More Bradbury Celebrations

Any day now is the official start of Autumn. At least, if you live in the northern hemisphere. And abide by the astronomical definition of the seasons.

Halloween is coming.

And on release now is Colonial Radio Theatre's latest Bradbury dramatisation, The Halloween Tree. Officially it's out on 1st October, but Amazon and other suppliers have actually been shipping it for a couple of weeks.

So now, as promised, here is my review of the new CD.

Meanwhile, the Scottish National Theatre/Catherine Wheels stage production of Something Wicked This Way Comes previews in Glasgow tonight. The Scotsman recently published this article about the production, which includes an interview with the director and some interesting detail on some of the technical details of the staging. I hope to be seeing the play when it begins touring in a couple of weeks. I will post my review shortly afterwards.

Bradbury continues to be presented with all manner of honours and awards. Last night the library of UCLA unveiled a plaque at a special dinner, commemorating Bradbury's use of the typewriter rental facility to create his masterpiece Fahrenheit 451. There are pictures from the event at the official Bradbury message board, thanks to jkt who was there with his camera.

Finally, an anonymous poster to this blog has reminded me that Bradbury will be honoured with a lifetime achievement award at the forthcoming Ojai Film Festival in California.

Bradbury Season

October is a rare month for boys... according to the opening lines of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, at least. But it's far from a rare month for Bradbury. As Halloween approaches, it always feels like Bradbury Season.

To help make it so this year, two significant adaptations are on their way. In audio, Colonial Radio Theatre's production of The Halloween Tree - scheduled for a 1st October release - is now available on CD via Amazon. (And this isn't just a theoretically-available item, they really are shipping it now.) I have been writing a review of this lavish production, but have been caught on the hop by its early, unheralded release. Watch this space for my review, which is coming real soon now, honest.

And on stage, the National Theatre of Scotland in conjunction with Catherine Wheels Theatre Company will shortly be touring (mostly Scotland, but one venue in England) with a new production of Bradbury's own stage play version of Something Wicked. I hope to catch the play when it makes its brief visit south of the border.