Orson Welles's radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds has become a Halloween staple along with trick-or-treating. The Great Escape Stage Company will recreate the CBS Radio show Tuesday, October 30, and Wednesday, October 31, in Marshall to mark its 80th anniversary.
Producer-director John Sherwood says the version of the story created by playwright Howard Koch in 1938 has staying power for several reasons.
"We've studied the script repeatedly and we see that there's just such an orchestration to it that it's a delight to perform, let's just start with that. It's very artistically put together."
The Great Escape company also performed a version of The War of the Worlds broadcast in 2013 on its 75th anniversary. But Sherwood says this time the cast is larger and new introductions and a close have been added to give the audience historical context.
"It created a stir. It created a panic among many, many people. And people realised that there needed to be some safeguards against such a thing happening. And to my mind it's the ultimate example of 'fake news.'" Sherwood says the fright the original broadcast caused has lessons for us today.
"It scared everybody when they didn't need to be scared. Even though the broadcast itself said that it was a play, people didn't catch that. So, as a result, you can look at it as a historical artifact from which there's much to learn even today."
Some recent accounts say the extent of the panic caused by the original broadcast was exaggerated by newspaper owners envious of the new medium. But Sherwood says the sense of terror experienced by some listeners was quite real at the time.
Tickets for the Great Escape Stage Company production of The War of the Worlds cost $15. You can call the box office at (269) 781-2700 or e-mail GESCmarshall (at) gmail.com.
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