May 16, 2006
Showing at 9:30pm until Saturday 20th May, this clever intertwining of three strands of Edgar Allan Poe’s distinctive Gothic horror is well conceived, effectively delivered and well worth a visit. Three performers present dramatised, interwoven readings of the short stories The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart and the poem The Raven and present the audience with madness, horror and hopelessness.
The seated cast – leather club-style armchairs, naturally – created believable and well-sustained characters. Particularly effective was the inter-cutting of three pieces of different length and tone. The desperate nervous madness of The Tell-Tale Heart was the perfect counterpoint to the matter-of-fact bloodthirsty detail of The Black Cat; the wistful loss of The Raven with its often repeated themes providing punctuation for the other pieces.
It is difficult to hold an audience with voice alone, or very nearly alone, and the three performers achieved this well with excellent pace, emotion and clarity. I am informed that a different cast will be performing this piece each evening – the first night’s performers have set a high standard with splendidly judged characterisation. Building and releasing tension, they slowly raised the pitch of excitement for the audience as focus moved rapidly between the three pieces. Repetition and occasional shared phrases added to this, as did well judged pauses.
The Burton Taylor is a small venue and ideal for an intimate piece such as this – the effect created, aided by sympathetic costume, lighting and sound, was of a Victorian after dinner story telling session – a clear nod to the author’s period. One slight question would concern the backdrop: a changing travelogue of pictures that seemed removed from the performances and could have been absent without detracting from the piece.
At forty five minutes the performance never loses pace and had me intrigued and involved from start to finish. Madness, murder, loss and horror – great combination – and it’s so nice to be read to!
The seated cast – leather club-style armchairs, naturally – created believable and well-sustained characters. Particularly effective was the inter-cutting of three pieces of different length and tone. The desperate nervous madness of The Tell-Tale Heart was the perfect counterpoint to the matter-of-fact bloodthirsty detail of The Black Cat; the wistful loss of The Raven with its often repeated themes providing punctuation for the other pieces.
It is difficult to hold an audience with voice alone, or very nearly alone, and the three performers achieved this well with excellent pace, emotion and clarity. I am informed that a different cast will be performing this piece each evening – the first night’s performers have set a high standard with splendidly judged characterisation. Building and releasing tension, they slowly raised the pitch of excitement for the audience as focus moved rapidly between the three pieces. Repetition and occasional shared phrases added to this, as did well judged pauses.
The Burton Taylor is a small venue and ideal for an intimate piece such as this – the effect created, aided by sympathetic costume, lighting and sound, was of a Victorian after dinner story telling session – a clear nod to the author’s period. One slight question would concern the backdrop: a changing travelogue of pictures that seemed removed from the performances and could have been absent without detracting from the piece.
At forty five minutes the performance never loses pace and had me intrigued and involved from start to finish. Madness, murder, loss and horror – great combination – and it’s so nice to be read to!