Unit 9 (Our Day Out) and Radio Research

Unit 9 ( Radio Play)

A Radio play is a published or broadcasted audio performance that requires the audience to picturize what they hear rather than without the help of visual elements. What differentiates a theatrical play and a radio play is one has visual components (Theatre play) and the other requires the audience the visualize the story with their imagination with the help of music, sound effects and dialogue (Radio play). The reason why music and sound effects are added is because it helps to build the atmosphere for the audience so they can imagine the story and characters better. Radio drama is also known as Radio play.

The radio play I was listening to was A Call From The Dead, which was scripted by Carey Harrison and was directed by Sally Avens. It stars John Shrapnel as Dr Edward Elmore, Nick Dunning as Stephen Warburton. Christopher Scott as Reverend Neville and Carolyn Jones as Martha. It was first broadcasted on BBC Radio 4 in 1997. It's about a doctor/psychiatrist (Edward) who receives a call from his ex patient (Stephen) at the middle of a night telling him that he is buried under a grave and is dying from suffocation seeking help from him. The play has themes such as mental health, trust, deceit and manipulation. I really liked the dialogues and its delivery style. It felt really realistic and captivating, from the tone to the articulation, it was perfect. I also loved the use of music and sound effects. They were used very cleverly to convey the atmosphere and the emotions of the characters, for example. Ringtones,, clock ticking, digging, crying, car honks and maniacal laughs, which was very disturbing The genres that this play has are Horror, Psychological and Thriller.

I really loved the plot for the film. The reason for this is because I think it was very different compared to other psychological thrillers. It's script was very simple yet very intriguing. Once you finish listening to it, you get a sense of how dangerous a unpredictable a deranged manipulator can be The performances from all cast were very believable and authentic, mainly the roles of Dr Edward Elmore and Stephen Warburton. Two things I didn't like was the duration of the play and the characters development. It was really short for a script like this. It consisted of 30 minutes. If the duration was an hour long, I think they would've been able to build a better character development. 

Our Day Out 

Our Day Out is a television play that was written by Willy Russell. It was broadcasted by BBC on 28 December 1977. 

Our Day Out has a very basic but adventurous plot. Its about a teacher (Mrs Kay) who plans a trip to Conwy Castle with her progress class kids and 2 other students that used to be in Mrs. Kays progress class. There are 3 more teaching staff members that join the trip, Colin, Susan and an uninvited Mr. Briggs. Our Day Out contains themes such as trust, illiteracy, lack of opportunity and unity. These themes come in like waves through out the play. It first comes in quite subtle and funny, then it becomes serious and concludes with a fun but bittersweet ending. The character that I played was Colin. Playing this character was really interesting and fun. The reason for this is because you can play this character in a comical way, in a more serious way, or both, which is even more fun. However, the character that I really thought was interestingly profound was Mr. Briggs, who in my opinion is probably the most crucial character in the play. The reason for this is because in the beginning of the play, he was liked by anyone, but once the trip was over, he became a hero in everyone's eyes. I really loved the setting for the play too. It included places such as a school bus, a zoo, a castle, a beach and a funfair. I feel these places created the right themes and emotions or the scenes, for example. The school bus symbolized unity, the zoo symbolized happiness. the castle symbolized a tint of sadness, the beach symbolized fun but emptiness and the funfair brought back unity and joy. The dialogues had a great mixture of comical and intriguing,. I think the message Willy Russell was trying to convey to the audience was a life that's enjoyed to its fullest is a life well spent  and a life lived with full discipline and no excitement and fun is a life wasted

After the corona virus, it was very irritating to do the physical aspect of the work online. Even for the monologues, I found it very strange to do it via video call, but it was an experience in the end. However, for Our Day Out, it was really fun. The reason for this is because it let us play around with our voices more. That's the skill that I think I have taken out from this play and improved on. I love playing around with my voice in general, this includes putting on different accents, mimicking characters and changing the pitch of my voice. I feel by doing this, it enhances and stretches the flexibility of your voice, and I had the opportunity to do something with that in Our Day Out by playing Colin.