Radio on Repertory Lane

What a brilliant conception this is: a behind-the-sounds look at how radio actors and sound-effects artists work together to create drama and comedy purely through sound, giving the theatre’s “studio audience” a look at the comedy behind the comedy.  In this delightful production, the voice-actor characters worked beautifully together, their silent off-mic doings as interesting as their on-mic parts, and this unfolding of visual elements added amusement even to the material of greatest inherent interest.  In a radio skit as familiar as “The Good Old Days” — four men vying for having had the poorest of childhoods — this literal subtext dominated and was well controlled.

Interestingly, the final piece sent to air varies with each performance and is unseen by the actors before they perform it, making each show’s finale a sightread one.  Yet, on opening night, that piece, its success obviously dependent upon meticulously planned and executed stage production, took the prize.

A tight-knit, well-modulated cast and a stellar production team have used this original approach to radio in the raw to invite the audience into an uplifting, rather comforting experience sharing their inner sanctum of radio entertainment.  It’s a format that, working with consistently strong starting material, offers much creative scope, and I’ll be disappointed if REP doesn’t revisit it.

John P. Harvey

Image: [L–R] Steph Roberts, Ylaria Rogers, Liz Bradley, and Kate Tricks, in Radio on Repertory Lane.  Photographer: Helen Drum.