Adaptations On September 15, 1941, an adaptation of "Sredni Vashtar" began the premiere episode of the CBS Radio series The Orson Welles Show. Blanche Yurka portrayed Mrs. De Ropp, with Conrad Binyon as Conradin and Brenda Forbes as Matilda. "Sredni Vashtar" has been adapted as a chamber opera three times. In 1988 the composer Robert Steadman and the author Richard Adams wrote the 75-minute Sredni Vashtar. In 1996 Cuban-born composer Jorge Martin and librettist Andrew Joffe with the American Chamber Orchestra produced Beast and Superbeast, a group of four chamber operas based on stories by Saki, including "Sredni Vashtar". Martin also composed a Piano Fantasy on Sredni Vashtar In 2010 the story was again adapted by Nicholas Pavkovic and Jim Coughenour and performed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. This story was adapted for American television and aired on a ghost anthology series called Great Ghost Tales on August 24, 1961. "Sredni Vashtar" was the basis of the 1979 horror film The Orphan, also known as Friday the 13th: The Orphan, by the director John Ballard. In 1980 it was adapted for Spine Chillers. In 1981, the short film Sredni Vashtar by British director Andrew Birkin won a BAFTA award and was nominated for an Oscar. In 2003 Angela M. Murray produced a version of the story in the Tartan Shorts series for the BBC, set in Scotland and including shadow puppetry. "Sredni Vashtar" was further adapted with two other Saki stories for a 2007 broadcast on BBC4 titled Who Killed Mrs De Ropp? Tom Baker read the story as part of the 1978 BBC series Late Night Story. The story has inspired film directors of the Czech Republic three times: Vaclav Bedric's cartoon film of 1980, Martin Faltyn's 1981 graduation film from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography, and Pavel Marek's 1995 graduation film from the FAMU. It has even been the inspiration for a Czech rock band, who named themselves after the story. References External links Horror short stories Works by Saki 1912 short stories Short stories adapted into films Works adapted into operas