Misfits Audio Productions are certainly prolific and have
created series in many genres as well as individual tales authored by an
extensive network of audio writers, producers, and actors. Still, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect
from episode 1 of The Bullies by
Glenn Hascall: “Charades, Bologna, and
Happier Endings.” I imagine if it had
been a pure (and perhaps twee) audio drama about five bulldogs, I would have chalked
it up to audio going where few other genres can convincingly go (in this case,
the conversations and hijinks of five young bulldogs). I was absolutely delighted to discover,
however, that The Bullies was much
more metafictional than that. The
Narrator (Jack McQuillen) looked on from his omniscient viewpoint for some time
regarding the Bullies themselves, but soon enough they interacted with him and
didn’t have much liking for him. They
weren’t quite as violent about it as their counterparts in Into the Woods, but there was a similar bashing spirit. It was more than funny, it was clever and intricate
and made me love the Bullies all the more.
The story, then, became quite incidental to the back-and-forth between
the Narrator trying to direct the show, and the Bullies, who had independent
ideas on their own happy endings.
The Bullies include Boaz (Tom Chalker), a Marvin the
robot-type whose sarcasm knew no bounds, Hobart (Glenn Hascall), a drawling,
good-natured Southern boy, Harley (Katie Dehnart), who appeared to have been
dropped on the head a few too many times, and the two girls, tough-as-nails
Babushka (Marie Kopan) and prissy Mamie (Natalie Stanfield Thomas). The summary for the play says The Bullies is in the “great tradition
of audio animation,” and that is a fabulous way of describing what the play is
about. Even if this is the only episode
that ever sees the light of day, it has really wowed me.
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