Best Podcast Reviews

Audio drama podcast, The Amelia Project, helps fake deaths

March 27, 2018 8:00 am

Faking your own death has to be a challenge — and definitely a task that one can’t perform on their own. Oystein Ulsberg Brager and Philip Thorne, writers and directors of The Amelia Project from Imploding Fictions, have thought a great deal about this and have created an entire series narrative surrounding it.

The creation of their podcast, like the act of disappearing, takes a team. Their core team has about six members but 35 people have contributed to season one in total.

The Amelia Project is a comedic audio drama about an underground organization, called Amelia, that helps its clients fake their own deaths but the service doesn’t stop there — it helps them reenter society under a brand new identity.

“Amelia’s clientele is rather eccentric,” said Brager. “Each episode lets us listen in on the vetting interview. The clients reveal their stories and their reasons for needing to disappear and eventually, a suitable (fake) death is planned for them.”

Brager and Thorne both have backgrounds in theatre but this is their first podcast.

“I’m a magician, so I’ve always been fascinated with disappearing and reappearing,” said Thorne. “The idea of an eccentric agency that fakes its clients’ deaths had been kicking around my head for a while, but originally I was thinking of it as a stage play. Then Oystein and I became interested in audio drama, and this story really suited itself to an episodic format. Each case has a new theme, so it allows us to explore things we’ve been obsessed with for a long time: identity, faith, artificial intelligence, cocoa…”

(Brager said that cocoa is a very important part of the show.)

The two put in an amount of brainstorming appropriate for planning the fake death of a client of The Amelia Project from beginning to end. The show’s production, which is mostly based out of Oslo, has moved around, including brainstorm sessions over tea and cakes in London before Brager and Thorne have gone back to their respective cities.

“Oystein and I get together with lots of pens, post its, chocolate and tea, and spend hours brainstorming characters and plot lines,” said Thorne about beginning the show. “For this show, we spent a day in London, walking from cafe to cafe. By the end of the day we had drawn up a long list of eccentric disappearances and reappearances. I love these brainstorming sessions!”

And brainstorming isn’t the only part of creation that has taken copious amounts of work for The Amelia Project.

“It’s not really that surprising, we’ve produced live theatre for a decade, so we know there’s always more work involved than anyone on the outside can imagine,” said Brager. “But moving into audio drama podcasting has been a steep learning curve.”

They’re using their other skills in many ways to expand the realm that exists around Amelia.

“Finding multiple ways of expanding the universe and deepening the story is something we love doing,” said Brager.

And they do this through Patreon. The Amelia Project offers listeners who provide the show funding through Patreon with additional content such as case notes and more.

Thorne said that they have had a positive response from their audience.

“Our background is in theatre, so normally our audience is very local,” said Thorne. “But with a podcast, you have such far reach! I think last time I checked we had listeners in 65 countries! That’s amazing to me!”

Some listeners have created fan art and keep in touch with The Amelia Project via Twitter. They are big into engaging with their listeners.

“Our listeners have been incredibly generous and positive, leaving reviews on iTunes, tweeting about us etc,” said Brager. “Each time somebody mentions our show, it gives us that tingly, happy feeling.”

The Amelia Project has also performed large live performances of podcast episodes Oslo and in Austin, TX at the Austin Film Festival. Those experiences, Thorne said, have been helpful for them as they continue working on the show.

“When people listen to the podcast, they’re in their personal space, but when you’re performing to a crowd, you get instant laughs and reactions and can immediately tell if it’s working,” said Thorne. “As writers and directors that’s very valuable. We hope to do more live performances in the future.”

The Amelia Project does have an end in sight, Thorne and Brager (the last is Brager’s favorite episode) have it planned out already but it won’t come for some time. There is a great deal still to come for Amelia Project fans.

PS: if you’re looking for someone to help you fake your own death…. They might be the team to help you, even in real life: https://ameliapodcast.com/merch/realdisappearance.