Carmilla: The Radio Play

by David MacDowell Blue

Based on the seminal 1871 novella by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

FULL LENGTH (approx 120 mins)
ZOOM-able
A radio play (which can be performed on stage).
A Christian radio station puts on an adaptation of Le Fanu's gothic classic "Carmilla" without quite realizing the play's real point of view.
In the 1840s an isolated girl living with the Austrian Empire finally makes a friend when a mysterious stranger ends up staying with her small family in a small, old castle. She soon...

FULL LENGTH (approx 120 mins)
ZOOM-able
A radio play (which can be performed on stage).
A Christian radio station puts on an adaptation of Le Fanu's gothic classic "Carmilla" without quite realizing the play's real point of view.
In the 1840s an isolated girl living with the Austrian Empire finally makes a friend when a mysterious stranger ends up staying with her small family in a small, old castle. She soon begins having strange dreams, while sickness afflict local girls in the area. Laura is in fact falling in love with her visitor, who may indeed feel the same way--even though she is no longer human.
This adaptation overturns many assumptions inherent in the most versions, not least by noting the sexist and racist political climate of the era, and presuming Laura an unreliable narrator.

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Carmilla: The Radio Play

[11 persons, 5 women, 3 men, 1 indeterminate]
Laura Bennett - Female, about twenty years old, an isolated young English girl. A wyld childe who has learned to pretend to be a doll.
De La Fontaine- Female, Laura's finishing governess, in her thirties or forties. A discrete but fierce romantic.
Perradon-Female, Laura's regular governess/housekeeper, in her forties or
fifties. Strong from necessity.
Carmilla - Female, probably twenties, mysterious visitor. Longs to be innocent.
Romani Woman - Female, probably in her thirties or forties. Practical, fatalistic, not un-kind.
Fraulein Hartog - Female, between thirty and sixty, Austrian. Rational, self-centered, sincere.
Bennett - Male, elderly, Laura's father, an Englishman enjoying retirement from service to the Austrian Empire.
Spielsdorf -Male, contemporary of Bennett, an officer of the Imperial Army, a natural killer bound by pride and honor.
Baron Vordenberg - Male, very elderly, a secret official/scholar, paranoid and ruthless as well as seeing his mission as righteous.
Radio Announcer - Probably male. Strong voice. Conservative, even reactionary.

Development History

  • Reading, Fierce Backbone (Los Angeles, CA, 2020

Production History

  • Professional, Shadows on the Air, 2022