More than with most writers, it is difficult to separate thelife and art of Edgar Allan Poe. Where did his sense of reality end?Where did his dreams begin? Was he simply a man condemned to pace,pace, pace along that perilous parapet that stretches between geniusand madness? (Apologies, Edgar.) Or was he a certifiableparanoid-schizophrenic, chasing his own tail - or tales?
Poe's bizarre and haunted work, and his equally strange andtroubled life, have long been the subject of speculation, and anendless source of fascination. And Christina Calvit's exceptionallyclever theater piece, "Purloined Poe," which received its worldpremiere last night at Lifeline Theatre, feeds most successfully onhis wonderfully warped world.
Calvit (whose previous work at Lifeline has included excellentadaptations of "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Lion, the Witch and theWardrobe"), has created a mirrorlike puzzlebox of a play in whichPoe, and the characters in his stories, become hopelesslyintertwined, never completely knowing whether they are fictions cometo life, or real life that is uncannily imitating their creator's ownfiction. In other words, she has created a play that perfectlycaptures the spirit of Poe's twisted mind - a place where the sublimelogic and rationality of the writer's detective character, C. AugusteDupin, can match wits with the visionary, poetic Poe.
The play is set, most appropriately, in a small, bare, charcoalgray room, where doors open abruptly, and ladders go nowhere, andwindows are sealed shut. The eerie, claustrophobic environment,designed and lit to perfection by Peter Gottlieb, suggests a prisoncell, or an apartment in the kind of grim rooming house where Poeprobably spent many years of his penniless, alcoholic adulthood.Above all, it hints at the mysterious landscape of the human brainand the subconscious.
Calvit uses Poe's rather straightforward detective story,"Murders in the Rue Morgue," as her jumping-off point, and thenmasterfully weaves in other stories, including "William Wilson" (thetale of a man so obsessed by his alter ego that he kills him, andthus himself), and "Ligeia" (the story of a man, like Poe, whosebeloved wife dies and whose second wife comes back to haunt him). Inbetween, there are samples of his poetry, including a beautifullystaged version of "The Raven," and excerpts from his theory ofpoetics, as well as original scenes involving his landlords, thewomen in his life, his drinking companions and his publisher.
Meryl Friedman has directed this complex piece offiction-within-fiction with great panache, though her cast varieswidely in levels of skill and polish. In the all-important role ofPoe, however, Eric Haugen is quite fine - capturing the writer'sindecipherable mixture of charlatanism and true madness, as well asmatching his dark, brooding appearance. Brian Parry is properlyprecise and Watsonlike as Dupin, and Sandy Snyder has all the rightpatrician graces as Sarah Whitman. Special applause to Haugen andScott Lowell (as William Wilson), for risking their necks in theperilous climactic duel, choreographed by David Woolley. Onemisstep, and they would be nevermore.
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