Celebrating the Launch of the Indyish Pre-Fringe Radio Play series - interview with Noel Macken

Have you ever sat in the dark and listened to a radio play? The strangest thing about it for me is the way sightless storytelling messes with your sense of time passing, and of where you are in the world. The radio play is a special art form, and as part of our contribution to this year’s Montreal Fringe Festival we’d like to announce an open submission from now until the Fringe, June 2007, for radio dramas.

These will be published on the group blog, and archived with the rest of the Fringe content and coverage on our site.

Send submissions to fringe @ indyish.com

To kick us off in dark, delightful and even almost hopeful style we’ll be introducing Noel Macken’s Le Cirque Trilogy.
First, why don’t you meet the man…

Who wrote this radio trilogy?
Noel Macken.

What else have you written?
I have written several poems many of which have been broadcast.

Is writing your day job?
Unfortunately writing is not my day job, I work part-time.

Who produced it?
I co-produced the three plays together with Mark Rathmell and Brian Coleman.

Where was it recorded and over how long and with whom?
The three plays were recorded in London at the home of The Whoboys.
The first two plays, Le Cirque de Paradis and Le Cirque de Liberté were engineered by Mark Rathmell and Le Cirque de Desolation was engineered by Brian Coleman.
Mark Rathmell plays Bobol, The Dragonman and Harry Porter;
Brian Coleman plays The Narrator and Colorado Joe;
Suzanne Harbison plays La Matrona Luna;
Noel Macken plays BlaBla.
Le Cirque de Paradis was completed in April, 2005;
Le Cirque de Liberté was completed in April, 2006;
Le Cirque de desolation was completed in December, 2006.

Why a radio play?
I love the medium of radio; its gives you the opportunity to focus on the musicality of the voice.

Why a dystopia?
The plays attempt a satirical exploration of “Global Circotic Psychosis”. They are anti-war tragi-comedies; I think that as long as we retain the ability to laugh there is hope. There may be little Hopia

but not Total DysTopia.

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