When Orson Welles burst onto the Hollywood scene in 1941 with Citizen Kane it was the beginning of an extraordinary yet troubled career in the movies. It was also the climax to a ten-year period in which he had conquered first Broadway, then the radio airwaves, with the same furious brilliance. From the notorious, panic-inducing The War of the Worlds to his re-imagining of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the play which had made his name on Broadway.
This site brings not only the surviving recordings from the Mercury Theatre on the Air, but also a selection of Welles' other pioneering radio work. This includes his seven-episode adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and a selection of other recordings from his radio career. Welles' radio work is often overshadowed by his contribution to cinema, however it remains one of the most extraordinary bodies of work in the history of radio, as fresh today as it was eighty years ago.
Bram stoker's classic gothic horror, Welles playing both hero and villain.
Stevenson's genre-defining tale of pirates and seamen.
Paris and London collide in Dickens' tour-de-force, hauntingly told.
Electrifying spy chase across the UK; Welles never seemed more nimble.
Eward, Anderson and Saki. Saki's is my favourite short story of all time!
Drinkwater's rarely-seen play about the life of Lincoln, played by... Welles.
Schnitzler's playful morality tale of a young man on the loose in Vienna.
Only Welles could take Dumas's legendary novel and do this to it.
Chesterton's remarkable, cryptic thriller.
Shakespeare's political triumph, trimmed down but retaining its majesty.
Seven-part adaptation of Hugo's sprawling epic.
Welles wrote his own take on Holmes, tackling his nemesis Moriaty.
Another tale of seamen, by former naval officer Ellsberg.
The Mercury Theatre set out to prove that it's not easy being seventeen.
Around the world in sixty minutes.
The notorious Halloween broadcast still oozes authenticity. Stay calm.
Welles wanted Conrad's novel to be his first film but this is the closest he got.
A quirky thriller about the passenger no-one wants to take.
Dickens' first novel and the last (surviving) broadcast of the Mercury Theatre.
The Mercury Theatre on the Air produced some of the most extraordinary radio to ever hit the airwaves. Welles’s direction and acting, Bernard Herrmann’s visionary scores and the likes of Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead in supporting roles, combined to produce electrifying renditions of established classics.
Although the Mercury Theatre on the Air has never quite slipped into obscurity, the plays are rarely heard on contemporary radio and in spite of having fallen into the public domain, they have fallen out of the public consciousness. The first series of 22 episodes (of which 4 are considered lost) were uniquely creative adaptations of classic and contemporary literature. This site aims to offer those productions, newly-remastered and entirely free, in the hope that a new generation of listeners can enjoy them.
To offer listeners the productions of Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre in a simple, easy-to-use website, for both download and streaming.
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To restore the plays, many of which exist only in poorly-recorded condition, and to freely distribute these remastered recordings.
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To promote not only the work of the Mercury Theatre, but of radio theatre in general, and to ensure its preservation for future generations.
learn more"We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone."
Orson Welles
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