An Evening with Poe

"Imagine a moonlit night, the towering pines surrounding Mount Hope cast a mysterious shadow upon the sandstone fortress.  An expressionless servant invites you inside.  The year is 1849.  While Walking one night through the dark and dreary streets of Baltimore, Mr. Edgar Allan Poe falls into a rabid coma and wakes to find himself, along with a handful of his most bizarre characters, in an Asylum in the South of France." 

That's the description of the "experience" (not show) as posted on www.parenfaire.com.  

While I wasn't completely teleported into the past, it was the absolute perfect night for such an event.  There was a torrential downpour earlier in the day.  The night was immersed in a frosty chill.  The sky, a deepest shade of "pitch".   And it was in Pennsylvania.  Though places ending in "sylvania" have their own variety of spook, this place has a unique way of keeping the past frozen in time.  It's eerily colonial.  

When you walk into the mansion, and you enter... an experience.  Immediately, you are encountered by the asylum "inmates".  They are in full, unbreakable character and pretty entertaining.  The "head nurse" takes your tickets with a mug like clay pressed with the Creator's hands to fit the part.  

The group is then divided into three parts and sent to separate rooms.  The first one we went to was for an enactment of "The Tell Tale Heart", by a female, surprisingly.  Her performance was amazing.   She kept accessing all of this raw emotion and it filled her face undeniably.  The rhythm of her passionate and crazed monologue was guided by precision and was more enveloping as a result.

Then we went into a room resembling a study where and OCD character recited Poe's "Berenice".  The prose was so wordy and long winded with a speedy execution that it was hard for me to follow.  The wine from dinner didn't help either, I'm sure.  However, I was overtaken by this guy's gestures.  I would not be surprised if he really had OCD.  His eyes also bulged randomly which lent to the characters awkward desperation.  Overall, a good job.

Lastly, we entered the room where "Poe" and an unnamed female character performed "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether".  Their chemistry was entertaining and the sound effects were well timed, which always helps.  

Afterwards, some poems were recited.  One of the especially demented inmates performed "The Bells" with a strong variety of vocal tones.  For me, he stole the show.  He conveyed the downward development and increasingly haunting message of "The Bells" remarkably.  At one point, I thought he was... a bell.   

Following that was Poe's performance of "The Raven".   It seemed to be fueled with the inspiration of last performance of the season but more inspiring was what he said afterwards when he addressed the audience.  He thanked us for supporting the oral tradition and being part of its continuation.  He also encouraged us to reach out to others with it; to approach children and tell them a story or sing them a song or just share a joke because they will remember it and even if they laugh at you, they will appreciate it later.  He closed by saying -

"Be brave for them.  Share of yourselves.  They need you."