The Final Haunting

of Edgar A. Poe

HISTORY

Director's Note

There have been many wonderful adaptations of Poe's short stories, and he has proven to be an enduring influence across all types of storytelling media.  But there have been few depictions of the author himself that have explored the complexity of his personality and writing style, or the depth of his troubled nature.

In his best-known works, Poe evokes both an eerie, often preternatural atmosphere that sends shivers to the reader, as well as the inescapable, woeful qualities of the human experience: like grief, bitterness, and guilt.  It's hard to say which is more chilling.  Such works were an expression of – or sometimes, even a distraction from – Poe's real life.  Sickness plagued his family, and at every turn Poe lost someone he cared about.  Only his enemies (of which there were many) and Poe himself were left standing.  It's no wonder Poe felt haunted.

In The Final Haunting of Edgar A. Poe, we aim to capture this experience by merging details from his tragic life with some of his most personal writings.  The trauma, animosity, and inner demons he faced throughout his life shaped the way he wrote, and eventually, the way he died.  Although ours is a fictional portrayal of Poe, our goal is to share with you the broken psyche of a brilliant author.

You may find this play unsettling.  Maybe you'll question Poe's grip on reality.  Perhaps you'll find that the line between natural and supernatural is blurred, as is the line between imagined and corporeal.  Worst of all, you might wonder whether Poe – as warped as his mind has become in his final days – is truly all that different from the rest of us.

Welcome to The Final Haunting.

- Erik Arndt