Tonight’s The Night

At time of writing we’re under eleven hours away from our theatrical debut on the radio. In a build up, Ken will be talking on KCLR 96FM this morning just after 11am for a chat about the show.

The ads are playing, samples have gone to the radio, the production is in the hands of the powers that be and it all kicks off tonight at 9PM exclusively on KCLR96FM.

You can tune into KCLR on 96FM, 96.6FM, 96.9FM (Carlow) and around the 96FM frequency in areas of south Kilkenny, Waterford and surrounding counties. You can also listen in online by visiting KCLR96FM.com.

Our thanks to everyone who has been involved, cast, crew, Alan Dawson & The Mill Studio and of course KCLR themselves for taking the production and giving us the airtime on tonight, the 70th anniversary of the first broadcast of The War Of The Worlds.

Until 9pm tonight, keep watching the skies.

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Update: You can listen to Ken on KCLR from this morning with the clip below (approx 9.08mb, mp3)

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They’re nearly here…

And now we’re less than 24 hours away from the launch of The War Of The Worlds.

The show has been finished, polished and covered in red weed in anticipation of it’s airing tomorrow night on KCLR96FM and KCLR96FM.com.

It’s been a fantastic couple of months working on this project and for us, it’s opened up a whole new world of theatre.

I hope that the production will go someway towards creating the sense of excitement and imagination that people had years ago as they huddled by their radiosets for all their entertainment. So if we can attract families, couples, the elderley, adults and kids alike and get them sitting in on a cold wintery night listening to the ol’ wireless, then we’ll be satisfied we’ve done our job. It’ll be even better if they descend into crazed hysteria and run out into the elements screaming of Martians. Orson Welles would be proud.

For my part, the writing process was a joy, the recording process was a true pleasure and I giddily look forward to sitting down tomorrow night to see the fine storytelling unfold, aided by a fine cast and a damn talented producer in Alan Dawson.

The last of the publicity material has gone out, Ross and Ken hit our hosts at KCLR96FM today for an interview and yes, the skies are definitely our enemy at the moment. So it must be said: the citizens of Carlow and Kilkenny have been given due warning.

We hope you’ll tune in tomorrow night for our debut radio broadcast on KCLR96FM and of course, KCLR96FM.com. And remember, it’s only entertainment… just keep watching the skies. Happy Halloween.

Two Days And Counting

If you check the countdown timer at the top of DeviousTheatre.com, we’re just two days and a few hours off the first airing of our new production, ‘The War Of The Worlds’.

The show, which has been written and directed by the company and produced with the help of Alan Dawson (Trainspotting, Cannibal! The Musical) is a present-day dramatisation of H.G. Wells’ classic, originally performed with Mercury Theatre on October 30th 1938.

The events that unfolded in the aftermath of its airing were unprecedented and you never know, maybe we’ll see the same level of mass hysteria strike this week.

The War Of The Worlds is our final production for 2008 and it airs this Thursday night on KCLR 96FM at 9pm. You can tune into KCLR 96FM in the Carlow / Kilkenny / South Kilkenny area. If you can’t find yourself beside a radio, why not listen online with KCLR broadcasting live from their website, KCLR96FM.com.

We’ll have more notes this week in the run up to Thursday’s broadcast!

Brand New (Second) War Of The Worlds Radio Ads

We’re officially one week away from the broadcast of our first ever radio production, The War Of The Worlds.

Written and directed by The Devious Theatre Company with production from Kilkenny engineer Alan Dawson, The War Of The Worlds goes to air on KCLR 96FM on Thursday October 30th at 9pm. You can listen in live online also by visiting KCLR96FM.com.

KCLR 96FM is available in Kilkenny (96, 96.6FM), Carlow (96.9FM) and areas around south Kilkenny, Waterford, Tipperary (subject to availability).

If you tune into the station during the day this week you’ll hear our first radio advert going out on breaks between shows. The Sound System Podcast with KilkennyMusic.com and the Playlist Mix podcast are also carrying web versions of our first ad.

But, fresh off the audio press and direct to the web, here’s our second radio advert to run ahead of next week’s broadcast.

The War Of The Worlds Radio Advert #2

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Click here to download a copy of the ad for yourself (we encourage this if you can blog it, podcast it, blare it out your window!)

Trainspotting charity screening at Rockfall Festival

Ross Costigan (Mark Renton) and Ken McGuire (Tommy) in Devious Theatre’s Trainspotting

Devious Theatre’s production of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting, which ran in the Watergate Theatre last June, will be screened in Cleere’s Theatre as part of the Rockfall Festival this coming October Bank Holiday Weekend.

The production was adapted by Harry Gibson and was the first time that the iconic work had been performed in Kilkenny. Set in 1980’s Edinburgh and depicted mostly in monologues, the play follows self-loathing anti-hero Mark Renton (Ross Costigan) as he tries to overcome the addictions that hinder his escape from a doomed life. The stories at the heart of the play are unflinchingly shocking, darkly humorous and full of Welsh’s raw observations of life.

The Devious Theatre production opened to packed houses and rave reviews from the Kilkenny People, Kilkenny Voice, Kilkenny Advertiser, Munster Express and Start Magazine.

For anyone who missed out on the show, the screening is a one and only opportunity to see the production from this past summer. The screening will also feature a fly-on-the-wall documentary that was shot during the closing night of the production in the Watergate Theatre.

Admission to the screening is 5EURO and all proceeds go to the O’Neill Centre. All donations are equally welcome. The screening takes place in Cleere’s Theatre on Sunday October 26th at 8pm.

Devious Theatre on Flickr

Pictured: John Morton as ‘Mick’ in ‘War of the Worlds’

Behind-the-scenes photos of the ‘War of the Worlds‘ recording have just been added to the Devious Theatre Flickr Gallery.

There’s plenty more photos to come but for now you can get a glimpse into the recording process with shots of Producer/Sound Engineer Alan Dawson working with actors Kevin Mooney and John Morton.

Since the relaunch of DeviousTheatre.com we’ve slowly but slowly been adding a huge archive of photographs to Flickr from all of our past productions too. At the moment you’ll find posters and behind-the-scenes shots for two productions of ‘Heart Shaped Vinyl‘, behind-the-scenes snaps during the creation of the ’severed hand’ press packs we sent out for ‘Cannibal! the Musical‘, some of the artwork from ‘Trainspotting‘ and a collection of behind-the-scenes shots, publicity shots and live shots of ‘Smitten‘.

Rest assured there is PLENTY more to come so keep your eyes on Devious Theatre on Flickr.

War of the Worlds – Poster

War Of The Worlds Internet / Podcast Ad

You’re going to hear the following ad included in this week’s Playlist Mix podcast (by Ken on Tuesday) and the KilkennyMusic.com Sound System Podcast (Ken and Ross on Wednesday)…

What we’re also hoping, is that if you like the ad and you happen to run a blog or a podcast, that you might consider including it

On Thursday night we started the ball rolling for The War Of The Worlds, recording six radio & podcast advertisements for release over the next two weeks both online and via KCLR 96FM. We had planned to make a night of things on Sunday night but a power failure in the studio (and for a few miles surrounding the studio) knocked recording plans on the head, allowing for just the opening introductions to be recorded.

However, flash forward to tonight (Monday) and we’ve now got over half the script recorded. Myself (Ken), Kevin and John are all wrapped with Ross almost there as well. The girls are in tomorrow with Paul (Mother Superior in Trainspotting) hopefully joining us in studio on Sunday to finish the recording process and allow us a full week of post production.

But before all that, why not take a listen to our current radio and podcast ad. If you feel like spreading the audio word then please, be our guests

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War Of The Worlds Announcement

We’re very proud to announce that in conjunction with KCLR 96FM we will be broadcasting a brand new hour long radio version of HG Wells’ sci-fi classic The War Of The Worlds, 70 years to the date of the famous Orson Welles broadcast on C.B.S. on October 30th 1938.

The Welles version was performed live on CBS with a fictional radio show being interrupted by news of a Martian invasion of earth. Convinced that what they were hearing was real, listeners fled their homes, frantically called loved ones and prepared themselves for the Martian attacks. The countrywide case of mass hysteria caused by the broadcast gave a chilling insight into how America would react if subjected to such an attack. A subsequent Mexican version of Welles radio adaptation led to 6 deaths and caused the radio station to be burnt down by outraged listeners.

Tune in on October 30th to hear our Kilkenny and Carlow located version of the classic tale. With a variety of different narrative devices and accounts of the invasion, we are able to piece together a chilling perspective on the attacks by the fearsome Martian tripods and their destruction of earth’s populace over the course of a 3 week period.

We are delighted to be working on this project with KCLR 96FM and we’re hoping that the audiences in Carlow and Kilkenny won’t take this one too seriously.

The cast for The War Of The Worlds is Ross Costigan, Amy Dunne, Ken McGuire, Kevin Mooney, John Morton, Maria Murray, David Thompson and Paul Young.

The Devious Theatre Company’s performance of The War of the Worlds will be broadcast exclusively on KCLR 96FM on Thursday, October 30th at 9pm. It can also be listened to live on KCLR96FM.com. Stay tuned to www.devioustheatre.com for more details on the project.