Theatre Unleashed Brings a Tale of Edgar Allen Poe to Halloween!

Coming off the success of Passages: Classics Remixed and a short run series of sold out co-productions, Theatre Unleashed is excited to announce that its Fall Main Stage show will be Matt Ritchey's original work Nevermore, playing Oct. 6-Nov. 5at The Belfry in North Hollywood.

Nevermore is a fictional psychological thriller about the life of the greatest horror writer of all time. Once upon a midnight dreary, a young Edgar Allan Poe visits the crumbling estate of his old childhood friend Monty, and soon finds himself caught in a web of secrets and lies from the past which mirror his future stories...and threaten his life.

"When I first read Matt Ritchey's Nevermore, I couldn't put it down," said Artistic Director Jenn Scuderi Crafts. "It read like a suspense novel and I couldn't wait to see it alive on stage."

The idea for the play first came to Ritchey when he wanted to do a twisted stage version of Poe's classic The Tell Tale Heart. Instead, he and a friend devised a Shakespeare in Love type conspiracy story about the life of Poe, using his tales as real events. But it doesn't stop there.

"I'm a huge fan of creepy, gothic and ghost stories," Ritchey said. "I tried to make this an homage to a number of my favorite things, including The Haunting of Hill House, Deathtrap, Nick Danger and The Doctor and The Devils."

Ritchey first presented his piece in 2011 in Hollywood and then in Texas in 2014, but the TU production, which will be directed by TU veteran Sean Fitzgerald, marks the first time it's getting a full run in Los Angeles.

"This year, I wanted a fall production that ushered in the Halloween season without being campy," Crafts said. "Nevermore is very clever and poses some interesting theatrical challenges that TU has not tackled before, especially when it comes to the set. This show is definitely going to leave an impression."

Nevermore kicks off a busy time of the year for TU, which will follow the Fall show with a holiday rep, featuring It's a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play and A Very Die Hard Christmas.