NEVERMORE written and directed by Jonathan Christenson (Catalyst Theatre/Luminato). At the Winter Garden Theatre (189 Yonge). June 11-13, Thursday-Saturday 7:30 pm, matinee Saturday 2:30 pm. $40-$50. 416-872-1111 luminato.com. See listing.
Edgar Allan Poe has haunted us for 200 years with stories and poems that suggest horror rather than push it in our faces.
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Poe’s life and writings so fascinate Catalyst Theatre’s artistic director, Jonathan Christenson, that he’s developed Nevermore, a blend of physical theatre, text and song. In it, Christenson and company explore the parallels between Poe’s biography and his work.
“I’m drawn to writers who walk the tightrope between polarities. In Poe, tragedy becomes comedy, the beautiful becomes grotesque and the most desirable things change into the most horrifying,” says the writer/director from his theatre’s Edmonton home.
“He constantly blurs the line between fact and fiction, dreams and reality, life and death that’s true of his work as well as his life. In fact, I’d argue that the two are inseparable, for all of his writing is part of an effort to exorcise his own demons.”
Nevermore – part of the refrain in The Raven – uses a choral ensemble to trace Poe’s life from his birth in a theatrical family to an unexplained disappearance shortly before his death. Mixed in are dream sequences that draw on such familiar works as The Telltale Heart and Annabel Lee.
We’ll get to see more of Catalyst Theatre’s exploration of the Gothic next season, when Canadian Stage presents the company’s production of Frankenstein.
“Fear and horror are part of Poe’s writing,” says Christenson, “and what he hopes to evoke is visceral and spine-tingling. At other times he seems to have his tongue in his cheek. Our task is to capture both feelings for the audience. He had a tragic life, but Nevermore has a playful quality, too.”
Christenson thinks of Nevermore as an adult storybook.
“It has the kind of directness we experienced when we were told stories as children. I want to bypass the intellectual engagement of the audience and try to involve them directly in a world of play that a child could appreciate.”
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
