From novel, to stage, to radio: Derek Webb
My take on H G Wells’ ‘The Invisible Man’ has to be heard to be seen.
I adapted H G Wells The Invisible Man back in 2018 for a stage production with three actors playing fifteen parts, from a pub landlady to a tramp, to a sailor, to three policemen to the Invisible Man himself. It toured South Wales with Ignition Theatre and received excellent reviews and, as a fast-moving, hilarious comedy about a criminal, mad scientist, it certainly hit the spot with audiences – who loved it. The play then went on to London where award-winning Jack Studio put it on for three weeks just prior to the first wave of Covid and it received four and five star reviews and full houses. Then, thinking it couldn’t get any better, it did. Our Star Theatre Company chose it to tour to over 30 venues in Wales and the South West of England in Autumn 2023. Added to which they took it to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival in August 2023 where it played to full houses.
And now, it’s about to have a new reincarnation. I was asked by a company (The Post-Meridian Radio Players) in Boston, Massachusetts if I would adapt it for radio. Well, of course I would! The resulting play is to be performed in front of a live audience in a week or so’s time – as a radio play! So the actors will read from scripts and all the sound effects etc will be performed live by a ‘Foley’ artist. The company often ask the audience to close its eyes as the play is performed, so to them, The Invisible Man will be exactly that: invisible!
I can’t wait to hear/see/experience it!
If you happen to be in. Massachusetts, here’s where it’ll be:
Guild Church, 204 Elm St, North Cambridge, MA 02140:
October 25, 2024, at 8:00pm and Saturday, October 26, 2024
And The Dorothy and Charles Mosesian Center for the Arts
321 Arsenal St, Watertown, MA 02472:
Friday, November 1, 2024, at 8:00pm; Saturday, November 2, 2024, at 8:00pm; Sunday, November 3, 2024, at 2:00pm.
Captions:
Post-Meridian Radio Players H G Wells Show
The original stage version by Ignition Theatre
The Jack Studio production January 2020
Crime Cymru 