2003-2004 Season

NEW CLASSICS FOR THE STAGE


Written by Jeffrey Hatcher
Adapted from the stories of Edgar Allan Poe

Murder By Poe weaves together four Edgar Allan Poe tales into a tapestry of revenge, suicide, obsession and murder … where the psychological and the supernatural swirl together in a brew only the father of the classic horror story could concoct.

Poe’s is a world peopled with translucent aristocrats, desperate murderers, dapper detectives, charming rakes, and sloe-eyed seductresses. Killers concoct perfect crimes only to be unmasked by their own fear and guilt. These are stories of obsession, crime, and punishment, leavened by sardonic wit and romantic passion, love and death entwined.

Murder By Poe takes place in a remote mansion on a dark and stormy night … a traveler arrives seeking shelter and encounters four others who have found their way to this desolate place. As they wait out the storm, each tells how they came to be in this same room. Each of their stories has to do with murder.

Glenn Peters in Murder By Poe. Photo by Richard Termine for The Acting Company
 		   In The Tell Tale Heart, a landlord with an accusing eye is buried beneath his tenant's floorboards, his heart seeming to beat long after his death.

In The Black Cat, a mewing feline reveals its missing owner behind a brick wall.

The Murders in the Rue Morgue introduces the first "serial killer" to modern fiction in a tale made famous by a certain street in Paris.

The Mystery of Marie Roget places one of New York's great-unsolved mysteries in the hands of Poe's raconteur, Auguste Dupin, the precursor of Holmes, Poirot, and Columbo.

As the play unfolds, we realize that the traveler is looking for the killer, here, in this house.

A meditation on mystery, creativity, love, and death … the evening ends as the identities of the travelers are revealed, as is the location of the brooding house they have inhabited.

Noted playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has been commissioned by The Acting Company to bring Poe's tales of the macabre to life. This dynamic new play based on the works of one of America's most popular authors is a world premiere presentation.

Murder By Poe continues The Acting Company’s efforts of commissioning, developing and producing new plays based on great American literature. Following powerful and successful productions of Willa Cather’s O Pioneers! (2000-01), Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson (2001-02), and Studs Terkel's American Dreams: Lost and Found (2002-03).  Murder By Poe brings to the stage the work of one of our most powerful contemporary American writers. This production will be joined in touring repertory by one of Shakespeare’s timeless masterpieces, Richard III.

 
 

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