#31 Dark Shadows: Clothes of Sand

Having gotten through the unfortunate coincidence of listening to The Fearmonger across an actual election day, I return to the Randomoid Selectortron hoping for it to randomly select something far more escapist...

Dark Shadows: Clothes of Sand

Starring: Kathryn Leigh Scott as Maggie Evans
Format: One narrated two-actor CD (or download) with no episode breaks
Silly? No.
Standalone? The listener is expected to know about Maggie Evans's arc from the TV show, but some recapping is present.
Recommended? If Maggie Evans's Dark Shadows arc is of interest.


My reactions to this story contain spoilers for it and for other material about Maggie Evans.

Before listening

I've listened to this one a couple times. Like several of the earlier releases in the Dark Shadows Audiobooks range, the story structure involves one character alone in a room talking to a hallucination or supernatural being. In this case the character is Maggie Evans, the room is in the insane asylum, and the hallucination or supernatural being is a "sandman" from her childhood.
I don't know how much of Maggie's childhood as she describes in Clothes of Sand is from the TV show and how much is original to this audio. I think the "sandman" is invented for this audio release, but I'm not entirely sure about that fact, and I'm not sure how this monster relates to Barnabas, the vampire who traumatized her to the point of being involuntarily committed.
I am looking forward to listening to this one. I recall Kathryn Leigh Scott giving a good vocal performance, I recall atmospheric pacing, and I recall the insane asylum frame tale being used in some interesting way. I don't remember anything in this story having any particular real-world resonance for me, which is good after the experience I had with The Fearmonger.

After listening

This audio spends quite a while playing with questions of how real the monster is. Barnabas the vampire was real, but is the sandman real or just a distorted, traumatized memory Maggie has of Barnabas? The question remains open right up until the sandman slips Maggie a key to her room at the asylum so she can escape. This is how Dark Shadows things work and I love it.
This audio came out very early in Big Finish's Dark Shadows line, preceded only by a novel reading and the first four episodes in the 1980's continuity. I have a personal theory about the metaplot of Dark Shadows as showrun by Joseph Lidster for Big Finish: I suspect Maggie is unknowingly a sort of "gatekeeper" of Collinsport and no supernatural being can do more than briefly visit if she chooses to reject that being's presence (although they can do a lot of damage in the time before they get kicked out). Some supernatural beings (but not Barnabas) know this about her and go out of their way to make sure she doesn't find out herself. Clothes of Sand and Kingdom of the Dead begin this apparent strand in the early audios, and Beyond the Grave and The Harvest of Souls pick it up later. I could be wrong about it, but it seems to work both narratively and thematically with every Maggie audio I've heard.
The ambiguity about whether the sandman is real or a distorted memory of Barnabas comes about because of the story's structure; Maggie narrates her time in the asylum, including flashbacks to both the Barnabas incident and her childhood. Deliberate thematic parallels between the flashbacks are obvious, and asylum director Julia Hoffman believes the childhood memories are just a cover for the more recent trauma memories. This works well, not necessarily as a literal depiction of recovering from psychological trauma but as an immersive psychological soap opera story. Hoffman is not obviously a villain in this story, and the fact that she does care about Maggie's survival on at least some level shows up.
The format of this audio is almost entirely just first-person narration by Maggie. Alec Newman as the sandman, acting as a voice in her head, cuts in and argues with her interior monologue. Music and sound effects accompanying the narration are ample, and there are voice-altering sound effects to a maybe excessive degree. Music cues from the TV show are used where appropriate, particularly Josette's theme (the sandman, like Barnabas, is positive that Maggie and Josette are essentially the same person).
This is a good Dark Shadows audio release, if you don't mind the mostly-single-narrator format. It works especially well when considered alongside other things Big Finish have done with the character of Maggie Evans, and I recommend it if Maggie's "arc" is of interest to you.