An Invasion of Panic

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ALMOST 70 YEARS AGO, an elaborate radio hoax by Orson Welles had 1.2 million Americans believing their planet had been invaded by Martians. No little green men, no "We come in peace!" — just tentacled creatures with a heat ray and a jones for destruction.

Scena Theatre captures this classic broadcast in its play-within-a-play staging of "War of the Worlds," playing at the D.C. Arts Center. Intertwining the action in the CBS studio, where Welles and Mercury Theatre on the Air work their magic, with reactions of Americans listening to the broadcast, Scena artistic director Robert McNamara demonstrates how the broadcast caused such panic.

With no TV cable news programs to confirm the invasion and no cell phones to check the whereabouts of loved ones, people understandably freaked out. If only they had noticed the date — Oct. 30, 1938, the day before Halloween — they might have uncovered the hoax.

Scena's version of the broadcast begins with radio actors milling about, musing over their lines and waiting for direction from Welles (Dan Brick). Welles foretells the end of man's dominion of Earth, and the broadcast fades into a combination of weather reports and music of the period, interspersed with news of a meteorite crashing.

Welles himself takes the persona of Professor Pierson, of the Observatory at Princeton, who at first terms the phenomenon a meteor and scoffs at the idea of aliens, but later "witnesses" the Martian destruction.

The cast replicates the radio voices of the day; at a Scena rehearsal, an actor was instructed to use his "smile" voice to introduce a piece of music early in the broadcast, while another was directed to imitate FDR in an address as secretary of the interior.

Into Howard Koch's adaptation, McNamara inserts a chorus of average Americans' reactions to the news. At first, the responses range from confused to blase, but as word spreads of "aliens" marauding through the East Coast, torching soldiers and citizens, they become hysterical.

Some are convinced it's Hitler, while one woman posits it might be those "crafty" Japanese. Other listeners swear they can smell the black smoke from the heat rays. The voices often overlap to create the tense and panicked mood that resulted from the broadcast.

Scena will attempt to re-create that atmosphere in its own radio broadcast of the play, set for
Dec. 8.

» D.C. Arts Center, 2438 18th St. NW; opens Dec. 2, through Jan. 14; $20-$30; 703-683-2824, scenatheatre.org. (Woodley Park-Zoo/Adams Morgan)

This post was written by Express contributor Erin Trompeter.
Photo courtesy Michael a Toslano