Macabre, malevolent and dripping with horror
Moonhawk Theatre present ‘Poe’ a well-paced piece that flips between the imaginative stories and tragic end of their writer. We are greeted by the eponymous namesake of our play ‘Edgar Allen Poe’ performed by Chris Bedford and in all honesty his naturalism and ease of performance through such a dark, figurative and highly imaginative piece is a joy to watch. Poe and the many protagonists he portrays feel visceral and real in each of their retellings. Some stand-out characters being the protagonists in the enactment of ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and ‘The Cask of Amontillado’. His performances felt truly like men trapped in the horrors they had created. Leon Witcomb and Michael Ward enhanced the performances well with Leon’s hapless and foolish Fortunato being a delight to watch stumbling blindly to his fate.
The show is enhanced wonderfully by some fantastic choices in tension building sound, the beating heart had the hairs on my neck standing on end. Some more abrasive use of sound is deployed along with strobe lighting to represent changes of scenes, while this did add to the tension and unease throughout the show it did become a little predictable and I could feel myself already physically tensing in preparation for this noise. In my opinion, as a lover of horror stories, the breaks between the retellings where we are given glimpses into Poe’s psyche were a little on the nose and verging slightly too far into surrealism. I cannot argue that they did keep me in a state of tension, which is the object of horror, but the stories we already adding excellently to this tension.
The choice of venue was very fitting for such a stripped back show. The Burton Taylor Studio is an intimate black box where neither actor nor audience has anywhere to hide… minus the make-shift wings created. But the space meant you felt as trapped as the characters in their stories, bearing witness to the decline of Poe and his twisted protagonists. The use of simple projections onto a white flat added remarkably to the scenes, particularly in ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’. For my own taste the projection of brain scans during the scenes of Poe’s figurative madness just came across as too blunt of a choice.
With only fifty minutes to pack in all they had, it was short but sweet, with so many crescendos to the end of each story. If the piece were longer, you’d leave feeling utterly exhausted. The team did well to keep the piece to the length they had.
The moments that felt beautifully poignant were Poe’s decline in their rendition of ‘The Raven’. Chris’s naturalism in this section worked wonders, seeing Poe’s failing mentality in a way that was both alarming and heart-rending.
Overall, I feel there were some truly stand-out moments to this show, there is a lot to like even if you already know the stories. There is a lack of tension building horror in theatre and seeing how words can build more fear and chilling atmosphere than any scene of gratuitous violence was a true pleasure. Whether you’re Goth or a good lover of theatre, this is worth the watch.