|
Regional Reviews: St. Louis Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe Also see Richard's reviews of Am I Dangerous? and Red Jasper
Those destroyers return to grab us by the throat in a thrilling, dark, musicalized version of Poe's own life, which first landed on stage fifteen years ago. It's told in the words and music of Jonathan Christenson in Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe. And it also happens to be the genuinely chilling Halloween offering this month at Stray Dog Theatre. Christenson's two and a half hour, with intermission, musical (which I would not recommend for children) debuted in 2009 at the Catalyst Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta. It was revived at the Barbican Theatre in London before coming to this country in 2015 at New World Stages, a former movie house on the Hell's Kitchen site of the third Madison Square Garden. Nevermore is directed by the exceedingly thorough Justin Been with pitch-perfect longing and horror. Drew Mizell is terrific as the author of "The Raven," "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," and "The Fall of the House of Usher." And, though "The Raven" is the only one of these highlighted here, Poe was a pioneer of American literature with a childhood fascination for nightmarish imagery in this fictionalized account. He grows up with a yearning for love that was regularly thwarted by fate and by his own inner demons. The story is, nevertheless, lifted up by regular spells of stage magic–and by a driven, onstage ensemble that works even harder than its masterful leading man. Six very high quality actor/singers swirl around Mr. Mizell (who sings in a youthful higher register here) as his Poe goes from orphanhood to public school to the hardscrabble life of a struggling young writer. All along, Nevermore has the energy of a nightmare, furious and inescapable. It's a show that plays for keeps, though there are a dozen moments of beautiful tenderness, interspersed with scenes of thunderous terror. And it will make you glad to be alive in the 21st century, where the age of science seems to have finally outlasted most of the near-mythic cruelties of Poe's own time. Ensemble member Stephen Henley is relentless on stage in a variety of roles, and great as the poet's loving older brother Henry. Dawn Schmid is excellent as some of the author's love interests. An "Addams Family" sense of dark comedy fills the stage when Poe meets Elmira (Sara Rae Womack, a spooky doll-like figure), who's one of the girls he falls in love with. Romance blooms after she gleefully tells him the spine-tingling story of a woman buried alive. Stray Dog newcomers Michael Cox and Heather Fehl add perfect showmanship and antique melodrama without a whiff of fakery to the weird twinges of comedy and the crushing drama. The always-formidable Kevin O'Brien presents an entirely new character as Poe's adopted father, dealing out blessings and shouting out curses with a great Irish brogue: an implacable Brontë-esque Rochester of power and scorn. The mostly monochromatic costumes, 200-year-old hair and make-up styles (and the props, co-created with Mr. Been) were designed by Sarah Gene Dowling, including a great man-sized raven that glowers down from the mist upstage. There's also an occasional shade of red that emerges, as a mycobacterium stalks them all. And the strange, precise minor-key tonalities in the singing are heightened by music director Jennifer Buchheit. Tyler Duenow designed the dream-like light plot. And the foggy, spare set is designed by director Been. It's a Halloween masterpiece. I'm not sure if Poe's particular fate was sealed by the anguished music of his own life story, or by something deeper. Here he has the magical curse to hear it all, like a dark symphony. And his heightened awareness develops into a contagious madness. In any case, the artisans all around this production seem possessed by the same dark, driving spirits. They all become fierce 19th century heroes of the stage. Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe runs through November 2, 2024, at Tower Grove Abbey, 2336 Tennessee Avenue, St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.straydogtheatre.org. Cast: Production Staff: |
