“Who is Edgar Allan Poe?” one might ask. To inform our friends who do not know, he is the author of many dark and twisted literary works, including many poems, written in the early 1800’s. He is considered the founder of the mystery and science fiction genres of literature and was a harsh literary critic in his time. Poe also had a sad, difficult childhood which many say is the cause of his dark poetry. The cause of his death is still unknown.

Playwright Jonathan Christenson proposed a theory of Poe’s death in the play “Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe” presented by South’s theatre department on Oct. 20-21. Much of the events acting in this musical are historically accurate to Poe’s life.

The story begins with Edgar A. Poe (Taylor Gray) boarding a steamer and encountering a group of traveling entertainers. One man remarks that he had seen Poe’s mother perform and the entertainers go on to recount the events of Poe’s life. Born to actors, Poe’s mother made it big but his father never got the same fame as her. As a result, he became a drunk and disappeared from their life. Poe’s mother then fell victim to Tuberculosis and died. Poe was sent to a wealthy merchant’s home, separate from his two siblings, where he was raised by the merchant’s wife. Unfortunately, she went mad and committed suicide and Poe was alone until he met a girl named Elmira. The merchant then sent Poe off college and while he was there, Elmira married another man. Poe turned to alcohol and gambling which got him in much debt, and when he returned in disgrace to his adoptive father’s home, he found that he had married someone else and was no longer welcome in his home. Throughout this time, Poe turned to poetry to express his morbid and sorrowful feelings. Poe was then reunited with his brother, who after a few years ended up dying of tuberculosis like their mother. In despair, Edgar moved in with his aunt and her daughter and continued to write. Then, Edgar married his cousin Sissy and they lived happily for about ten years until –guess what– she died of tuberculosis! (By the way, this actually happened, no joke, the historical Edgar Allan Poe had many, many close people in his life die of tuberculosis.) By now Poe is a hot mess, seeing apparitions of his dead family and drinking excessively, until once more he hope when he is reunited with Elmire who is now a widow. They get engaged and Poe goes on a trip to interview for a steady job. The entertainer then inform him that they have reached present day. Sensing danger, Poe wants to be released, but he can not be free of them because in truth the people before him are all of the dark and sad people he wrote into his literature. Poe gets off the steamer and ends up in a bar and then is taken to a hospital where he died of tuberculosis, surrounded by the apparitions of his dead family and characters from his poetry.

All of this was acted out on an elevated platform backed by a wooden scaffold hung with glittery threads. Another important part of the setting was the lighting and sound that were played during each scene.

“The lighting fit the mood really well and the stage set up worked really nicely,” said freshman attendee Linnea Ehart.

Sophomore Aisen Riggs also attended the musical.

“My favorite part was the end when they came back to how they started, and you learned who the people really were,” Riggs said.

Immediately both Ehart and Riggs said they loved the musical.

“Incredible. I had chills the entire time,” Ehart said.

“Amazing. All of the performers did a really good job. The lighting and choreography were awesome. They were really, really good and it was totally worth the seven dollars you had to pay” Riggs said.

Junior Taylor Gray starred as Edgar Allan Poe. Gray has participated in many productions at South and this was his fifth production in a starring role.

He said that Nevermore was a totally different type of performance from anything he had done before.

“Poe is a type of character I’ve never brought to stage before. It was really interesting playing someone who was a real person and his life was more interesting than I originally thought. There was an emotional depth that I’ve never acted before,” Gray said.

Gray said that he loves to perform because he thinks is genuinely good at it, and he loves to hear feedback from other people.

“It is the greatest feeling in the world when people come up to you and compliment you on something you have accomplished,” Gray said.

Another performer, junior Annie Novak, loved performing Nevermore and is said that it is over.

“The show affects your mental state but in a good way. It was a different experience than anything else I’ve done, and the characters are different from ones that I will never play again,” Novak said.

Theatre teacher and director Jennifer Forrest-James said that Nevermore was a unique production.

“Normally, musicals we perform are larger and more well known. The cast size for Nevermore is seven which is small, so every performer is equally important. Also, Parkway South Theatre received the first amatuer rights to perform which means we were the first high school to ever perform it,” Forrest-James said.