We begin in Chicago “sometime in the near future,” and one thing has become obvious: Earth is being surveyed from above. A WAR OF THE WORLDS, a novel originally penned by H.G. Wells in 1898, gets a modern take when adapted by Theatre In The Dark to be an audio-only drama. With mentions of Chicago throughout the production—such as the DuSable Bridge and reporters from local publications such as the Chicago Sun-Times—it is emphasized that both Chicagoans and suburb-dwellers will be affected by the extraterrestrial events that take place.
This 90-minute production isn’t all sci-fi thriller, at least not at first, as our narrator begins the production describing the night sky he and his lover are witnessing. He points out the stars in the sky, the signs of the zodiac, and does so in a way that allows us to feel we might be watching the sky, too. But the peace that shrouds the first few minutes of the production is short lived. Soon after star gazing, the narrator is called to work.
What unravels afterward is a series of events that could only be explained due to Martian invasion—stars exploding like meteors in the sky, power outages, and mass confusion by townspeople. Woven into the chaos of earthly invasion is a subplot of love lost, as H.G. Wells—one of our narrators—separates himself from his lover, Isabel, before the destruction of the Windy City.
