BBC Radio 4, June 9 2018

2021 – on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the World Trade Center, the Twin Towers appear in South Dakota… and on their 93rd floor is someone who should not exist…

This year’s Dangerous Visions season kicks off properly (after a week of Book at Bedtime) with this drama adapted from last year’s extraordinary novel by Steve Erickson. Described at the time as one of the first literary reactions to “Trump’s America”, it’s a very unusual book, with multiple themes of dystopia, the power of music, alternate history and the place of the outsider all vying for attention.

It’s one of those books that you’d think was almost impossible to adapt into another medium, but Anita Sullivan’s one-hour play captures much of the essence of the drama within the story, even if it’s impossible to give more than a flavour of the musical debate in that time. Everyone who approaches the Twin Towers hears music, but no one seems to hear the same thing, which allows the listener to experience that a tad more fully than perhaps a reader of the book will imagine. The reasons for the presence of JFK, Elvis’ stillborn twin brother and other key historical figures I’ll leave you to discover.

Verdict: Director Judith Kampfner and adapter Anita Sullivan bring out much that’s within Erickson’s novel, but it serves best to whet the appetite for the book. 8/10

Paul Simpson

The next Dangerous Vision is The Double, on June 10