The World Without, the World Within and the Space Between: Amanda Dalton’s Adaptation of Nosferatu for BBC Radio 3

McMurtry, Leslie Grace

Abstract

Made for BBC Radio 3, The Midnight Cry of the Deathbird (2012) is an adaptation of F. W. Murnau’s German expressionist silent film Nosferatu (1922), which serves as both a target text (of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, 1897) and a source text (of The Midnight Cry). Thus, complex layers of adaptation and audience expectations are evoked through medium-specific qualities, such as the ability of radio to represent the immaterial or disembodied and multiple spaces at the same time, including a between-world along inside/outside worlds. Radio can exist almost entirely in the mind, effortlessly navigating between outer and inner dimensions. This article explores questions of narration, embodiment/non-corporeality and inner space. Using Scott McCloud’s concept of radio as a ‘mono-sensory medium’, it centres primarily on the characters of the Nosferatu (a bodiless essence of contagion) and Roger, a friendly Everyman who serves as the listener’s radio guide.

Citation

McMurtry, L. G. (2024). The World Without, the World Within and the Space Between: Amanda Dalton’s Adaptation of Nosferatu for BBC Radio 3. Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, 17(2), 205-218. https://doi.org/10.1386/jafp_00120_1

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 26, 2024
• Publication Date: Aug 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jul 4, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 2, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance
• Print ISSN: 1753-6421
• Publisher: Intellect
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 17
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 205-218
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jafp_00120_1