Sunday, September 30, 2012

Tape Delay


Tape Delay from The Truth was another excellent audio play that used the medium to its fullest.  It’s difficult to imagine such a play being written, or indeed being produced with such effortless naturalism, even five years ago.  It explores themes of technology, relationships, and perception and makes one empathize both with its “victim” and with its “perpetrator,” doing so much more successfully than a somewhat similar tale on BBC Radio 4 a few months ago, My One and Only by Dawn King.  

My One and Only used only phone conversations and recordings (and one “video” recording “heard” on radio) to tell a story of obsessive relationship between Noah and Layla.  This imaginatively included voice messages, conversations, and not only on mobile phones but between, for example, Layla and her workmate on an inbound line.  The moral of the story was that although Noah perpetrated the stalker-ish behavior, Layla, in a twisted way, actually enjoyed and encouraged it.  

The characters in Tape Delay are more innocent.  Jonathan Mitchell has written, at 20 minutes, a somewhat shorter tale than My One and Only.  It concerns Ben and Erica, meeting for a first date, only for it to fizzle out before they even speak face-to-face.  Ben accidentally records their conversation and finds himself, afterwards, piecing it together, cutting it up, and re-editing it, in an attempt to figure out what went wrong.  After an unspecified amount of time during which Ben has a fantasy relationship with Erica’s recording, he calls her back, only to learn that she is at least as culpable as Layla was in My One and Only.  

The performances from Ed Herbstman and Tami Sagher are very good, and the play, recorded on location in New York City, is extremely well-produced.  I really enjoyed this look into controlled madness.  The Truth is comprised of some very talented people, and I will definitely be listening to more of their output. 

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