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<\/a>Peter says the radio play, co-presented by Snafu Dance and Twisted Theatre, is often unintentionally hilarious now that\u2019s it\u2019s more than 75 years old, and when he was looking for material for a two-night production to raise money for his upcoming tour with another show, Kitt & Jane<\/i><\/a>, it was the perfect opportunity.<\/p>\n\u201cBecause I\u2019ve done radio plays before, I know how quickly it can go up; you realize you can do it in two weeks,\u201d says Peter. \u201cEveryone is reading their scripts, so everyone will be onstage reading from music stands.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter first discovered his love for radio plays as a kid; he was a huge Peter Sellers fan and found out the British star of The Pink Panther<\/i> series also had a variety radio play called The Goon Show<\/i> in the \u201850s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just blew my mind because it was so<\/i> funny. And it\u2019s still funny. These were the shows that inspired\u00a0Monty Python,<\/i>\u201d he says. \u201cPeople sometimes dismiss radio because they think it\u2019s cold and uninteresting, but good radio with good scripts can do a hilarious show that doesn\u2019t have to be visual.\u201d<\/p>\n
The show features Superman, Batman, his sidekick Robin, and the requisite villains. But, unlike the comic books or superhero films, this version of Superman is a bit more subdued, says Peter.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuperman is supposed to be, well, super and quite amazing and you assume he\u2019s going to be flying, and plugging erupting volcanoes, and fighting aliens,\u201d he explains, \u201cbut being in radio you can\u2019t do any of that, so you basically have some guy reading a script, going, \u2018And then Superman did this, and then he did this, and then<\/i> he did this\u2026\u2019 and it doesn\u2019t seem very magical. At all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter says the play ends up being similar to a murder mystery, but the cast, which includes his Kitt & Jane<\/em> co-star Ingrid Hansen, local standup comedians Richard Gauthier and Ryan Bagma, and a host of others, are able to poke fun at the seriousness of the script and its many oversights.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the play, Batman goes missing and they don\u2019t do anything like superheroes; they just go looking for clues!\u201d laughs Peter. \u201cAnd there are so many weird things in the play, like when Batman goes missing Superman and Robin says, \u2018Maybe we should look for fingerprints.\u2019 But Batman wears gloves!\u201d<\/p>\n The show\u2019s stage manager, Theodore Sherman, has worked together with Peter before under the banner of Twisted Theatre, and says The Adventures of Superman<\/i> is a lot of fun and the cast isn\u2019t afraid to play up that humour onstage.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople can expect to see the actors having fun and playing around with each other,\u201d says Sherman. \u201cIt\u2019s a silly Superman adventure that, while I don\u2019t know how it was originally received in the \u201840s, is hard to take the issues they are looking at seriously, which makes us laugh a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n Mostly, Peter and Sherman are excited to bring the radio play format to audiences and celebrate a genre that requires a lot of attention on sound effects and vocal intonation. Peter even suggests that, once audiences are settled into the play, people can close their eyes and just listen.<\/p>\n \u201cRadio plays show that the written word can be funny and it can be interesting,\u201d he says. \u201cWe live in a very visual world now where you get to watch something blow up in your face, everything’s in 3-D, and it\u2019s all about the spectacle. Even our jokes now are about physical pranks, and gags, and gross-out humour, but if you really listen to something it can still be immensely powerful and funny.\u201d<\/p>\n