Classic American Dramas Starring Laurence Olivier, Volume 1

By: Theatre Royal, Herman Melville, H. G. Wells

Narrated by: Laurence Olivier

Length: 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Fully restored and remastered, Heritage Media presents the greatest of vintage artists in classic dramas of the early America’s. Here is the legendary Laurence Olivier starring in ‘The Country of the Blind’, adapted from the original tale by H. G. Wells and ‘Bartelby’ adapted by Herman Melville.

Theatre Royal is a unique series of classic radio dramas produced in the 1950s by the late Harry Alan Towers. Starring the leading theatre artists of the day it is the only series of radio dramas in which Laurence Olivier ever appeared. He was joined by Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, Orson Welles, Robert Morley, John Mills, Michael Redgrave, Trevor Howard, Robert Donut, Alec Guinness and Margaret Lockwood.

Over the Years, Theatre Royal has received a glittering array of accolades, including: “vivid, tense, and compressed.”( Classic radio)

“Craft, like character, ages well.”(Daily Telegraph)

“Great fun to listen to and, as radio history, they are unsurpassed.” (Sunday Telegraph)

“Voices like these justify the Golden Days tag. We won't hear their like again.” (Sunday Times)

“A must for archive fans. The excitement of vintage radio drama with strong storylines.” (Radio Times.)

©2011 Heritage Media Ltd (P)2011 Heritage Media Ltd

Free with an audible membership

If you have an audible membership, this title is free (currently). The HG Wells story is dated but performed well, and Bartleby is told succinctly- it’s abridged, but you don’t miss the main point of the story.

The main complaint would be the musical interludes which are at a much higher volume than the performance, they can be quite jarring.

Dated Even to be Dated

Classic American Dramas v.1 consists of two radio plays: The Country of the Blind and a take on Herman Melville's short story Bartleby the Scrivener. It's great to hear Laurence Olivier speak but the dramatic tension coupled with the intense music gives the selections a forced rendering even for the time. It's easy to blame the over the top production methods on "the times" but it is perhaps more accurate to face the reality that these radio plays are more hype than substance. That being the case it's still worth a listen especially as an educational artifact.

Awful!

The sound equalization was terrible. When the volume for the reading voice was adjusted appropriately, the constant random orchestral interruptions were physically painful to listen to.