The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle presented by The Online Stage.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle needed to take a break from his detective work and so created this fantastic tale. A group of Victorian explorers discovers a hidden plateau in the Amazon jungle that is populated by fearsome dinosaurs and dangerous ape-like creatures. Can they survive the experience?

Cast:

Edward Malone – Scott R. McKinley

Professor George Challenger – Rob Goll

Professor Summerlee – Ted Wenskus

Sir John Roxton – Russell Gold

Gladys Hungerton – Trisha Rose

Mr. McArdle – Graham Scott

Tarp Henry – Jon Bolitho-Jones

Jessie Challenger – Merete Mohs

Professor Waldron – David Prickett

The Chairman – Andrew Coleman

Gomez – Andy Harrington

Macdona – Chris Marcellus

Dr. Illingworth – Alan Weyman

Mr. Hungerton – Jeff Moon

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The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins presented by The Online Stage.

Rosamond Frankland has married the love of her life, Leonard, who is blind. They have bought Porthgenna Tower, the manor where Rosamond grew up and where her mother died 20 years earlier. What they don’t know is the dark secret that hovers over her family, that house, and the stories about a woman’s ghost that haunts the north rooms. Is this a ghost story, a love story, a story with a tragic ending, or a lovely one?

Cast:

Narrator—Lillian Rachel

Rosamond Frankland—Amanda Friday

Joseph Buschmann—David Stifel

Leonard Frankland—Jeff Moon

Sarah Leeson—Anna Grace

Mr. Chennery—Alan Weyman

Mrs. Norbury—Ella Lynch

Mr. Phippen—David Prickett

Mrs. Pentreath—Trisha Rose

Mr. Orridge—Ted Wenskus

Mr. Munder—Rob Goll

Andrew—John Burlinson

Mrs. Treverton—Sarah Mitchell

Little Robert—Isabelle Friday

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Edited by Lloyd E. Smith

Featuring the voices of Denis Daly, John Burlinson, Alan Weyman, and Mark Crowle-Groves.

Socrates, perhaps the most famous philosopher of the ancient world, left no writings. The method of philosophical investigation for which he is celebrated has come down to us in the form of dialogues, composed by his student, Plato.

The four dialogues in this collection are known by the names of the chief characters in each: Lysis, Charmides, Laches, and Euthyphro. As they fall into a more or less natural group due to the fact that each one deals with a single ethical abstract—friendship, temperance, courage, and piety, respectively—they have been renamed based on the subjects which they are investigating.

In the course of the discussions, a number of interesting hypotheses are advanced, and though these may be discarded in the particular dialogue as insufficient, some of them reappear in other dialogues as material for further consideration.

The four dialogues presented here have been summarized and condensed so that none of these versions are identical with the original Greek or with any one translation.

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Narration by Graham Scott

Also featuring the voices of Alan Weyman, Denis Daly, Rachel May, and Terah Tucker.

Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) was a linguist and scholar who spent much of his working life as an influential official of the East India Company. He had a wide circle of literary friends, which included Coleridge and Shelley, and his early works were poems, some of a considerable length. In 1815 his first novel, Headlong Hall, was published, and between that year and 1831, he published a further five novels. His final completed novel, Gryll Grange, was written in 1860 and published the following year. Peacock also produced a number of articles on literary and historical subjects, and some other long poems, which have faded into obscurity.

This collection contains the following titles:

1) Headlong Hall – 1815

2) Nightmare Abbey – 1818

3) Maid Marian – 1822

4) The Misfortunes of Elphin – 1829

5) Crotchet Castle – 1831

6) Gryll Grange – 1861

7) Calidore – 1816

8) Miscellany – 1820-1862

9) Melincourt – 1817

Texts prepared by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.

Music for songs composed and arranged by Alan Weyman.

Audio edited by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.

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The Online Stage presents The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer.

The Iliad, set 9 years into the Trojan War, tells the story of the wrath of Achilles. The Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus as he wearily travels home from the war. The two epics provide the basis of Greek education and culture in the classical age. They have long remained among the most significant poems of European tradition. Produced here in full cast arrangement and narrated by Rob Goll, one can experience these age-old stories in a brand new way.

Featuring the voices of Rob Goll, Lance Rasmussen, Josh Innerst, Tyler Hyrchuk, Amanda Friday, Anna Grace, David Stifel, Jeff Moon, John Burlinson, Ted Wenskus, Lee Ann Howlett, Tom Saer, Nik Sliwerski, Marty Krz, Andy Harrington, Trisha Rose, Bob Gonzalez, Sydnee Fullmer, Stephen Indrisano, Lillian Rachel, Tomas Peter, Chris Marcellus, Russell Gold, Merete Mohs, Tim Sailer, Erin Grassie, Linda Barrans, Elizabeth Klett, Grace Keller Scotch, Ron Altman, Max Gallo, Andrew Coleman, Alan Weyman, and Michelle Marie.

This production is based on the prose translation by Samuel Butler.

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Melincourt

By Thomas Love Peacock

Presented by Voices of Today

Narration by Graham Scott

Also featuring the voices of Alan Weyman, Denis Daly, Rachel May, and Terah Tucker.

Text prepared by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.

Music for songs composed and arranged by Alan Weyman.

Audio edited by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.

Melincourt, first published in 1817, was the second novel of Thomas Love Peacock and is by far the longest.

Peacock’s novels are notably characterized by satire, of both persons and institutions. The focus of Peacock’s mockery in Melincourt is the operation of the “rotten borough” which corrupted the English electoral system until the reform bill of 1832. A rotten borough was a constituency that had been established by royal prerogative but had subsequently lost most of its population. Nevertheless, it still retained the right to have two representatives in the House of Commons. On the other hand, many population centers which had expanded rapidly during the Industrial Revolution were not entitled to any electoral representation. Hence, there was a profitable and highly unethical trade in rotten boroughs, much of which was engineered by unscrupulous members of the House of Lords.

In Melincourt, the Rotten Borough of Onevote is represented by Sir Oran Haut-Ton, an orang-utan who does not have the power of speech but is a skilled musician and a highly principled defender of law and order.

Another prominent character is Mr. Fax, who is said to have been modeled in Thomas Malthus.

As usual in a Peacock novel, there is much conversation, a great deal of drinking, romance, and a suitably contrived conclusion, involving weddings and appropriate punishment of villains.

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R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots)

by Karel Čapek

Translated by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair

R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) is a science-fiction drama that was first presented in the original Czech version in January 1921. It introduced the term “robot”, which is derived from a Czech word meaning “worker,” to international vocabulary.

The action opens in a factory that has successfully produced thousands of robots, who are essentially mindless drones. An idealistic humanitarian activist launches a plan to imbue some of the robots with human traits. The robots which have been humanized then assume leadership over the other robots and eventually seek to organize them in a revolution to take over the world.

Cast

Narrator—Laura Richcreek

Harry Domin/A Servant—John Burlinson

Sulla/Nana/Helena (robot)—Kristina Rothe

Marius/Radius—Tom Saer

Helena Glory—Susan Iannucci

Dr. Gall/First Robot—Denis Daly

Mr Fabry/Primus—Patrick Barker

Dr Hallemeier/Third Robot—Marty Krz

Mr Alquist—John Burlinson

Consul Busman/Second Robot—Alan Weyman

Audio edited by Denis Daly

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Calidore by Thomas Love Peacock

Presented by Voices of Today

Featuring the voices of Graham Scott, Alan Weyman, Denis Daly, and Rachel May.

Calidore is a fragment of an unfinished romance and may be considered unique among Peacock’s work. Composition probably commenced after the publication of Peacock’s largest novel, Melincourt, in 1817.

The action concerns the adventures of a young man, Calidore, who finds himself in Wales, en route to London in search of “a wife and a philosopher”. 

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Thomas Love Peacock is today remembered as the author of seven satirical novels which many regards merely as literary curiosities. However, he was also a man of considerable learning, a skilled poet, and an astute literary critic.

Recollections of Thomas Love Peacock is an affectionate reminiscence by Sir Edward Strachey who had become familiar with Peacock during the latter’s period of service at the India House.

Some Recollections of Childhood provides a window into Peacock’s early youth and displays his keen powers of observation and his fascination with the world of nature. While Peacock’s early years were not particularly easy, the memoir is completely free of any tinge of bitterness or regret.

In “Four Ages of Poetry”, Peacock pokes gentle fun at his great contemporaries Wordsworth, Southey, and Shelley while providing a thought-provoking analysis of the birth, growth, and decay of poetry.

“The Last Day of Windsor Forest” is an old man’s recollection of a memorable episode in the history of a place where much of his life had passed, and for which he had a particular love. It was probably the last piece that Peacock wrote.

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Zanzibar Tales

By George W. Bateman

Narrated by Alan Weyman

Talking animals, cunning ruses, comeuppances (or escapes from them), good and bad fortune, and a degree of ruthless cruelty are the stuff of folktales everywhere. No less so in these ten tales collected by George W. Bateman in East Africa towards the end of the nineteenth century and published in 1901. Little is known about Bateman apart from his dates (1850-1940) and that he was born in England and buried in the USA.

Some people think that these tales were the inspiration for some of the Disney stories. The present narrator sees the very little resemblance, but no doubt you’ll make up your own mind about it!

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In Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice, a distinguished writer’s holiday from the burdens of his work turns out very differently from what he expected. By means of the story, Mann explores the relationships between disciplined intellect and ungoverned passion, and between decaying age and youthful beauty, against a background that resonates today in a time of pandemics. It was first published in German (as Der Tod in Venedig) in 1912.

The translation by Kenneth Burke used in this recording was originally serialized in three parts in the literary periodical The Dial in 1924. Death in Venice has been adapted for film, opera, radio, and stage plays, and even ballet!

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Gryll Grange

By Thomas Love Peacock

Presented by Voices of Today.

Narration by Graham Scott

Also featuring the voices of Alan Weyman, Denis Daly, and Rachel May.

Text prepared by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.

Music for songs composed and arranged by Alan Weyman.

Audio edited by Denis Daly and Alan Weyman.

Gryll Grange was Thomas Love Peacock’s seventh and last novel and was written after the author’s retirement from the India Office in 1856.

The plot, such as it is,  follows the usual pattern of most of Peacock’s earlier novels.  

A group of highly opinionated individuals gather at a remote country estate in Hampshire and indulge in lengthy conversations about issues of the day over extravagant dinners. The young and idealistic Algernon Falconer resides in the opulent country house with seven young “handmaidens’,  whom he calls “Vestals.”  A learned and garrulous local clergyman, Dr. Opimian, becomes a friend and confidant of Mr. Falconer and decides that the young man would make a suitable husband for Morgana Gryll, a niece of one of his friends. 

However, Lord Curryfin, an amateur lecturer, falls in love with Morgana and continues to pay her attention until he suddenly transfers them to another young lady, Miss Niphet. Mr. Harry Hedgerow, a local rustic, falls in love with one of the Vestals and provides companions who do the same with the rest of them. Algernon Falconer, being now completely free, overcomes his initial lack of resolution, and is finally betrothed to the youthful heiress who had been originally chosen for him. The other eight suitors are also accepted, and the nuptials of all nine couples are all performed in a single ceremony by the learned clergyman, who has done much to bring all the parties together, and whose final peroration brings the book to a close.

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