Edgar Allan - A Story at Half Mast

Sigh. I really wanted this to be good. The actor/writer duo of Katie Hartman and Nick Ryan have come all the way from New York City.  This is clearly a labour of love for them.  They’re young, smart, dedicated and talented, but their show just doesn’t work.

For me to explain what doesn’t work about this play, I need to first set the scene.  This is a two hander, loosely based on the childhood and short stories of lauded writer Edgar Allan Poe.  Sounds good so far.  Until you get to the premise.

The malevolent young Edgar Allan, played by Katie Hartman, starts his first day at boarding school, determined to make his mark at all costs, only to discover that there is another student of equal brilliance who is also named Edgar Allan. This second Edgar Allan, played by Nick Ryan, who speaks in the raspy monotone of a much older character and always has the right answer to the teacher’s questions, infuriates the first Edgar Allan (our hero and the star of the show).

And that’s pretty much it.

The two Edgar Allans have a couple of run ins. One run in leads to a black eye. Another leads to the nicer of the two Edgar Allans drinking himself into a silent accidental stupor.  

But despite all the back and forth, there’s no reason to care. There’s not enough backstory for us to even conjecture as to why Edgar Allan the malevolent is such a jerk, let alone feel drawn into his mad cap desire to be student numero uno.

The stakes are so low that the actors must rely on charm, talent, skill and trickery in order to keep our attention. But in a culture saturated by CGI-rich summer blockbusters, a performer’s pyrotechnics better be off the charts if they expect an audience to be engaged despite a story at half mast.

The show does have a few things going for it. Katie Hartman has a lovely singing voice - her ukulele-accompanied folk songs, which pepper the show, keep things moving along.  And her sometimes ethereal presence gives necessary levity to the general goings on.

Ryan’s dry delivery and comic timing did send one audience member into numerous giggling fits, and the rich poetic language of the play is beautiful.  

But in order for an audience to really care about a story and the characters around whom the story is centered, there must be either a highly sympathetic protagonist or a well-developed dramatic conflict that can capture their imagination.  If either one of those elements were in place, this show might be a hit.

I’d love to see the Hartman and Ryan rework this piece with a stronger storyline.  Hartman’s stage presence leads me to believe that with a great story and a character closer to her natural range she would be incredibly engaging, while Ryan’s comedic timing, if put into a stronger vehicle, would be far more likely to shine.

Nevertheless if you’re a huge Edgar Allan Poe fan, a lover of Victorian speech patterns, or if you like ukulele folk music with musical theatre undertones, or the American Gothic genre of literature, then you’ll probably dig this show.