November 11th and 12th is officially Noirvember for the Henrico On the Air Radio Players. This Richmond theatre group will be performing live versions of famous radio plays centered around classic detective characters Sam Spade and The Saint.

November 11th and 12th is officially Noirvember for the Henrico On the Air Radio Players. This Richmond theatre group will be performing live versions of famous radio plays centered around classic detective characters Sam Spade and The Saint.

Jack Mooney, On the Air Radio Players’ president, and Katherine Bishop, Noirvember’s director, talked about this unique theatrical experience. “If you’ve never seen one of our shows before, we present shows from the Golden Age of radio,” Mooney said. “We do everything from old science fiction to comedy, but this is the first time in a number of years doing detectives.”

For Mooney, variety and timeless characters were the primary reasons for returning to the hard-boiled detective stories. “When most people think of old radio, it’s detective characters that spring to mind. We try to go through the different genres and keep some variety to the shows, and we realized we hadn’t done detectives in a while,” Mooney said.

Bishop said the show “is very fun, because you get to take it back to the old-school radio style.”

Another unique part of the show is the mix of amateur and professional actors. While some are, “pretty heavily active in Richmond’s theatrical community,” and others “have never acted before,” all are welcome, Mooney said. “We’re always looking for new folks who want to join and help out. It really is a lot of fun,” Mooney said.

Noirvember will be performed Nov. 11th and 12th at 7:30pm at the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen. Admission is free.