By Marty Ross
Wireless Theatre Ltd presents
The Bloody Life of R.M. RENFIELD
Written by Marty Ross
If there’s one character in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula as fascinating as the arch vampire himself, it’s R.M. Renfield the zoophagous patient in Dr. Seward’s mental hospital, who has fallen under the vampire’s spell. But Stoker provides no explanation of how Renfield came to be imprisoned, nor of the origins of his strange relationship with his Master.
Marty Ross’s audio drama imagines a whole back story for the character – the story of a tragically ordinary Victorian shopkeeper, stuck looking after ageing parents and prone to a furtive fascination with blood.
Desperate for relief, he goes for a holiday in Whitby, on the Yorkshire Coast, where he experiences premonitions of a vast supernatural power approaching across the sea, a force that will bring meaning to his life, but only of the most terrible sort.
‘Sarah Golding expertly directs Harry Myers & Sarah Whitehouse who play all of the roles to perfection… Their ability to control and adapt their voices is captivating. Ross is a writer who is consistently strong and even-handed. His words hold your attention as the performance glue which holds everything in place… Gold standard sound design and balance from Fiona Thraille and Oliver Morris’
TRIGGER WARNINGS
Blood, violence and father to son domestic abuse , reference to marital domestic abuse, murder, drowning, coarse language, sexual reference, depiction of dementia, factory accident, cut throat razor, close shaving, death, depiction of insanity.
Writer, Marty Ross has written several gothic dramas for Wireless Theatre, from Blood And Stone to The Woman On The Bridge and Night Of The Orchid.
Here, working again with two of Britain’s foremost audio actors, Harry Myers and Sarah Whitehouse, Ross combines the darkest of dark humour with the most poignant, devastating tragedy, in a production that takes listeners, immersively, inside a very troubled and dangerous mind….
THE BLOODY LIFE OF R. M Renfield
With
Harry Myers & Sarah Whitehouse
Harry won the Carleton Hobbs Bursary award in 1998 and has twice been in the BBC Radio Drama Company. Since then he has appeared in hundreds of radio plays & serials for the BBC, including Home Front; and The Archers; and for Big Finish, including playing Adrian Wall in the Bernice Summerfield adventures; & multiple characters in various Dr Who titles.
More recently, Harry has worked on many productions for Audible including the Sam Mendes Dickens Trilogy; The Sandman; and 1984. Notable video game appearances include: Darktide; A Plague Tale: Requiem; Baldur’s Gate 3;World of Warcraft. Harry has narrated numerous audiobooks and voices several trailers & commercials. He has also worked extensively in theatre, TV and film, although these days his main focus is his voice work.
Sarah trained at the Birmingham Conservatoire graduating with 1st Class Honours. Notable work includes feature films Lapwing and Future Soldier and performance capture and voices for video game ‘Norse’ to be released on Xbox and PlayStation in 2026. Sarah has worked extensively in audio drama including Sam Mendes’ Dickens trilogy for Amazon Audible, all adapted by Marty Ross: Oliver Twist starring Daniel Kaluuya and Brian Cox, David Copperfield, starring Ncuti Gatwa and Helena Bonham Carter and Bleak House starring Ambika Mod, Miriam Margolyes and Thandiwe Newton.
Other projects with Audible include: 1984, The Sandman Acts III/IV and V, Halfway, Crush Hour, We Play Games, Billionaire for Sale and Jeff Wayne’s War of The Worlds. Sarah has just recorded her first Doctor Who story with Big Finish productions and The Rebel Moon audio series for Netflix/Wolf at the Door.
For Wireless Theatre: I Need a Miracle, The Three Musketeers, Dodge and Twist, The Darkwater Bride, The Soul Breaker and the award-winning Red Moon Series directed by Robert Valentine.
Sarah recorded audio books for many years with the RNIB and Audible and these include Amy Perry’s Assumptions, Chocolate Girls and Medieval Woman. Sarah also provides ADR for foreign language films/TV and her work includes I hate Christmas series 1 and 2 (dubbing the lead), Mad Women’s Ball(dubbing the lead), The Cook of Castamar (dubbing the lead).
PRODUCTION TEAM
Producer / Director / Vocal Edit SARAH GOLDING
Broadcast Assistant/ Sound design lead FIONA THRAILLE
Sound design OLIVER MORRIS
MUSIC
Theme music:
Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in Dm, BWV 538 (PDM 1.0)
Incidental music:
Virtutes Vocis Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
RENFIELD – A WIRELESS ORIGINAL
Please enjoy more audio gold on the wireless feed
Wirelesstheatrecompany.co.uk
Pitch us your scintillating or hilarious scripts to Sarah@wirelesstheatre.co.uk
Thank you for listening
