The Tell-Tale Farce

Run dates: April 3-6 & 10-13, 2025

Directed by Elizabeth Shaffer

 It's 1848, and Edgar Allan Poe is just coming off the spectacular success of "The Raven." Unfortunately, it's only earned him a grand total of nine dollars. So when a wealthy dowager commissions him to write her a poem for the vast sum of one hundred dollars, he leaps at the chance. Only problem: the man who shows up to write the poem isn't Poe, he's Poe's mailman, and he's on a quest to woo the dowager's spinster niece. Playing Poe is harder than it looks, though, especially when your mustache keeps falling off, the teenage grand-daughter of the house is lusting after you, and Poe's arch-nemesis, Rufus Griswold, just happens to be dropping by to settle old scores. A freewheeling, door-slamming farce with a touch of the macabre. 

Cast:   5 men, 4 women. Ages range from late teens to 60s, and all ages are flexible. 

Characters: 

Edgar: (actually Richard Muffinbridge), 30s, fake mustache

Poe: (the real one), 30s, with mustache

Rufus:  30s, a poet, something of a bastard, has amazing facial hair with mustache

Henry: late teens or early 20s, nervous and naive, no mustache

Brinsley: 40s, the butler, with mustache

Mary: 20s, the maid, Irish accent

Helena: 60s, the matriarch

Sarah: 30s, Helena's niece, a spinster

Abigail: late teens or early 20s, Helena's granddaughter

All ages are flexible!