Metadrama in Old Time Radio: “Abbott…What Page Are You On?”

Collaborative storytelling and canon fluidity in The Adventure Zone podcast

“…Considering the medium’s audio-only format, it is worth closely examining the role and significance of voices in The Adventure Zone . Teorey (2011) describes traditional radio characters as ‘men made of words’ (p. 361) with ‘disembodied but engaging voices’ (p. 358). Despite the evolution of podcasts, this comparison between the new medium and the old will always remain true: voices are central.…”

“…Like many of podcasts’ accomplishments, broadcast radio first paved the way. As the metadrama of pre-television golden age radio previously ‘reconceived [the fourth wall] as permeable, allowing fluid transition across the fiction-reality border’ instead of ‘demolishing’ it (Teorey, 2011: 358), so does The Adventure Zone . These early twentieth century radio programs ‘made their own fictionality a major part of the storytelling’ (p. 357), ‘thrived on postmodern playfulness’, and their performers ‘often lifted the veil of fictionality and invited the audience behind the scenes’ (p. 358).…”

“…However, much of what makes The Adventure Zone such a unique form of storytelling is inescapably sacrificed for the adaptation. Teorey’s (2011) assessment that the audio-only format of traditional ‘radio narratives’ meant that ‘the settings, characters and plots only existed inside the listener’s minds and emotions, [so] aspects of the narrative were unique to each listener’ (p. 358) is paralleled in a study on podcast listeners. One of Heshmat et al’s participants highlights a benefit of the audio-only format, which the article summarises by stating that ‘like a book, [the participant] could fill the details beyond the voice’ (2018: 72) with their own imagination.…”