Columbia Workshop

Metzengerstein

English · Gothic Fiction, Horror, Dramatic Readings

Columbia Workshop was an experimental radio series that explored what the medium could do as a form of storytelling. Its broadcasts ranged across drama, comedy, fantasy, and other imaginative forms, often using sound and performance in inventive ways.

The title identifies this recording as “Metzengerstein,” a story by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s tale follows a young nobleman whose rivalry with a neighboring family and fascination with a mysterious horse lead toward a dark, uncanny reckoning. The radio adaptation brings the story’s Gothic atmosphere into focus through spoken performance and sound.

The result is a literary drama shaped for listening: suspense and mood emerge through voices, pauses, and the sounds surrounding the action. It offers a compact encounter with Poe’s macabre imagination and with the Workshop’s interest in treating radio as an expressive dramatic art.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.