ABC Radio National’s Airplay does the surreal with a new Audio Drama

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ABC Radio National AirplayHurry quick! Head on over to ABC Radio National, Australia’s Public Radio service and have a listen to the streaming RealAudio or WindowsMedia audio of its radio drama program Airplay. They have just finished broadcasting a new Australian play called It Just Stopped.

As with many avant-garde and literary themed plays these days, this one uses old tropes of Science Fiction to try to spice up old mainstream literature lessons. It Just Stopped uses a passive aggressive and (utterly surreal) apocalypse, that seems composed of what philosopher David Hume might call “an end to Uniformity” as a setting for its plot. Like many of the literary plays that adopt SF themes, the focus here is on the psychological, the existential, the urban, and as a result it (and they) has no “sense of wonder” – but in this case, in its place It Just Stopped delivers an experience like that of a Henrik Ibsen staging of The Road Warrior. Yikes! It sure doesn’t sound too appealing when I write it that way, but I really dug it. Check out this, one of many, choice lines of dialogue:

“Richard Pratt does not have cardboard boxes in his soul. But I do.”

For those who really dug the CBC’s Canadia: 2056, you might look at It Just Stopped as the Australian take on the same thing (American values exposed by American characters, as filtered through foreign, but not necessarily hostile eyes). I must have listened to part three of It Just Stopped about five times. It’ll blew my mind. It’ll blow your mind. But, don’t take my word, have a listen for yourself before it all disappears – which I’m guessing will happen in just a few days…

It Just Stopped by Stephen SewellIt Just Stopped
By Stephen Sewell; Performed by a full cast
3 Parts – Approx. 90 Minutes [RADIO DRAMA]
Broadcaster: ABC Radio National / Airplay
Broadcast: August 2007

Part 1Part 2Part 3

If the world just stops one day, how will this change what we value? What would we do to to ensure our personal survival?”

Oh yes, and FREE APOCALYPSE AL!

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