Dear Dr Chekhov, radio drama
Dear Dr Chekhov tells an imaginary story about Anton Chekhov’s epistolary friendship with Phoebe Jane Phillips, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter who lived on Lady Elliot Island, on the Great Barrier Reef. The action takes place while Chekhov is at work on cold Sakhalin Island, an island that lies just north of Japan. The play invites you to imagine two distant islands through sound and narrative. Russian, Japanese, Scottish, Malayan and Australian voices, songs and languages intermingle in this sonically and theatrically rich piece. Originally broadcast on ABC RN Soundproof, 2015. Linda Mottram ABC 702 interview
Mermaid of Cockatoo, radio play
The island of Wareamah, now known as Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, was a grim place of incarceration and punishment for convicts, orphaned and wayward girls, and homeless and orphaned boys in the 1800s. Marina is 14 years old and dreams of escape from the island prison. Perhaps the mermaids of her imagination will help her reach the further shore. Credits: Ella Cook is Marina. With music arranged and composed by Coralie Joyce. Sound engineers: Steven Tilley and Michelle Goldsworthy. Produced and directed by Jane Ulman. Written by Jane Messer. Originally broadcast on Airplay, ABC RN, February 2007, replayed 2009. Adapted for radio from the short story by the same name, first published in Best Stories Under the Sun 2 – Traveller’s Tales, 2005. Listen here.
The Great Fire, narrative online game
Welcome to Mayhem, New South Wales. Step into a searingly hot summer’s day in the small 1940s post-war town. Something is seriously amiss on this particular Sunday morning screening in the town cinema, complete with velvet stage curtains, long hallways filled with locked doors and storage rooms cluttered with old film posters – and it’s up to Frankie, to get as many of the cinema-goers out alive as they can. Play here.
This short online narrative game was written for a Macquarie University research project investigating how an interactive game’s design can affect players’ ethical decision making choices. Writer: Jane Messer; with Malcolm Ryan, Paul Formosa, Stephanie Howarth. Production: Chaos Game Theory. https://wordsonplay.itch.io/the-great-fire Play the game at itchio.com. 2019.