Halloween is a holiday for mischief and mayhem. Halloween is a
holiday for outsiders. Halloween is a holiday for Edgar Allan
Poe.
“He had directed, in great part, the moveable
embellishments of the seven chambers, upon occasion of this great
fete; and it was his own guiding taste which had given character to
the masqueraders. Be sure they were grotesque. There were much
glare and glitter and piquancy and phantasm” (from “The
Masque of the Red Death”).
Students looking for much glare, glitter, piquancy and phantasm
this Halloween can turn to Poe as their ringmaster once again.
Tonight at 8 p.m. in Royce Hall “Never Bet the Devil Your
Head,” a Poe extravaganza of readings, music and performance
co-produced by Hal Willner and Janine Nichols, will be held. UCLA
Performing Arts is selling all tickets for the event at a
discounted $15 for students, and anyone (student or civilian)
willing to brave the last-minute madness can try to get tickets 30
minutes before the show for $15.
Among the show’s performers will be Antony and the
Johnsons, Will Ferrell, Harry Shearer, Howard Hessman, Michael
Rooker, Karen Black, and yes, Velvet Underground legend Lou
Reed.
“Lou loves Hal,” Nichols said.
Reed even loves Willner enough to have re-written Poe’s
most famous poem “The Raven” to perform at the event,
as well as working with him on an entire album of Poe-inspired
material scheduled to be released in January. Willner and Nichols
described Reed’s “Raven” as “amazing”
and “astonishing,” not to mention that Nichols said
Reed will also be performing some older material (Velvet or
“Transformer,” anyone?).
Like a reinterpretation of “The Raven” suggests,
“Never Bet the Devil Your Head” is not a show about
resting on your laurels and letting Poe’s words do all the
work. The title story, which wasn’t even performed at last
year’s event, was re-cut to fit the evening’s tone.
“We thought (the title was) a good overview, because Poe
writes all about what’s in your head,” Nichols said.
“But then we were able to cut it in a way we thought really
worked. And Howard (Hessman, who will be reading the story) laughed
out loud when he read it.”
Comedy, it turns out, can work just as well with Poe’s
stories as gloominess. Just look at the names like Ferrell and
Shearer.
“It’s nice to have someone with a comic sensibility,
because there’s a sick comic element to a lot of it,”
Nichols said. “Poe’s stories in a lot of ways
aren’t really scary, but they cause you to think … because
they’re so over the top and metaphorical.”
This year’s event is Willner’s fourth Poe show (one
year he did the Marquis de Sade), and second at UCLA. The first two
were in St. Anne’s church in New York, but, according to
Willner, the event now is much more consistent, professional and
less dangerous ““ although it’s tough to replace a
gothic church for Poe readings. To that end Nichols said
they’ll be raiding the prop house for items like a chandelier
or a candelabra.
“We’ll have some set pieces, but it’s
certainly not high theater. It’s like jazz, very
improvisational,” Nichols said.
As open to new ideas and innovation as Willner and Nichols are,
Willner cautions that Poe isn’t the easiest thing to
read.
“(The works of) Edgar Allan Poe are beautiful to read out
loud, they’re effective,” Willner said. “But you
can’t just put on a jacket, show up, and read it
cold.”
While the show clocked in at around four hours last year,
Nichols guessed that it would be about three hours tonight
including intermission, but with so many creative people onstage,
she couldn’t say for sure.
“You can’t overstate Poe’s importance in
American literature,” Nichols said. “For me it’s
a can’t miss (event).”