Theatre Review - TDHS - The Radio Play Disaster
Courtesy of COVID 19, and through Broadway on Demand, anyone can view this wonderfully hilarious production from the comfort of their own home. As expected, this show is a typically competent theatrical experience produced and directed by Ms. Lowry Browning.
Performed by The Dalles High School students at the Granada Theater, the play satirizes the 1938 live Mercury theater production of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. In that earlier radio production, Orson Wells, the show’s Director and lead actor produced such a realistic performance in the form of a news bulletin, that panic allegedly ensued wherever the show was heard: Not so in Radio Play Disaster.
This play’s premise is that almost anything that can go wrong in a theater production will go wrong. The Director epitomizes incompetence of a high level, disliked, and disrespected by his cast and crew, and unable to adequately respond to the immediately obvious and developing disasters during the play. The technical aspects of the show all fail as well, with mistimed and erroneous sound effects, off cue and absent actors, and yet the cast gallantly persevere as well as possible. Finally, there is a sting in the plot’s tail that only ‘a spoiler’ would give away, and I am no spoiler. As a Drama Teacher myself. I am very aware how talented actors, crew and director must be to pull off such incompetence believably. Ms. Browning and her cast and crew accomplish the challenge with aplomb. The dialogue timing is excellent, the staging is wonderful, the production values are brilliant, and the audience’s experience is hilarious. I applaud you all.
So, all you at home need to do to see this great show from the comfort of your living room is to follow this link for on-demand viewing:
Support the obvious talent of our students and their teachers and support their continuing efforts to develop local artists. The show ran last weekend and runs November 19th. 20th and 21st this weekend.
Sincerely,
Stephen Jupe
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