ by Sean O’Casey

The latest radio drama series I worked on is now available online. This is the project that I detailed the production of in this post

Drama on the Northside

A new 3 part drama anthology series by local writers and performed by local drama groups.

‘Playing for Time’ by Henry Hudson
Set in a concentration camp in Eastern Europe in early 1945. Levi Esser is a middle-aged Jewish violinist. He plays in the camp orchestra and so avoids the gas chambers. Generations of Esser’s used the violin that Esser plays. He planned to hand it on to his only son, Rene but Rene was killed in the war. Esser wants a young inmate, Shimon, to take his place in the orchestra so the instrument will continue to be played thereby preserving the memory and traditions of the Jews and of the Esser’s in particular.

‘The St. James Rejoice Boarding House’ by Jack Byrne
A half hour radio drama adaptation of James Joyce’s ‘The Boarding House’ from Dubliners, this years Dublin City Libraries ‘One City, One Book’ choice. The storyline is original and deals with the tribulations of a male boarder in the titled boarding house. The house is run by an old haridan and her flighty daughter who eventually beguiles the boarder into bed and an unwanted pregnancy.

‘Gangsters, Donkeys & Spiritual Juice’ by Denis Byrne
The play is set in Dublin in the 1980s. In a Dublin Northside estate riddled with crime and political corruption a kid named Micko sees a vision of the Virgin Mary. Crowds gather and an idolised local politician with criminal connections tries to take advantage of the situation.

A 3 part radio drama anthology series dedicated to the memory of founding member of the Near Drama Company, Kay Farrell.