To mark the 75th anniversary of the radio drama that many listeners mistook as an actual news broadcast, Raconteur Radio is set to present a theatrical recreation of The War of the Worlds.
The performance is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30 in Princeton Public Library’s community room, 65 Witherspoon St., Princeton.
The original broadcast, a Halloween episode of the radio drama series “The Mercury Theatre on the Air,” was directed and narrated by actor and filmmaker Orson Welles. It was an adaptation of the 1898 novel The War of the Worlds by H.G. Welles about an invasion of Earth by Martians.
The setting was changed from England to West Windsor, N.J., for the radio play.
The program’s format simulated a live newscast of developing events as strange explosions are reported on Mars and Welles is interviewed as a (fictional) astronomer and Princeton professor who dismisses speculation about life on Mars. As the drama continues, a meteorite lands in the Grover’s Mill section of West Windsor and increasingly ominous reports of an attack follow.
More information is online at princetonlibrary.org
