One-Man Poe

Edgar Allan Poe has been interpreted many ways—by John Astin, John Cusack, even on The Simpsons. But, starting October 17, Center Stage will show us a different Poe in The Completely Fictional—Utterly True—Final Strange Tale of Edgar Allan Poe. “The show opens and he’s been ushered to this hospital in Baltimore in a drunken, delirious state,” says actor Bruce Nelson, pictured. “And there’s flashbacks, but the audience never knows if they’re seeing a real flashback or if these are ramblings of a diseased mind.” While the play sounds dark, he insists it’s also full of vaudeville-style wit. Center Stage director Kwame Kwei-Armah chose Nelson, an Everyman Theatre vet, as a part of his mission to cast more local actors. Nelson is thrilled to play such an iconic figure. “To us, Poe is something very mysterious,” he says. “And we’re all still trying to figure him out.”