{"id":341435,"date":"2023-04-17T05:25:21","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T09:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/?p=341435"},"modified":"2023-04-17T05:25:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T09:25:21","slug":"poe-musical-nevermore-is-a-gothically-good-time-at-stillpointe-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dctheaterarts.org\/2023\/04\/17\/poe-musical-nevermore-is-a-gothically-good-time-at-stillpointe-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Poe musical ‘Nevermore’ is a gothically good time at Stillpointe Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is easy to turn down a Baltimore corner to find historical markers denoting an event from Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s life, career, love, and death \u2014 from the family home where he met his wife, to the last tavern he was seen alive in, to two<\/em> graves (very fitting for a man so obsessed with death). And it\u2019s even easier to find allusions to his name and literary works in everything ranging from Baltimore\u2019s ice cream flavors and bumper stickers to the titles of many locally owned businesses throughout the city. Even the football team refers to Poe\u2019s most famous poem: \u201cThe Raven.\u201d When my best friend from grad school visited recently, she was delighted that Baltimore\u2019s mascot was a literary figure. How many other cities can boast that?<\/p>\n

Baltimore\u2019s macabre son returns home in the musical Nevermore, <\/em>its Baltimore premiere at Stillpointe Theatre, closing out the company\u2019s 13th \u201cSpooky\u201d Season. First commissioned by Signature Theatre in Arlington, Nevermore <\/em>had its world premiere on January 15, 2006. (It\u2019s also been revived in the region more recently by Creative Cauldron in the 2018\/19 season.)<\/p>\n

In the playbill, composer Matt Conner shares that he visited many of the above Poe-centric sites, walking in the tortured footsteps of the poet and short story writer, trying to understand the method behind Poe\u2019s madness. What Conner and librettist Grace Barnes uncover is a brilliant man haunted by spirits \u2014 the multiple decanters of whiskey he imbibes during the 90-minute musical but also the women of his life, from mothers to lovers to sex workers.<\/p>\n

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Bobby Libby as Edgar Allan Poe in \u2018Nevermore.\u2019 Photo by Meghan Taylor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Directed by Stillpointe Theatre\u2019s Ryan Haase, choreographed by Amanda Rife, with musical direction by Ben Shaver, Nevermore <\/em>is a fantastical and fun study of the great American gothic writer with dedicated performances and a wonderfully ghastly design. It\u2019s also a musical biopic very heavy-handed on the psychoanalytic treatment of its subject.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase Freud: sometimes a raven is just a raven.<\/p>\n

As Edgar, Bobby Libby throws himself into the role. We\u2019ve all seen the photographs and caricatures of Poe with his melancholic, baggy eyes, expansive forehead, wisps of dark hair and mustache, and his impeccable suiting \u2014 a haunted man of the mind. (And this is a moment to note Danielle Robinette\u2019s role doing makeup and hair to make Libby appear like this famously dour writer.) Libby also makes Poe a man of the flesh \u2014 drinking excessively, gambling, whoring, and psychologically abusive \u2014 whose crisp baritone sinks us to despair while his clear tenor always hints at the man Poe was unable to become: loved and happy.<\/p>\n

Like Poe\u2019s works, the musical is heavy on Freudian imagery and misogyny \u2014 the Oedipal complex, the madonna\u2013whore dichotomy, beautiful maidens not long for this horrible world, men embalmed alive in dark holes and pits because of their desires. In Poe\u2019s sinister and solipsistic worldview, all his troubles \u2014 his alcoholism, his despair, and his chaotic writing career \u2014 are the faults of the women in his life. The musical tries to tease out these threads, to interrogate Poe\u2019s psyche and relationships, but it often ends up repeating Poe\u2019s own beliefs.<\/p>\n

For example, Poe\u2019s ghostly mother, played like a fairytale stepmother by Kristen Zwobot, is cold and dismissive toward her son, but Poe\u2019s mother died when he was only a toddler. He has never known this cruel woman before him, but she brutally tells him that he is searching for her in the eyes of every sex worker he pays for.<\/p>\n

The other women in Poe\u2019s life include Elmira \u2014 his first love, played as a buoyant belle by Christine Demuth; the bright soprano and youthful playfulness of Caitlin Weaver becomes Poe\u2019s 13-year-old cousin\/wife Virginia; Virginia\u2019s apprehensive mother and a mother-proxy for Poe, Muddy, is powerfully performed by Kay-Megan Washington; and Rachel Blank, with her raspy alto, plays The Whore. As the play does not move in chronological order and all the women wear similar black and white costumes that nod toward the early Victorian era designed with a sense of Tim Burtonesque whimsy by Kitt Crescenzo \u2014 long tulle skirts, corseted waists, black parasols, and embellishments of raven feathers \u2014 we are to see how these different women become confused and conflated in Poe\u2019s heart.<\/p>\n

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Bobby Libby (Edgar), Rachel Blank (The Whore), Kay-Megan Washington (Muddy), Caitlin Weaver (Virginia), Kristen Zwobot (Mother), and Christine Demuth (Elmira) in \u2018Nevermore.\u2019 Photo by Meghan Taylor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, in Poe\u2019s world, even the real-life flesh-and-blood women are not their own beings but are reduced to archetypes: virgin, lover, mother, whore, corpse\/ghost. They exist to abandon or torment him, but also to inspire or impede his writing. Poe composes worshipful poems to his late mother and love letters to Elmira, he woos his child-bride Virginia by telling her scary bedtime stories such as \u201cThe Pit and the Pendulum\u201d and \u201cThe Cask of Amontillado,\u201d and his hired lover sings \u201cEldorado\u201d to him.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it is a gothically good time, especially when Poe\u2019s own lyrical poems are set to music. The musical opens with Poe drinking and dying his ignominious death in a Baltimore ditch, while the specters of his women sing his poem \u201cThe Bells.\u201d The prophetic poem that seems to foretell Virginia\u2019s death from consumption, \u201cAnnabelle Lee,\u201d and the macabre favorite \u201cThe Raven\u201d are also performed in their entirety.<\/p>\n

The simple set in Area 405, an old warehouse, lets the decay of industrial design \u2014 exposed pipes, corrugated metal flooring, steel beams \u2014 and the occasional flourishes added by Haase \u2014 blue lighting, a velvet sofa, a writing desk, candles suspended in birdcages, Persian rugs underfoot, and a sprinkling of raven\u2019s feathers \u2014 add to the dreamlike atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The music, orchestrated by Jonathan Tunik, is romantic and atmospheric as performed onstage by a suite of local musicians, rotating through different performances: Naomi Schneller Zajic (violin), Allen Hicks (viola), Billy Georg (keyboard\/percussion), and Kara Welch (harp); Ben Shaver conducts and plays keyboard. (Laura Stokes, David Zajic, Stacey Antoine, and Jae Anthonee perform on some evenings.)<\/p>\n

While Nevermore<\/em> does not really shine a light on Poe\u2019s tormented mind, it is an engaging ode to the melancholic and whimsical works of one of America\u2019s great literary figures and the unofficial mascot of Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.<\/p>\n

Nevermore<\/em><\/strong><\/a> plays through May 6, 2023 (weekends only), presented by Stillpointe Theatre<\/a> performing at Area 405 \u2013 405 East Oliver Street, Baltimore, MD. For tickets ($25\u2013$45), please visit here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The program for Nevermore <\/em>is online here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevermore<\/em><\/strong>
\nMusic by Matt Conner
\nBook by Grace Barnes
\nSource Material by Edgar Allan Poe<\/p>\n