Dead Medium

Download: Behind The Wall – Episode 1 – One Good Thing

My next radio drama series hits Newstalk next month starting on Saturday the 16th of April.

“The Wall in the Mind” looks at the impossibility of love and even friendship in a world where someone is always watching – the Stasi surveillance state of East Germany.

Today we we are constantly monitored, our emails read, our tweets collected, our photos analysed our phone calls recored and stored in the vast unaccountable silos of the NSA. But this isn’t the first Orwellian surveillance state. From the end of the Second World War to the late nineteen eighties, East Germans had to suffer their families and neighbours reporting their actions to the paranoid political police of their communist government.

“The Wall in the Mind” follows the experiences of Claire O’Hanlon, an Irish immigrant, who has crossed the Wall to communist East Germany to follow Emil, her young lover, into the punk politics of Berlin in the late eighties.

Recorded on location with a cast of German and Irish actors, the series explores how our sense of self diminishes, under the panopticon of a surveillance culture.

“The Wall in the Mind” will play on Newstalk in Ireland each Saturday on the 16th, 23rd, and 30th of April at 7am, repeating at 10pm each day, with podcasts released the same day.

For the online release, I’ve decided to do something a little different. In the weeks leading up to broadcast, we’ll be posting interviews, audio diaries and clues to the true stories that inspired the mystery.

Then, as the show is being broadcast, we’ll put it out online for podcast and streaming – scene by scene. The idea is to create something of the anticipation of a classic radio serial or Dickensian short story. Each day there’ll be something new to hear, another clue to the mystery at the heart of the story.

You can subscribe to these bonus episodes, and download or stream the podcast of ‘The Wall in the Mind’ at the following places – iTunes, RSS, Soundcloud.

Credits – Images, Cast & Crew, Dead Medium Productions

The Wall in the Mind is an upcoming radio drama series on Newstalk, launching early 2016.

Claire O’Hanlon, a young Irish woman, became caught up in the events sweeping East Berlin just prior to the fall of the Berlin wall. Arrested at a pro-democracy protest, Claire and her friends were imprisoned by the East German secret police. Twenty-five years later, now a successful academic, Claire returns to Berlin. She attempts to finally heal, and to resolve the mystery of what happened to her first love, Emil, who disappeared in 1989.

The Wall in the Mind is an exciting historical drama series, coming to Newstalk in 2016. The series combines a variety of innovative storytelling and sound production techniques to create a thrilling drama linked to real historic events. Listeners travel back and forth in time, as Claire tries to make sense of her experiences as a teenager in communist East Berlin and to solve the mystery of her vanished first love, Emil.

Writer / Director Gareth Stack travelled to Berlin to research the historic locations featured in the series. There he explored the ruins of the paramilitary police barracks, where on 7th and 8th October 1989 hundreds of East German protestors were held in one of the last desperate acts of a tyrannical regime. Thousands marched as the communist government faced revolution on the streets.Those unlucky enough to be arrested were tortured by the notorious ‘Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft’ paramilitary police. These events inspired a story that explores the marks history leaves on the lives of ordinary people.

The drama is brought to life by stunning performances by leads Mia Gallagher as Claire in 2014 and Jasmin Gleeson as Claire in 1989. These roles were developed over weeks of rehearsals with the cast, who all worked ‘off book’ to create a naturalistic compelling drama.

Using extensive foley, on location recording, as well as binaural microphones and cassette recordings, The Wall in the Mind captures the paranoia of one of the darkest moments in the Cold War. The Wall in the Mind is a richly developed story, featuring strong female lead characters, leading to a shocking conclusion. This is a mystery that brings us right into the world of the most surveilled society in history.

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the television licence fee.

Download: The Wall in the Mind – Trailer

The show will be available on Soundcloud and on Dead Medium [iTunes, RSS], the new podcast featuring the best drama, documentary, comedy and sound art from Dead Medium Productions.

If you’d like more information about this upcoming series or any of our other productions, including the award winning documentary ‘Mad Scientists of Music’, get in touch via mail or on twitter.

A companion to Paraudiolia 1 (a piece composed as part of Bluebottle Collective’s ‘Hibernation Radio’ project), Paraudiolia Part 2 deals with degeneration in a cosmic context – the personal and collective dementia experienced as we flail beyond our capacities. This is a series of works employing musique concrete, anonymised interview and reflexive writing, to reflect on disillusion.

This is an episode of the new Dead Medium new podcast. This will be a best of show, including drama, interviews, sound art, comedy and gonzo ‘journalism’. We’re on itunes now, or you can subscribe to our RSS feed here.

Download: Paraudolia Part 2 [Mechanical Blasphemy]

This piece was made during last years Hearsay Festival, and won a tiny award for best story in the In The Dark audio scavenger hunt! It features Pat Herbert of the Hurdy Gurdy Radio Museum, the sounds of the Hearsay Festival church heater, and György Ligeti’s ‘Requiem’.

Download: Stardust

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/233735812-garethstack-a-creature-of-myth-1.mp3

Where do we turn for love in the modern age? A variety of apps promise instant sex, momentary intimacy, group vouched safety. In this odd little story, one Irish man talks about his disenchantingly modern experience with a creature of myth.

This is the first episode in Dead Medium Productions new podcast. This will be a best of show, including drama, interviews, comedy and gonzo ‘journalism’. We’re on itunes now, or you can subscribe to our RSS feed here.

Download: ‘A Creature of Myth’