My penchant for reading started as a young girl who would frequent the school library at dismissal time. Hundreds of books would surround me — so much so that I would have a difficult time choosing which one I would read that day. Somehow, a black book with the picture of a sullen-looking man with a raven on his shoulder always called to me — and that was the start of my fascination with the master of the macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, who easily became one of my favorite writers through works like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Annabel Lee” and “The Masque of the Red Death.”
Imagine my delight when I heard that Vaudeville Theatre Company, in cooperation with the Cebu City Government and the Arts Council of Cebu, was staging the Off-Broadway operetta-musical, “Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe” in Cebu. The production is a quirky gothic operetta-musical about his tragic and tumultuous life, where fact and fiction are blended together to create an emotionally moving theatrical experience that tells his story in a way that is difficult to describe and impossible to forget.
Through a cast of seven members who play 43 different characters, Vaudeville Theatre Company highlights Nevermore’s underscored verse and haunting music — bringing to life the narrative of Edgar Allan Poe’s journey through existence. Expect extravagant costumes, poetic dialogue, sudden sounds and strobe light effects.
This production of “Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe” is directed and produced by none other than Vaudeville Theatre Company’s founder and artistic director herself—Penny Ong, who is known in the local theatre scene for putting up professional world-class productions that highlight Cebuano talent.
Joining the cast are multi-talented Cebuano theatre actors and singers Emman Casquejo (as Edgar Allan Poe), Yna Cajipe (as Sissy, Rosalie Poe and Fanny Allan), Clark Jolbot (as Roderick Usher), Jan Michael Lao (as David Poe and Jock Allan), Trisha Urbiztondo (as Elmira), Yesha Suralta (as Elmira), Meljan Omar Gaga (as Henry Poe), Fritz Palomares (as Henry Poe) and Pia Rafols (as Eliza Poe).
“Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe” will be showing on August 9, 10, 11, 16, 17 and 18, 2024 at the Siddhartha Theater of the Guang Ming Institute of Performing Arts in Cebu City. Check “Nevermore – The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe Cebu” on Facebook.