Mercury Theatre

A Tale of Two Cities

English · Dramatic Readings, Historical Fiction

Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre on the Air brought literary works to radio through dramatic adaptations performed by a company of actors. This broadcast presents Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, a story set against the upheaval of the French Revolution and centered on lives caught between London and Paris.

The program turns the novel’s sweeping historical setting and intertwined personal stories into a radio drama, using spoken performance and sound to carry the action. Welles’s Mercury Theatre was known for adapting classic literature and other notable works for a weekly audience, with Welles often taking a leading role in the productions.

The result is a serious, theatrical listening experience: literary storytelling shaped for the intimacy of radio, with the tension of revolution set alongside themes of sacrifice, loyalty, and love.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.