Once upon an evening, dreary, Nevermore proved brilliantly eerie

This year's Magnetic North Canadian Theatre Festival at the NAC featured a range of interesting plays and different theatrical companies, each showing off what makes them unique.  Upon reading the line-up for the festival, it did not take long to get a feel for the type of writing the festival would feature this year.  From works incorporating aerial choreography, musicals and historical accounts, the festival definitely boasted a variety of playwrights and creativity.  One play  stuck out from the rest: Nevermore: The Imaginary life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe.

The play began with its subject, Edgar Allan (Scott Shpeley), adorned in what would be his only costume for the performance: a black and white stripped vest, puffy sleeved dress shirt, black pantaloons, and what appears to be the hoops from a hoop skirt.  The chorus, featuring Shannon Blanchet, Sheldon Elter, Beth Graham, Ryan Parker, Garett Ross, and Vanessa Sabourin, set the mood with a chilling epilogue, preparing us for what would be quite a creepy tale.  Making reference to a prop book throughout the play, they took us on an entire journey of a mysterious and imaginative biography of Edgar Allan Poe.

The main character spoke the least of the entire cast, but his actions and subtle facial expressions kept the audience's focus, never drifting away from its attention or falling into the background.  The same can be said for each of the cast members, for each of them played a separate character in the production, and then alternated as part of the chorus or, in this case, the narrators of the story.  Each character they created was unique and identifiable with their consistent and thoughtful movements, voices, oversized gestures and costumes.

Though the play had no true set, just a simple screen as the backdrop to add a bit of dimension, the use of lighting, costumes and hundreds of musical cues were more than enough to make up for the absence. These elements were each used in such a brilliant way that no set changes were ever needed. The set was left up to the imagination of the audience. The dark lighting, eerie musical tones, and the descriptive narration given by the chorus set the tone.  Each actor's voice was so remarkable when both playing his or her character and as part of the chorus.  The narrating was done with more pungent, striking and creepy wording, while their characters would sing their songs in appropriately happy, tormented, demented, or twisted ways, each to suit the needs and purposes of their stage personas.  Edgar's character voice seemed relatively meek for a figure that has often been portrayed elsewhere as mad and tortured, yet Shpeley's performance was consistently childlike and reactive, almost as if Allan was apologetic for his sequential unfortunate life events.

Stills from Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland, Courtesy of Disney

It was not simply a frightening tale meant to send everyone away with nightmares though; it also focused on a lot of comic interplay with the odd joke, the over exaggerations of every movement of the characters and the sometimes oversized props, including Allan's cat that was actually double the size of Allan himself.

The creation of the play, from the writing to the hand-made costumed involved an almost unimaginable amount of talent.  The writer, director, and composer Jonathan Christenson was able to create an impeccable story, incorporating over ten of Poe's written works, including his ever-famous 'The Raven,' and compiled it into something coherent, enjoyable and, incredibly, rhyming. Just as the title indicates, the production was mysterious and imaginative and readily kept the audience's attention.  If the chance ever comes about to view the play again, I would definitely recommend it to anyone --  just to be ready to view such an unique spectacle, put together by few extremely talented individuals.

. . .  And the audience, upon watching stood up in joyous roar,
For the artwork -- Nevermore

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