Fringe, Reviewed: Poe-a-Thon
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"Scary in the right ways."
[ theater ]
Poe-a-Thon, by Night Hawks
Attended: Mon., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., The Rotunda; closed Sept. 22
Features original short plays by three-time Arts Council recipient William Burrison and friends, experimental audio-visual interpretation of short Poe poems, with live music (piano, harp, flute) by Ross Lipton. Inspired by Poe, master of the “grotesque” and “humoresque.”
WE THINK:
Night Hawks began Poe-a-thon with a tale of 21st century cannibalism; technically, it wasn’t Poe, but “inspired by Poe, master of the ‘grotesque’ and ‘humoresque.’” Creepy, yet digestible (get it?), “We Don’t Do Such Things” set off the mood for an hour of five weird and weirdly funny plays.
The plays varied from straight theatrical interpretations of Poe stories, as in the William Burrison-adapted “The Cask of Amontillado,” to modern scenes with only whispers of Poe, such as “Last Writes,” about two women who share a waterlogged secret regarding the deaths of their husbands. The most Poe-y was play number four, “Poe Poetry Experiment,” a line-by-line back-and-forth of his poems, “The Raven,” “Annabel Lee” and “El Dorado.” Each line of death and wandering echoed through the dark Rotunda as the poet’s eerie portrait loomed above the audience, a specter of his own legacy.
The -a-thon portion of the title could have meant a tedious, long-lasting evening of the morbid, but Night Hawks kept it short and – certainly not sweet; juicy, maybe – and thankfully, scary in the right ways.
