The North Coast Repertory Theatre (in Solana Beach, California) is presenting Jeffrey Combs in Dennis Paoli’s one-man presentation Nevermore: An evening with Edgar Allan Poe (directed by Stuart Gordon). The production reunites the director and star of the film Re-Animator.
Gordon describes the work thus: “Nevermore is our attempt to recreate the public recitals that Edgar Allan Poe presented during the last few years of his much-too-short life. Set in 1848, a year after the death of his beloved wife Virginia (and a year before his own), Poe had become internationally famous as the author of ‘The Raven’ and his ‘Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque’. But his fame did not provide fortune and so he was constantly seeking financial security and respect from the literary establishment. As a Southerner by breeding, raised in Virginia, he was looked down upon by the New England based writers of the time, which included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving and Edgar’s arch-nemesis Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
“This is Poe in his own words. Our text is taken from his letters and essays and we have based our evening on reviews and reports of his actual appearances. Our goal is to present a sense of the fascinating man behind the poetry and brilliant tales, a man who could be his own worst enemy, and whose life was even more bizarre and tragic than his strangest story.”
Performances will be 9-12 December 2010, at 7:30PM. Tickets are $25-$30, and are available at the theatre (987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Suite D, Solana Beach, California 92075). Phone for reservations 858-481-1055, or see the web site.
Combs has appeared in more than 75 stage productions and more than 50 films. He also appears frequently on television, including almost 50 episodes as three different recurring roles within the Star Trek franchise.
Gordon has directed more than 35 plays, as well as a slew of films (including adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft such as From Beyond and Dagon). He was a co-creator of Disney’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.
Paoli’s screenplays include Re-Animator and The Pit and the Pendulum, as well as many collaborations, mostly with Gordon. He’s also a teacher at New York City’s Hunter College.