Rasovsky, Yuri
Description
Product Description
A drama of psychological terror inspired by the classic silent film. Featuring John de Lancie, Tony Jay, Kaitlin Hopkins and Lorn
...
a Raver
Written, produced and directed by Yuri Rasovsky
Winner: Independent Publishers Award - Audio for best "direct to audio" production of 1998.
Review
...Among the best moments are the weird sotto voce mutterings of Cesare, the pale undead creature at the heart of the cryptic story. --
The Austin American Statesman
The plot shook me. I choose not to give away one blessed word of this incredible experience. It was very nearly orgasmic. --
AudioFile magazine
This superb audio is eerily atmospheric and entertaining... --
The Los Angeles Times
From the Publisher
This is a witty, literate, scary spookfest produced digitally in stereo, and best heard late at night with the lights out.
From the Author
As many readers know, Das Kabinett der Dr. Caligari is a horror film from Germany about a sideshow mesmerist who may or may not be a homicidal maniac. When I started on the radio play, I had seen the film only once and that perhaps three years earlier. I wrote the first draft in one all-night session, fleshing out the characters from the schematic hints in the original and creating a milieu for the action from my memory of the small German town I had spent a year in during the 60s and what I knew of the culture of fin de siecle Europe. The scenes laid themselves out all by themselves. In fact, the whole thing wrote itself.
As I honed the dialogue, it grew increasingly reminiscent of the symbolist poets who were inspired by Poe -- particularly Rainer Marie Rilke (1875-1926). Somehow this seemed appropriate. In fact, the more Rilke I put in it, the spookier it got.
The audio play is inspired by the film, rather than adapted from it. It is a separate artistic (I hope) work, just as Joyce's Ulysses is separate from Homer's Odyssey. Still, after subsequent viewings of the original 1919 silent, I am struck with how much of it ended up in the audio version -- a tribute to its evocative power. Silent film makes good audio -- if you can make people see in the way that the movie makes people hear. Audio drama is essentially visual. Its evocative power depends on the creators' ability to excite pix in the listeners' imaginations. Hence, I brag with justification that my sets, costumes, make-up, lighting and special effects run rings around anything that Spielberg, Lucas, Disney, et al., can cobble together on celluloid.
About the Author
Yuri Rasovsky is a two-time Peabody Award-winning audio dramatist whose productions have been heard all over the English speaking world. Most recently, he produced and directed 2000x, a series of 26 one-hour science-fiction programs for National Public Radio and Amazon afiliate, Audible.com.
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