The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Rasovsky, Yuri

ISBN 10: 0786166444 ISBN 13: 9780786166442

Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks, 2013

Synopsis

Inspired by the classic silent film of 1919, this original audio play won the Independent Publishers Award in 1998 for best direct-to-audio production. John de Lancie stars as a young poet who visits a fair one night with his friend and girlfriend. Entering Dr. Caligari's tent, they meet the mysterious Cesare, a kind of zombie, who is neither alive nor dead--and who forecasts doom for our high-strung protagonist and his friends. Combining the directness of an old-time radio play and the language and themes of high psychological drama, this unique production was written, produced and directed by Peabody and Audie Award-winner Yuri Rasovsky and features a superb cast.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This is a witty, literate, scary spookfest produced digitally in stereo, and best heard late at night with the lights out.

From the Author:

As many readers know, Das Kabinett der Dr. Caligari is a horror film from Germany about a sideshow mesmerist who may or may not be a homicidal maniac. When I started on the radio play, I had seen the film only once and that perhaps three years earlier. I wrote the first draft in one all-night session, fleshing out the characters from the schematic hints in the original and creating a milieu for the action from my memory of the small German town I had spent a year in during the ‘60s and what I knew of the culture of fin de siecle Europe. The scenes laid themselves out all by themselves. In fact, the whole thing wrote itself. 

As I honed the dialogue, it grew increasingly reminiscent of the symbolist poets who were inspired by Poe -- particularly Rainer Marie Rilke (1875-1926). Somehow this seemed appropriate. In fact, the more Rilke I put in it, the spookier it got.

The audio play is inspired by the film, rather than adapted from it. It is a separate artistic (I hope) work, just as Joyce's Ulysses is separate from Homer's Odyssey. Still, after subsequent viewings of the original 1919 silent, I am struck with how much of it ended up in the audio version -- a tribute to its evocative power. Silent film makes good audio -- if you can make people see in the way that the movie makes people hear. Audio drama is essentially visual. Its evocative power depends on the creators' ability to excite pix in the listeners' imaginations. Hence, I brag with justification that my sets, costumes, make-up, lighting and special effects run rings around anything that Spielberg, Lucas, Disney, et al., can cobble together on celluloid.

About this edition

• Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0786166444
• ISBN 13: 9780786166442
• Binding: Audio CD