At the third UK International Radio Drama Festival held last week in Herne Bay, entitled ‘And Let Us Listen to the Moon’, the entries included an Australian play about Chekhov, the limericks of Edward Lear translated into Serbian, a Czech version of Hamlet in which the palace at Elsinore is transformed into a sporting arena, and a play from Palestine in Arabic about three female political activists. Fifty dramas from 17 countries and in 15 different languages were broadcast at various venues across the Kentish town. Not quite Cannes in May — tea and scones stood in for champagne and caviar — but the festival’s success goes to show that in this fast-moving, visual world there’s still an appetite for a different kind of entertainment, with no images, no distractions, no ad breaks or pauses for snacking.
Thom Luz from Switzerland, one of the award-winners at Herne Bay for his ‘audio piece’, which uses music and words to create an experience rather than a narrative, says that drama on air allows us to go on ‘journeys of the mind’ like no other medium.
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