Gypsy Audio, Jan - Apr. 2013
Imagine Victorian melodrama crossed
with 50s science fiction and given a futuristic twist. This is the background to A. J. Clarkson's steampunk thriller
The Blackburn Gaslight Adventures.
Set in a nightmarish world of a world committed to scientific development, this multi-part
thriller shows how science can be both used and abused to suit individual ends. It involves characters from a range
of backgrounds and accents - British, American, German, Russian and others - and depicts a dog-eat-dog world in which everyone
jockeys for supremacy with science as their main weapon. It is not an attractive world, but one that seems inevitable:
no one appears able to stop the inexorable march of progress.
On the other hand, the story's roots remain squarely in the past: the villains are black-hearted,
young women are innocent victims, while scientists remain satisfyingly mad. Ernest Thesiger - the memorable mad scientist
in James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein (my favourite performance of all time in the movies) would not seem out
of place here.
The cast perform their roles with lip-smacking relish, including familiar names from the Gypsy repertory company
such as Gwendolyn Jensen-Woodard and David Ault. Definitely worth a listen.
