THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER Comes to the Players' Ring Theatre

Thrill-seeking Portsmouth Halloween Parade goers are invited to end their spooky night at the Players’ Ring Theatre for an exciting adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of The House of Usher,” by Jack Neary who also directs the play that opens on Oct. 31 at 9 p.m.

The play, reinvented as a detective thriller set in Boston in the 1930s, will then run Thursdays and weekends through Nov. 17. 

James Brookfield (played by Tommy Carnes), an up-and-coming writer from New York City, is invited to the Boston home of his childhood friend, Roderick Usher (Joe Couturier), to “chronicle the evolution” of the House of Usher. What begins as a pleasant distraction from the busy hubbub of New York’s literary circles turns into a maelstrom of horror when Brookfield realizes that the life of Usher’s sister, Madeline (Jocelyn Duford), as well as his own, are in terrible danger.

Neary said the adaptation of Poe’s novella was requested by the then-publisher of the now-defunct Baker's Plays in Boston more than 20 years ago. When Baker's closed, it moved to Samuel French/Concord Theatricals.

Neary’s production was introduced at the Summer Theatre at Mount Holyoke College, an Equity theatre, in 1999. It has since been produced a number of times, most notably by a company in Australia, which sent him photos of what appeared to be a stunning production.

Ironically, Poe visited Neary’s hometown of Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1840s.

“Well, as hard as it must be to believe, I wasn't around then,” Neary joked. “Had I been, I'm sure Eddie wouldn't have had any interest in talking to me, unless he were interested in baseball, which was invented only the year before, in 1839. That's all I know about, really.” 

Neary decided to set the adaptation in Boston, a location familiar to contemporary audiences.

“The short story is very dense, loaded with florid language and imagery that needs to be interpreted in order to be appreciated,” Neary said. 

“Interpretations, of course, can vary wildly, and there have been a number of film and stage adaptations offered over the years,” he added. “For my adaptation, I thought it might be a fun and interesting idea to audiences with at least an awareness of the culture and history of the first half of the 20th Century. Also, I'm a fan of the old Warner Bros. films from the 1930s, which relied on sharp dialogue and intriguing storytelling.”

If any audience members are Poe aficionados, they should walk into the theatre with an open mind, and see if they can detect Poe's intention in this re-telling of his story, Neary said. 

“As I mentioned, the story itself is very dense,” he added. “I think dense is death in theatre. I like to think this adaptation touches all the bases of the story, but remains accessible to a theatre audience. There are elements of the play invented by me to enhance and clarify the horror Poe created. The horror is not supernatural. It is psychological, and thus, I think, even more horrible.”

Neary is excited to be working with what he calls an “extraordinarily talented cast.”

“I don't use the word ‘extraordinarily’ lightly’,” he said.  “This is an extremely challenging story to tell, and the players need to be superlative, and at the top of their games. I know the Ring audience will not be let down. This is a wonderful cast.”

 

The cast includes John Budzyna, Thomas Carnes, Joe Couturier, Jocelyn Duford, Kate Gilbert, Ed Simeone and Sammi Soprano.

The crew includes Jack Neary as director; Deirdre Budzyna, stage manager; Kirk Trach, set design and construction; Meredith Prato, costume design; Jon Moriarty, lighting design; Jordan Formichelli, props design; Michaela Pride, sound design and Cassie Foote as intimacy choreographer.

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