Edgar Allan Poe is having a moment.
Last year, Netflix鈥檚 popular miniseries 鈥淭he Fall of the House of Usher鈥 was based on the Baltimore Bard鈥檚 short story of the same name. The show actually blended together most of Poe鈥檚 works including 鈥淭he Raven,鈥 about a talking bird that appears in a lonesome man鈥檚 home, and 鈥淭ell-Tale Heart,鈥 about a man who kills someone and hides the body beneath the floorboards but swears that he hears the heart still beating.
Poe鈥檚 most famous stories and poems (鈥淭he Pit and the Pendulum,鈥 鈥淭he Masque of the Red Death,鈥 鈥淭he Cask of Amontillado,鈥 鈥淎nnabel Lee,鈥 鈥淎 Dream Within a Dream鈥) dealt in the macabre, lost love and madmen committing murder for no real reason, perfect for the Halloween season.
This year, Stray Dog Theatre is capitalizing on Poe鈥檚 gothic horror with the musical 鈥淣evermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.鈥
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鈥淚t was just something I stumbled upon when I was searching for new shows, and I kind of fell in love with it,鈥 says Justin Been, who will be directing the show and is associate artistic director for Stray Dog Theatre. It was originally produced in Canada in 2009 and had an Off-Broadway run in 2015.
鈥淣evermore鈥 opens shortly before Poe鈥檚 death. He is headed to Boston for a job interview and runs into a troupe of actors who say they saw his mother, the actress Elizabeth Poe, on stage. They agree to re-enact his life story to help him remember it, but the actors are not what they seem, according to Been.
He also says the show shouldn鈥檛 be taken as biographical. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more of taking (Poe鈥檚) work and relating it back to his life, so looking at things that happened to him that could have informed things he wrote.鈥
Poe鈥檚 life was pretty dreary, to use one of his favorite words. His father abandoned the family and his mom died all before he was 2. (The timeline in 鈥淣evermore鈥 is different.) He was adopted, but his adoptive mother died and he was estranged from his adoptive dad.
Poe also struggled with drinking and gambling. His brother died when Poe was 22. When he was 26, he married his 13-year-old cousin, but she died after 11 years of marriage.
A lot of Poe鈥檚 poetry is about men pining after beautiful dead women, like in 鈥淭he Raven.鈥
鈥淥nce upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,鈥 the narrator begins, he heard a rapping on his chamber door. The raven comes in and says one word, 鈥淣evermore,鈥 which gets the narrator more and more agitated.
鈥淧rophet!鈥 said I, 鈥渢hing of evil! 鈥 prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us 鈥 by that God we both adore 鈥
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore 鈥
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.鈥
Quoth the Raven 鈥淣evermore.鈥
The circumstances of his death were also strange.
When he was 40, Poe was found feverish and hallucinating in Baltimore in clothes that weren鈥檛 his. He was taken to a hospital and died after repeatedly calling out the name Reynolds. He wasn鈥檛 coherent enough to explain what had happened to him.
鈥淥ne of the leading theories is that he was caught up in a voting scheme,鈥 Been says. 鈥淏ack then it was common for people to ply others with alcohol to take them to different polling stations and cast multiple votes, and part of that was changing their clothing. So, that鈥檚 one of the theories that exists.鈥
The show tackles the mystery, but much of its appeal lies in setting Poe鈥檚 rhythmic and dramatic writing to music.
鈥淛ust about every word that is spoken probably has some tie to Edgar Allan Poe,鈥 Been says. 鈥淎 lot of lyrics come from pieces he鈥檚 written. There鈥檚 an entire musical number of 鈥楾he Raven.鈥 There鈥檚 even one song from an article that he wrote.鈥
Fans of Poe will be excited by the hidden Easter eggs as the show works in some of his lesser-known works and detective writing. Plus, the show will visually be quite spooky, Been promises.
鈥淚t falls into the dark category,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very much in the realm of Tim Burton-esque where it鈥檚 a lot of exaggerated things; stuff that is a little off kilter; things that fit into this creepy world. It鈥檚 not necessarily scary, but it鈥檚 unsettling.鈥
Just the way Poe would have liked it.