Following an award-winning, sell-out run in the United States and Canada, Edgar In The Red Room has arrived at the Hope Theatre in Islington. The intimate theatre is the perfect home for a dark musical, but audiences shouldn’t arrive expecting a straightforward retelling of the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe.
From the outset, Edgar In The Red Room subverts any expectations that audiences might have by launching into a farcical shadow play-infused duet about loneliness between Poe and himself. Rather than playing on comedic irony, the show reveals itself to be a reflection of the gothic horror writer’s dualities: the genius who went down in history, and the friendless, mentally unstable man who pushed his friends and loved ones away. The fact that the more adventurous of the two Poes doubles as the protagonist of a new story he is writing is no coincidence: the deeper he delves into this new story, the more the musical spirals into a dissociative frenzy that blurs Poe’s most famous works with his infamous decline towards the end of his life.
For this reason, Edgar In The Red Room lands best amongst those who are already familiar with Poe’s work. Those who laughed the hardest during the coy disagreements over whether a bird statue was of a wren or a raven seemed to enjoy the show the most overall. However, while the show is inspired heavily by its source material, musical director Greg Giovanini takes it in an even more interesting direction with well-written songs that appear at just the right frequency to keep the show’s pace feeling tight.
In the hands of the cast, Giovanini’s score is emotive while never losing sight of the show’s tone. Where Killian Crowley is unnerving as the unstable Usher, Morgan Smith and Sammy Overton, both as The Writer, flit between hilarious and heartbreaking. Moxie Dwyer is wonderful as both the pure-hearted wife of Poe, but the full-circle moment of the actor’s return as the vengeful sister of Usher is truly sublime. Throughout the show, the hardest thing to look away from is The Woman In Black, played by Maya June Dwyer. The ominous winged entity’s transformation throughout the show might just be one of the biggest highlights.
It’s easy to argue that Poe’s writing is naturally theatrical: it’s haunting, dramatic, and a little over-the-top. Poe himself also makes for a perfect tragic protagonist. However, with director Matt Chiorini’s attention to detail and the cast’s charm and standout vocal performance, Edgar In The Red Room brings something new to the story of a well-known but misunderstood literary icon.
Listings and ticket information can be found here
