Theatre Obscura LA’s “Poe: Pulse & Pendulum” closes this weekend at The Count’s Den, DTLA
Theatre Obscura LA stages an immersive, blindfolded evening of adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe. Playing through April 12th at The Counts’s Den, DTLA.
It's almost certain that pre-civil war-era Edgar Allan Poe, in his daze of ale and illicit drugs would never have dreamed of the popularity his work would one day attain. Being myself a former denizen of Richmond, VA, one of Poe’s favorite cities, and after visiting his gravesite in Baltimore, Maryland during the pandemic, I have seen first-hand, that the curators and caretakers of the works, life, and mystery that is Edgar Allan Poe, are still busy keeping his legacy and writings thriving and well-produced in today’s dark and dystopian world. With his nightmarishly colored prose and vividly etched imagery however, Poe’s works are almost too beautiful to compare with the modern horrors of our often uncertain, psychologically bristled society. Still, you will always find a stratum of the people who wish to escape, ever-so briefly, into the romantically gothic and vividly splattered stories of the true master of horror. In the United States alone, there are somewhere around 250 Poe-ductions, currently having runs of some sort.
Like the works of William Shakespeare, the works of Edgar Allan Poe often find themselves being structured outside their original prose or poetry genres. Often performed in different historical periods, as staged readings, modernized, ambiguously cast, or as radio dramas, Poe has crafted a litany of works that are rife with the potential for reimagination. This brings us to a recent adaptation by Director, Paul Millet entitled, Poe: Pulse & Pendulum, being produced at the Count’s Den in DTLA by Theatre Obscura LA. The interactive performance room is a cozy, mysterious Victorian parlor, where the audience is blindfolded throughout, relying only upon Poe’s words, the soundscape and the theatre-goer’s imagination. Consisting of The Pit and the Pendulum, with Melissa Lugo (The Recusant), followed by The Tell-Tale Heart, with the voices of Eric Keitel (Edward), Richard Large (Stephen), Andrew Thatcher (Officer Charles Dupin) and Andrew Villareal (Officer Francis Auguste), there is one intermission between the two stories.
First up in the dark and right on the money was The Pit and the Pendulum (directed by Paul Millet). Its disturbingly realistic sound effects were quite jarring, and the physical accompaniments, albeit inconsistent, were quite effective. On the evening I saw the piece, Melissa Lugo’s “Recusant” does more to hammer home the horror, with a masterfully frenzied voice, her reading is quite mesmerizing and, at least to my ear, partially miked. This not only worked for volume, but for separating the actor from the voice, with the echo adding needed depth for the “pit.” In The Tell-Tale Heart (directed by Gabrieal Griego), I wasn’t lost in the story as much as I was lost in the desire to remove my blindfold and watch the action firsthand, which was taking place at a fever pitch throughout the room. Unlike Pit, the fully staged Heart, without the benefit of mic effects to separate the voices from the action, was begging to be seen. Eric Keitel’s Edward (named for this production) is heavy on the harsh vocal, with a delightful decent into madness that seems to happen far too soon. As for the character of the old man (named Stephen for this production), since (spoilers) we are unable to “see” the maddening effects of his “eye,” Richard Large’s performance is simply too likable to want to destroy, let alone cut up into little bitty pieces and shove under the floorboards. I would have rather had tea with him, which does point out the “eyepatch” hole in Poe's story. For their parts, Andrew Thacher and Andrew Villareal are quite effective as the two police officers, and the climax of the piece is again, effective to a point.
While I applaud adaptor, Paul Millet and Theatre Obscura LA for an often fun and interesting evening, to this viewer, neither piece went far enough to trap me in the harrowing world of “Poe in the dark.” For a production relying nearly solely on sound, Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski’s sound design is spot-on for The Pit and the Pendulum, but for The Tell-Tale Heart, it’s arguable that the piece lacks the sound effects within the text itself to fully transplant the audience into the dark world of what, perhaps, a live folly operator might have added. I did find the limited “physical trickery” to this production to be effective, but for a show that promised “smell” as well, there was none to be had and plenty of opportunities. I appreciated the risk and consider Millet to be one previously mentioned caretakers of Poe’s work, I only wish Poe: Pulse & Pendulum had descended much further down into Poe’s creepy, maddening world. I look forward to seeing what he and Theatre Obscura LA are up to next.
***Please note that this production also includes Joe Camareno as “The Recusant” in The Pit and the Pendulum.
If you are a fan of Poe and his works, the trip downtown to Olive St. might just be up your alley. Poe: Pulse & Pendulum continues April 10th, 11th and 12th at 8pm with no late seating. Performed at The Count’s Den, 1039 S. Olive Street, DTLA. For ticket’s visit: Theatre Obscura LA.