First Folio Remounts The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe Thru 11/7

In response to audience requests, First Folio is remounting its world premiere show, The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story. Adapted for the stage by David Rice and directed by Michael Goldberg, Madness... brings Poe's macabre and melancholic tales & poems to life as audience members move from room to room. Poe and his beloved wife Virginia guide the audience through historic Mayslake Hall, taking their guests from the garrets to the dungeons and deep into the madness of Edgar Allan Poe. Tickets are available online at www.firstfolio.org or by calling the box office at 630-986-8067.

Edgar Allan Poe is not only one of America's greatest authors, but also one of its most tragic literary figures. In the course of his short life, he lost his mother, his step-mother, and his beloved wife/cousin Virginia all to the ravages of consumption (tuberculosis). Watching each of the women he loved die from this wasting disease helped fuel Poe's mania and drive his tales of death and lost love.

As they move throughout the mansion, audience members will experience such tales of madness as "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Pit and the Pendulum," "Ligeia," and "The Masque of the Red Death." Poe's own performances will include his poems of lost love and despair "The Bells" and "Annabelle Lee." The 2006 world premiere production was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Adaptation, and brought critical acclaim. The Chicago Tribune called it "melancholy and macabre...will change the audience's mind about Poe." The Daily Herald declared it to be "masterfully macabre and shrewdly directed" and TimeOut Chicago gave it four stars.

This year's production of Madness brings a new actor to the role of America's most famous writer, as John Sanders steps into the part of Edgar Allan Poe. A two-time Jeff Nominated actor, John has appeared in Oh Coward!, A Minister's Wife, and The Uneasy Chair at Writers' Theatre as well as Miss Saigoin with Drury Lane Oakbrook and Turn of the Century with the Goodman Theatre. John has just returned to Chicago after appearing as Sam Carmichael in the North American tour of Mamma Mia!

Returning as Poe's wife Virginia is Diane Mair, a graduate of Northwestern University, who has also appeared with Redmoon, Light Opera Works, and Emerald City Theatre. First Folio favorite Robert Allan Smith returns to the dual roles of the Madman in The Tell-Tale Heart and the Prisoner in The Pit and the Pendulum. Robert has been seen as Trinculo in First Folio's productions of The Tempest, as well as in productions of Hamlet, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Romeo and Juliet, and Much Ado About Nothing. Elsewhere in the Chicago area, Robert appeared in The Quiet Man Tales, as well as working with Noble Fool, TimeLine, Appletree, Bailiwick, and Lifeline, amongst others.

All performances take place in Mayslake Hall, a 30-room Tudor Revival style mansion originally built by coAl Baron Francis S. Peabody. Completed in 1922, the mansion is on the National Registry of Historic Places. Mayslake Hall is located on the grounds of the Mayslake Peabody Estate, which is owned and operated by the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. Located at 31st St. and Rt. 83 in Oak Brook, First Folio is easy to get to from either the East-West Tollway (I-88) or the Stevenson Expressway (I-55). Free parking is available on the grounds.
First Folio Theatre is supported in part by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency, and the DuPage Community Foundation.

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