H Street Playhouse (Washington, DC)
For the Halloween season, as well as the 200th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday, Scena Theatre presents a Poe Double Feature: the horror classic The Fall of the House of Usher, a story of insanity and premature burial, and the gothic masterpiece The Tell-Tale Heart, a suspenseful monologue by a murderer re-counting and reliving his terrible deed.
Event summary prepared by the Goldstar Editorial Team.
* Additional fees apply.
If I could use one word to describe both plays it would be awesome. I don’t know where to begin because everything was amazing. The acting was fabulous and although they all did a great job it’s necessary to give extra praise to David Bryan Jackson whose rendition of Edgar and Oswald in The House of Usher was nothing short of superb. The House of Usher had a really simple yet stunning set and both the wardrobe and sound effects helped set the mood of the play. There was a point at the end that was so intense that it gave me the chills.
The Tell Tale Heart consisted of one actor; know only as “the man” who retold the famous story. Although the play consisted of only the man and a chair he did an excellent job of drawing you into the story. I was sitting in the front row and am not accustomed to the actors making eye contact and when “the man” was telling the story he would stare right at you which was really creepy and added to the whole ambiance of the play.
Whether you’re a fan of Edgar Allen Poe’s work or not you should make it a point to go see these plays because you won’t be disappointed.
I can see how folks who left early might rate this lower, since I was not instantly enthralled from the first scene, but I did quickly buy-in to it once the story (including carefully dosed and well executed humor), Eric Messner's great voicing, and the descriptively bleak prose (presumably partly right from Poe?) got going. Straight through to the end of the Tell-Tale Heart monologue, the cast did a lot with very little in the way of staging (which was also an asset despite its simplicity.) Enjoying Poe in print is obviously largely about imagining, and appropriately so is this production. Despite a lot of DC theatergoing, I hadn't been to this theater before; I'll be back.
Excellent production, made even better by small intimate venue. Creative interpretations of Poe's works. Highly recommend.
Tips are provided by Goldstar members and SCENA Theatre. Goldstar is not responsible for their content or accuracy.
Website: http://www.scenatheater.org/
In addition to the regular show times, "Theatre Thanks" reception between the 11/28 performances. It's open-house style and will take place from 5pm (after the matinee) to 8pm, when the evening performance is schedule to start.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1840) is "a fantastical tale of the impossible that manifests the crumbling nature of Roderick Usher's inner decay….The moor's pestilential environment, the cry of the wind, ancient things groaning under the weight of age. A death, a resurrection". (Poe and Performance, Berkoff). Poe’s masterful story of insanity and premature burial lures us into a surreal and occult dream world, blurring the boundaries between life and death, body and soul, object and subject, beauty and decay where the supernatural is felt with traumatic intensity.
The Tell-Tale Heart (1834) is Poe’s masterfully composed tale of murder, a dramatic monologue by a murderer creating the utmost suspense by re-counting and reliving the deed - at the same time a psychological study of an abnormal consciousness.
Edgar Allan Poe (Author)
One of the most fascinating representatives of the “American Renaissance” and a prototype of the writer as Romantic outcast, Poe was born in Boston in 1809. Poe’s essays The Philosophy of Composition (1846) and The Poetic Principle (1850) are considered pivotal texts for modern literary theory. Poe's life has attracted as much attention as his writing, and he has been variously pictured as a sado-masochist, dipsomaniac, drug addict and manic depressive. In 1836 he married his then 14 year old cousin, Virginia, who died of tuberculosis eleven years later. Devastated by her death, Poe lamented: "I became insane, with long intervals of sanity. During these fits of absolute unconsciousness...I drank...my enemies referred the insanity to the drink, rather than the drink to the insanity".
Steven Berkoff (Playwright/Adaptor)
Born in 1937, Steven Berkoff is a British actor, director and playwright. His memorable villainous roles in "A Clockwork Orange” "Octopussy" and "Rambo" made him a popular film actor. He is also a very prolific playwright, mostly known for his stage adaptations of European classics of Kafka and Aeschylus. Other Berkoff plays include East, West, Sink the Belgrano!, and Decadence. His provocative “in your face” performance style have made Berkoff a much discussed and controversial figure in contemporary British (and European) Theatre.
Scena Theatre (with the possible exception of the Kennedy Center) is Washington's premier institution bringing the best in international theatre to Washington DC and stimulating cultural exchange between local and international theatre artists. Founded in 1987 under the leadership of Artistic Director Robert McNamara and Managing Director Amy Schmidt, Scena produces an annual season of plays, a Workshop Series aimed at developing new work from around the world, special events, and the Washington International Theatre Festival, staged each year at venues throughout the city.
