Hop Frog

One in a series of musically underscored readings composed and delivered by Winifred Phillips for NPR Playhouse, this suspenseful story concerns a court jester, a dwarf who takes revenge on his tormentors. The performance, however, is more concerned with Phillips's style. The tales she chooses to render are variations on the theme of her own audio art. In this instance, style and content dovetail nicely, if one can call such malevolent material "nice." At times, the music and sound effects upstage the reading or are merely redundant, but overall this is a particularly effective, even understated, piece, as much Phillips's as Poe's. Y.R. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine