ROMEO ECHO DELTA interrupts the airwaves this Halloween!
WHEN: 31 October, 10.30pm – 11pm
WHERE: Listen live on BBC Radio Merseyside 95.8fm, via the BBC Radio Merseyside website, or in the FACT building (88 Wood Street)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/merseyside/
ROMEO ECHO DELTA is a new sound project by artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard. Produced especially for AND festival, it is inspired by a long line of hoax alien invasions and fake UFO scares, most famously, Orson Welles’ radio play of H.G Well's science fiction novel War of the Worlds broadcast for Halloween in 1938.
The BBC Radio Merseyside broadcast on 31 October 2011 will be accompanied by an ominous red light in the night sky above Birkenhead. Dense with speculation, confusion and repetition, the transmission begins with the arrival of a studio guest, former X Factor finalist Maria Lawson. Her interview is interrupted with the breaking news of the unexplained RED light. Local eyewitnesses, hastily found experts and idle speculation finally gives way as everything breaks down.
The artists worked with acclaimed author and actor Ben Moor to write the script for this 30-minute radio drama. Their cast includes Saira Choudhry (Hollyoaks), local comedian and actress Pauline Daniels and celebrity paranormal investigator Dr. Ciaran O’Keeffe.
Plugging into an age-old fascination with the red planet and the possibility of earth invasion from another world, Forsyth & Pollard aim to unpick the nature of contemporary reporting, where breaking news stories are frequently caught in a suspended limbo before any real facts emerge. ROMEO ECHO DELTA occupies this same space - this contemporary phenomenon.
Watch the skies this Halloween and be part of this exciting experiment in radio history.
ROMEO ECHO DELTA is currently at Kate MacGarry Gallery, London from 10 November - 17 December 2011. For more information please refer to the gallery's website above.