[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of THEATRE OBSCURA LA and Millet Creative Media’s immersive production of Poe: Pulse and Pendulum at The Count’s Den, running through April 12.
This is absolutely the first time I have had a blindfold on to see a play. And when I say ‘see’ I do, of course, mean ‘not see.’ These productions of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and The Pendulum and The Tell-Tale Heart are performed with the entire audience blindfolded.
The space at the utterly bewitching Count’s Den is arranged with comfortable Victorian chairs, and each audience member is instructed to blindfold themselves, and under no circumstances are they to remove it for the duration of the performance. Perfect, since everything Poe has ever written is full of lengthy, visually descriptive sentences exploring deeply psychological and profound themes. Being unable to see the action and to focus entirely on the sounds of it and the occasional change in the air around you forces one to focus intently on the language. To hang on every word, in fact.
It’s not hard to imagine that the author himself would be thrilled with the technique. After all, in Poe’s short 40 years, the entire struggle of his life was for people to listen to his prose and poetry. And how better to do that than to sit in the dark in the silence of a room full of similarly inclined strangers. Poe would have been sitting right beside us if he could. Honestly, in this marvellous Victorian Gothic venue, I wouldn’t bet against the possibility.
The show teeters on the edge of performance art. It quickly becomes clear that Poe: Pulse and Pendulum is an extremely alternative way of experiencing a play. Immersive can be applied to many other types of performance. The audience could be on stage, or the performers could walk through the audience, or the play could be set in a house where we walk from room to room following the actions. All of these have I seen. But I have never (not) seen a play in this particularly graceful and astonishingly effective way.
The plays were thrilling. They were every bit as unique, eccentric and mind boggling as I remember when I read them myself many years ago. The work of Edgar Allen Poe is not hype. He was a fascinating and inspiring mind who tragically struggled to survive so he could write and died far too soon. His work set the bar for the melancholy and magical, the spiritual and macabre.
The thrill of the unseen is a large part of Poe’s work and in this production, his work is, therefore, doubly honored. Poe: Pulse and Pendulum is an absolutely fantastic foray into the unknowable world of the master of the macabre and the poet of science fiction.
The actors rush through the space, lingering for moments and lines behind chairs, beside the flushed faces of the blinded audience. I felt air brushing my face, the edge of a jacket touching briefly as they flew by, the swing of the pendulum passing the length of the long, narrow room with it’s “woompf, woompf.” All of this is at once terrifying and utterly sincere. But the actors are the ones who bring all of that to this play. Their voices ringing out in the darkness, cries of anguish, tightened throats masking deception, unsuspecting fellows full of mirth and liquor, laughing together shortly before their untimely ends.
It’s brilliant. Absolutely brilliant and I would highly recommend Poe: Pulse and Pendulum to anyone with a love for theatre and a longing for a little light danger. Much thanks to the directors of this wickedly good play for guiding and beguiling! Bravo!!!!!
The Tell-Tale Heart stars Wicked Lit veterans Eric Keitel, Richard Large, and Andrew Thacher as well as Andrew Villarreal. The Pit & the Pendulum stars in a shared role with Wicked Lit veterans Joe Camareno and Melissa Lugo. The production’s creative team includes art design and graphics by James Castle Stevens and sound design by Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski.
Tickets:
https://theatreobscurala.ludus.com/index.php
When:
March 20 – April 12
Friday, Saturday, Sunday at 8pm
Where:
The Counts Den
1039 S Olive St, Los Angeles