E. M Forster - The Machine Stops

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Dramatised By: Gregory Norminton EM Forster's story, written at the beginning of the last century, takes place in a future where people can only communicate through a machine - much like the internet today - and technology has become an all-powerful god. A mother and son's attempts at real communication are the basis for EM Forster's harrowing vision of a subterranean future. Vashti: Gemma Jones Kuno: John McAndrew Computer: Jillie Meers The four voices: Anne Carroll The four voices: Christian Rodksa The four voices: Connie Walker The four voices: Fergus Webster Director: Jane Morgan Producer: Marilyn Imrie Sound designer: Wilfredo Acosta 24 April 2001 It is hard to believe that this short story was written by EM Forster before the First World War when it includes a mechanical system that can only be described as an early version of e-mail. The human race is living beneath the earth's surface, communicating via the multifaceted technologies of the great Machine. All physical and mental needs are catered for but not everyone is sated by this safe and unquestioning lifestyle. A man called Kuno has been "finding ideas" away from the remit of the Machine and wants to tell his mother what it is like on the surface of the earth. "Cannot you see... it is we that are dying and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine?" She loathes his act of rebellion but fears, equally, for his life. When the Machine begins to break down and humanity, finally, learns its lesson, mother and son discover they are not so very different after all. The short story is set in what must have seemed a futuristic world to Forster but won't to you. People live alone in identikit homes (globalisation) where they choose to isolate (his word), send messages by pneumatic post (a proto email or WhatsApp), and chat online via a video interface uncannily similar to Zoom or Skype.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.

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it’s amazing that Forster wrote this 115+ years ago. There are som many parall…

Italy Man

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