A
music theatre exploration of the life, works and strange death of Edgar Allan
Poe, master of the macabre. Music Paul Flush and
THE MYSTERY OF POE is
a new music theatre exploration of the life and works of the greatest writer of
Gothic horror: Edgar Allen Poe. Poe disappeared for the week before his death.
His end has remained mysterious: the circumstances leading up to it are
uncertain and the cause of death is disputed. On October 3, Poe was found
delirious lying in the streets on election day wearing someone else's clothing
in the streets of Baltimore "in great distress, and ... in need of immediate
assistance" He was taken to hospital but died on Sunday,
October 7 1849. The master of the macabre contrived to make his own end as
grim and mysterious as any he invented in his gruesome tales. This mystery is
the framework for the new production - weaving together biographical fact and
new fiction, with live music, dance poetry and drama. The
production includes full dramatisations of the great stories of THE FALL OF THE
HOUSE OF USHER and the SYSTEM OF DR TAR AND PROFESSOR FETHER. These two stories
have music at their dark heart and so provide ideal scope for a new music
theatre work. Director/writer Paul Stebbings combines with poet Grantly
Marshall, composer /instrumentalists Paul Flush and
Brief synopsis of MYSTERY OF POE
Baltimore 1849 a distressed young woman enters a police station in the midst of a violently contested election. Her husband has vanished – the famous writer Edgar Allan Poe. The inspector asks about the missing man – and the author’s wife explains who he is and his state of mind – in doing so gradually her description merges with the telling of a tale that represents his work – THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER - the police are enthralled – and set out to find the missing man. Act two sees the deranged and weirdly dressed Poe found – half alive – he is taken to a hospital which he confuses in his mind with the psychiatric hospital in the STRANGE CASE OF DR FETHER AND PROESSOR TAR. Which is replayed in his mind – and in performance.
The Police and the author’s wife arrive at the Baltimore hospital as Poe is on the edge of death where it is revealed that this woman is not his real wife but his first wife- the love of his life – who died young and has come to take him with her to the grave. That was always her mission - which is revealed as his second, living wife, rushes to the bedside – too late to save the doomed author from the deathly embrace of his long lost love.
This company offers true music theatre Classical Music Magazine, London
Forget the big operas,
Paul Stebbings and
Would that theatre and music were always such charmed companions - Yorkshire Post UK
Highly effective and charismatic theatre – Village Voice New York.