BWW Reviews: Mystery of Poet's Death Unresolved in POE

Poe

Written and Directed by Eric Hill; Scenic Designer, Carl Sprague; Costume Designer, David Murin; Lighting Designer, Matthew E. Adelson; Composition and Sound Designer, J. Hagenbuckle; Stage Manager, Peter Durgin

CAST: David Adkins, Madeline Calandrillo, Kate Maguire, Brian E. Plouffe, J. Andrew Young

Performances through October 26 at Berkshire Theatre Group, The Unicorn Theatre, 6 East Street, Stockbridge, MA; Box Office 413-298-5576 or www.berkshiretheatregroup.org

Edgar Allan Poe, born in Boston in1809, was honored last week with the unveiling of a statue near the Boston Common. Coincidentally, Berkshire Theatre Group is currently staging the world premiere of Poe by Eric Hill at the Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA, imagining the last days of the writer before his untimely death in Baltimore in 1849. Known for his gothic and mysterious poems and short stories, it is ironic that his own demise has been shrouded in mystery and the cause of death subject to wide speculation and dispute. What is factual is that Poe was found unconscious in Baltimore outside of Gunner's Hall and Tavern on the evening of election day and died four days later in the hospital. How it came to pass provokes the playwright's curiosity.

As a character study and discourse on the life of the poet and short story writer, Poe is illuminating to the uninitiated; as a play, it lacks plot and suffers from inertia. Set in the basement tavern room of Gunner's Hall on election day, the proprietor Connor (J. Andrew Young) and the young barmaid Maggie (Madeline Calandrillo) are preparing for the expected onslaught of customers. After hearing her trying to memorize Poe's poem "Ulalume" for school, the boss engages Maggie in lengthy, expository conversation about Poe's parents and early life; frequently quoting her teacher, she speaks glowingly of Poe, while Connor thinks his work is too macabre for the American public. Suddenly, Poe slinks in through the side door, thrilling the starry-eyed girl, while vexing the barkeep with his incessant requests for libation and a thirst nearly impossible to slake. Poe and Connor's late father had been drinking buddies, which fuels the poet's pleas for hospitality, but does nothing to endear the visitor to the son.

In the title role, David Adkins breathes life into the man and draws us in with his portrayal, but cannot pump enough oxygen to inflate the entire script. As much as Poe's dialogue provides a portal into his manipulative soul (and Adkins plays it to the hilt with nuance and brio), Hill writes Connor into a rigid corner where he keeps repeating the same message, that being his disdain for Poe. Young can't do much more than appear frustrated until the closing moments of the play when Connor softens and discloses a plan to Maggie that seems to come out of nowhere for his character. Calandrillo strikes the right tone for an educated young girl meeting the celebrated poet, gushing with awe while struggling to restrain her excitement in front of stern looks from her boss.

Berkshire Theatre Group Artistic Director/CEO Kate Maguire plays Mrs. O'Donnell, the cook and former actress who also has a fondness for Poe. After bringing him his breakfast, she takes the opportunity to perform for him (and the rest of the kitchen help) a haunting recitation of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." With the lights dim and the ensemble circled around her in rapt attention, the audience is captured by the spell she casts simply by raising and lowering her voice and increasing the pace of her words as the deep pounding of a heartbeat grows louder and faster in our ears. When the spell is suddenly broken, it only takes a moment to realize that the most dramatic scene in the play was written by Poe himself.

The design aesthetic of Poe succeeds in conveying the era and the darkness of the the writer's body of work. Scenic designer Carl Sprague uses dark woods for the flooring, the bar, and the shelves behind the bar, and suspends soiled sheets resembling parchment pages above the set. The lighting by Matthew E. Adelson is often muted, creating an aura of mystery, and J. Hagenbuckle inserts poignant cello music at scene changes, as well as claps of thunder that we can feel as well as hear. The colors in the costumes by David Murin are also appropriately muted, and the style details are representative of the fashions of the 1840s. Would that the script worked as well. Hill's direction feels uneven, but it is difficult to discern whether he needs to pick up the pace, or if the weight of his script won't allow it to move along at a faster tempo. Poe is ninety minutes in length (performed without an intermission), but it is a long ninety minutes.

Photo credit: Christina Riley ( Kate Maguire and the cast of Poe)

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