‘War of the Worlds’ brought to life at the Island

Through a combination of live music, sound effects, and period commercials Wireless Mystery Theatre will transport the Island Arts Centre audience into an old-time radio studio where they recreate the controversial 1938 Orson Welles ‘Panic Broadcast’ based on H.G. Wells’s fantasy, The War of the Worlds.

The fateful Halloween transmission on Sunday, October 30, 1938, was presented as a series of simulated news bulletins. These suggested to 6 million listeners that an interplanetary conflict had started with invading Martians spreading wide death and destruction in New Jersey and New York. A wave of mass hysteria seized thousands.

This heart-stopping recreation of that fateful broadcast is certain to have Lisburn theatre-goers scanning the skies for extraterrestrial life and heat rays.

For further information or to book tickets, priced £10, log onto www.islandartscentre.com. Alternatively contact the Island Arts Centre box office on 028 92 509254.