TWO TALES FROM STEPHEN CRANE

This short production contains two of Crane’s best-known stories. In each, the dispassionate narration, tinged with a touch of bewilderment, capably conveys Crane’s naturalistic point of view, which sees individuals as being subject to uncaring forces beyond their control. In “The Open Boat,” Richard Rohan re-creates the experiences of a group of men who depend on one another to survive in a lifeboat on the open sea. Nature is revealed as “indifferent, flatly indifferent” to their plight. In “An Episode of War,” Christopher Graybill delivers the story of a young officer who is clipped in the arm by a stray bullet as he rations the company’s coffee. His subsequent experiences demonstrate that any episode of war is the result of random, uncontrollable events. L.X.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JULY 2011]