Two Plays for Radio
by Norman Lock

Description

Based on an actual event, The Shining Man recounts (using Expressionistic dramatic techniques) the salvaging of a deadly isotope from an abandoned irradiation machine by two junk men. They unknowingly unleash a modern plague on Goiania with fantastic and tragic consequences.

In Beyond Recognition, a chilling fable of ultimate identity theft, the alienated narrator relates his gradual dispossession, internment, death, and dissolution.

Excerpt:

Beyond Recognition

I was taken into custody a little while later
I didn’t exactly see them
the ones who grabbed me, I
they grabbed me from behind
I never heard them coming
they must have been hiding in the fog
or lost in it
they put a bag over my head, a sack
a rough
burlap
it smelled like onions, an old onion sack maybe
they put it over my head and tied a rope lightly round my neck to keep it from coming off
I felt panic
Because of the sack more than anything
it was difficult to breathe through the burlap
the onion smell
not entirely dark, not black
I could see light
dimly
they treated me roughly
although they were careful not to strangle me with the rope — that gave me hope
they pushed me along the sidewalk
into a car
shoved me into the back seat, I fell onto the floor
someone got in beside me, the door
slammed
the car
started
nobody said a word