The door to the Oval Office is locked. Inside, a drunken, raging President Nixon attempts to write his resignation speech. He is haunted by the ghosts of former Presidents, and of his many enemies. Based on actual historical accounts of the final 24 hours of his reign, Nixon in Agony sees the President (played by theatre and cinema legend Steven Berkoff) deploring his fate even as it creeps closer. It asks: for such a man, can there be absolution? As the President descends into madness, the audience are placed inside his head using psychoacoustic and binaural effects, where every self-justification, every rambling excuse, and the vitriol of every critic echoes through the darkest night of the President’s soul.
This bold, timely and technologically groundbreaking audio drama by Adam Donen, inventor of the holographic drama, working with Grammy Award winning audio producer Robert Harder, offers a perspective on the past that seems totally of our present. The subject is Nixon, but it could just as well be Jacob Zuma or Donald Trump.
A nightmarish private view into the ruined gallery of a corrupted and broken man’s mind.
World premiere
Created, written and directed by Adam Donen
Mix and sound design by Robert Harder
Produced by Adam Donen, Robert Harder & Daniel Reynolds
Associate Producer – Ela Stipicic
Assistant Producer – Agatha Vornicu
Mix and sound design by Robert Harder
Produced by Adam Donen, Robert Harder & Daniel Reynolds
Associate Producer – Ela Stipicic
Assistant Producer – Agatha Vornicu