Mad Science

Dark Adventure Radio Theatre #22

by H.P. Lovecraft (Original Story), Adolphe de Castro (Original Story), Hazel Heald (Original Story)

Dark Adventure Radio Theatre: Mad Science brings four tales of horror and science to life in a 1930s-style radio drama. H.P. Lovecraft's stories "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" and "From Beyond" join his collaborations "The Electric Executioner" and "Winged Death" in this thrilling audio experiment. The tales come alive with a cast of professional actors, exciting sound effects and thrilling original music by Reber Clark. Click here for more information about our other Lovecraft stories in the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre series. They're like movies you can enjoy with your eyes closed.

This special anthology episode brings together four tales of science at its strangest and most terrifying. Can a doctor penetrate the mysteries of a simple patient's bizarre and fantastical dream life in "Beyond the Wall of Sleep"? Can an investigator survive a weird encounter with a deranged inventor in “The Electric Executioner”? Can a scheme of revenge be carried out through strange entomological means in “Winged Death”? And what horrors shall be revealed by a scientist's strange resonating machine in "From Beyond"?

Genres: Horror, Audiobook, Lovecraftian, Classics, Fiction

2 pages, Audiobook

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction.

Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality.

Although Lovecraft's readership was limited during his life, his reputation has grown over the decades. He is now commonly regarded as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th Century, exerting widespread and indirect influence, and frequently compared to Edgar Allan Poe.
See also Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

— Wikipedia

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun and the usual quality that HPLHS is known for with their Dark Adventures Radio Theatre presentations. Recommended.

MY GRADE: B to B plus.

[Tony Ciak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Radio play reproduction of four short stories with a full cast. All four stories had H.P. Lovecraft as the writer or co-writer, maybe revisionist, but all concerns science and madness.Loved it!!!

[Abdul Alhazred · Rating 2 out of 5]

The production values are all there, the performances are good, but there's just not much meat when the episode is sliced four ways for some small vignettes. Cute concept but one of the last DART productions I'd reach for.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had so much fun listening to this adaptation.

[Wayne's · Rating 4 out of 5]

great fun, loved the ads

[Myk Pilgrim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not my absolute favourite of the HPLHS's Dark Radio Theatre shows, but still a most enjoyable listen.
I'm always game for new imaginings of From Beyond.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual for Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, production value was great. However, I did not enjoy this collection of stories that much.

[Ursula Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an anthology episode featuring 5 stories. All were fantastic. Cast and production were superb. Had some great twist endings.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of two anthology episodes put out in the series with the theme, as you might have guessed by the title, of science gone mad. Not much to say here in terms of background, so let's jump into it.

This episode is split into 4 parts, each containing a different story. Two are solo efforts from Lovecraft ("Beyond the Wall of Sleep" and "From Beyond") and two were collaborations ("The Electric Executioner" with Adolphe de Castro and "Winged Death" with Hazel Heald). "Beyond the Wall of Sleep" is the story of a psychologist who encounters a murderous patient who is more than meets the eye, "From Beyond" tells of a man who delved too far into forbidden corners of science and found secrets that drove him mad, "The Electric Executioner" tells of a man who has an encounter with a mad man who has revolutionized death by electricity, and "Winged Death" tells of a disgraced scientist who modifies deadly flies in effort to take revenge on the man who left him in disgrace.

I've not read the latter two stories but the first two have the usual balance accuracy to the story with clever changes to fit the format. That aside, it's just a ton of fun and one I always look forward to when it comes up in the DART playlist I've made.