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Dances of Life - and Death

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Dances of Life - and Death

By: E. Thomalen
Narrated by: John Paton, Sarah Ford
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About this listen

Dances of Life - and Death is adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s Masque of the Red Death. Poe wrote the Masque as a sort of horror story and it is written entirely in the third person as told by a narrator, no background and no dialogue. This play frames the story as a morality play, set in the time of the Plagues and the Renaissance. Though set in the past it is, also, about the present. Camus, in his great novel La Peste, wrote about a fictional plague in Oran in the 1940s. He used “plague” as a metaphor for war, and life in Nazi occupied France during WWII. Similarly, the plague, here, is a metaphor for life in Syria, Iraq, Columbia, Guatemala, Nigeria, and Somalia, etc. leading desperate refugees to flee from violence and war. But the reaction of those in safer countries is to withdraw behind their walls, close their borders and their eyes, to keep out the “plague” of feared death and disorder. But such human afflictions can never be enduringly locked out. There is always a price to pay for such cowardice.

©2004, 2019 E. Thomalen (P)2019 AliceWLLC Drama & Plays United States World Literature
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A most interesting and original take on Poe's 'Masque of the Red Death'... the story is drawn out, and deeper meaning given to the passage of life, through metaphor. I liked the tone of the narration, it was well paced, and modulated. Also very good production values. Highly recommended. The story will take you places....

Masterful adaptation of a Poe Story, well told!

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This was not a pleasurable listen . I played it on a normal laptop and whether it should have been this way I am not sure.The music was too loud and played through most of it so I struggled to hear anything. If I had not promised to listen to it I would have given up early on. It was virtually impossible to hear John Paton's voice over the music, Sarah Ford had better diction but even at times I was hard put to hear her. The cat was immensely irritating and I am wondering if there was something seriously wrong with this recording. Should the music really have been playing and overpowering the voices just after lock down?
It is difficult to comment on the actual story when you couldn't hear it although I got the overall gist of it. Even now I am wondering if I have been over generous in my ratings. Sorry!!

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