A welcome from the producer

Welcome to the home page of Mondello Publishing's production of H.G. Wells classic tale of horror, The Island of Doctor Moreau. This is our latest foray into the world of audio drama, and, like last year's production of Andromache, we've done it as a full cast audiobook, which is sometimes called Audio Drama or Radio Theater. The Island of Doctor Moreau is a true classic of early science fiction and horror. In it, we hear the story of Edward Prendick, an Englishman who becomes stranded on a mysterious island which is ruled by a brilliant but malevolent, overlord, the eponymous doctor. Through this story, Wells explores fundamental ideals of morality and the innate meaning of human nature.

Some of our cast

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Listen to some samples on SoundCloud

• Act 1 Scene 2
• Act 1 Scene 3 part 1
• Act 2 scene 1

Notes from the producer:

We are proud to showcase some of the best local and international talent. See our cast page for the complete list of the cast and bios. Like Andromache, the CD version will features binaural stereo, meaning a specially designed acoustical stereo image which provides an extremely realistic listening experience when wearing headphones, while still sounding natural when listening in a car or other environment.

This is also a dramatized production, meaning that our storyline is based on Wells' novel, but we are taking a few liberties with the story. I know that some purists will object to the alteration of the original creative work, so I can merely beg their indulgence and try to explain the rationale. First and foremost, in an audio production it is necessary that the actors can create a "sonic image" of their characters. Wells' original story has three principal male English roles, and this would be quite a challenge for both listener and actor, so the change of one character to a woman made sense acoustically, as well as dramatically. It's not surprising also that all film adaptations of the novel have introduced a female character on the island as a foil, or counterpoint, to the character of Moreau, much in keeping with Prospero (Moreau) and Miranda in The Tempest. I also felt that the horror of Wells' vivisectionist is much too removed, too sterile, for the modern listener, but I didn't want to advance the story fully into the modern age, and so placing the story right in the mid-20th century seemed to be the best compromise.

Below you will find some video and audio clips for the production, including a promo we ran for student funding for the music.

Thanks again for your interest in Dr. Moreau.

-Bruce Van Deventer

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The Island of Doctor Moreau full cast audio drama from Bruce Van Deventer on Vimeo .

Video on how we edit the audio, including LongCat 3D binaural synthesis tool. The video editing is using Sony SoundForge, and the compositing is done in Steinberg Cubase Artist 7. Final mastering is done in Sony CD Architect, and this includes ISRC track codes. The CD sound quality is significantly better than the sound on this video.

SoundCloud Clips - the SoundCloud quality is significantly lower than our CD quality. A lot lower.

Dailies thru May 2014 (rough edits)

Mondello Publishing's page on SoundCloud