Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of Madness
Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: At the Mountains of Madness is a 2006 radio drama performed by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and based on the novella At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft. It is the first production in the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series. It is 75 minutes long.
Production
Similar to their earlier film, The Call of Cthulhu, the HPLHS wanted to make At the Mountains of Madness as if it were being made at the year the story came out (1931/36), the difference being that it was a radio drama as opposed to the first's silent film. Orson Welles's The Shadow and The War of the Worlds were both given as examples of influences. The immersion to the fiction of it being produced as an actual news event in the 1930s is completely maintained throughout the piece, with only the ending ("copyright 1931...plus 75") not maintaining it. At the beginning and end, the host of the "show" even reads from a fake cigarette ad of the era.
Troy Sterling Nies, who did the music for The Call of Cthulhu, also did the music and sound effects for At the Mountains of Madness, using Lake Ilo in winter to capture sounds used for Antarctica. Many of the actors from The Call of Cthulhu also returned to give their voices to the story.
A number of supplemental materials (fake Arkham Advertiser clippings, pictures of the Elder Thing city, and rubbings of the Elder Things' hieroglyphics, with the images of the Elder Things based on their appearance in Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials) were included with the CD, to maintain the illusion that it was an actual recording of a real-life event.
Plot
The audio play is only 75 minutes long, while the novella was over one hundred pages long. However, much of the basic plot remains. Instead of writing his confession through the medium of a letter, Dyer gives it in the form of an 'interview' to Chester Langfield, the host of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre (the 'show' that is performing the play). Throughout the work, many of Dyer's explanations of the expedition are replaced with 'news reports' by Nathan Reed of Worldwide Wireless News. Other than some of the more detailed or lengthy segments being cut down, much of the rest of Lovecraft's work remains.
Cast
- Sean Branney - William Dyer
- Seth Compton - Danforth
- Matt Foyer - Lake, Sherman
- Andrew Leman - Nathan Reed, Ropes
- Barry Lynch - Frank Pabodie
- David Mersault - McTigh, Larsen
- Troy Sterling Nies - Williams
- Josh Thoemke - Announcer, Gedney
- Noah Wagner - Chester Langfield
Crew
- Adapted and produced by Sean Branney and Andrew Leman
- Music and sound effects by Troy Sterling Nies
- Supplemental illustrations and clippings by Darrell Tutchton and A.H. Leman