The Ancient Mariner (A Story from The Weird Circle)

This Weird Circle episode is based on the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and first published in 1798.

At the beginning of the original poem, the mariner stops a man who is on his way to a wedding and tries to tell him a story. The man is not interested in hearing the mariner’s words but the old sea dog takes hold of him with his ‘skinny hand’ and is so insistent that the man has little option but to hear, and as he listens to the story he gradually becomes fascinated by it.

The Weird Circle’s adaptation of the poem also begins with the wedding guest who is waylaid by the mariner, but it is a true dramatization of the story, with full cast, rather than a reading of the poem. The mariner does tend to speak in verse, but his words, though entertaining, are not directly taken from the poem, but rather an interpretation of it.

Much of the story is presented as flashback sequences that detail how the mariner found himself in his present predicament and these scenes, devoid of rhyme, are in a more traditional format and are just like any other radio play.

The Weird Circle: The Ancient Mariner

(Listen to the Full Episode)