Ballet Austin brings the master of the macabre to life (before killing him again)
Screeching violins underscore the tremulous strings of a mind gone wild, ominous percussion an insistent thrum felt deep in the throat. A darkened stage shot with columns of light, mazes of hospital beds with one crazed occupant. Figures rush between the rows of bed panels, silhouettes of masked shadows whispering... “Edgar.”.
Artistic director Stephen Mills says he’s always gravitated toward darkness. In high school he was offered the choice between studying the works of William Faulkner and the works of Poe. It’s tempting to imagine how his vision would play out when steeped in Southern Gothic tragedy, but he handles regular Gothic style more than well.
Margaret Mitchell’s lush costumes convey 1800s chic and pure Victorian dread, suit tails and robes flowing against wide ballgowns and wisped funeral shrouds. Set designer Michael B. Raiford’s stagescapes are, to quote Stephen Mills, “clean, clear, simple, odd.” Certain pieces, like the use of hospital beds, spectral feathers, and fairy tale coffins, linger in the mind far beyond the ballet’s far-too-soon curtain fall.
Pointe work has never seemed so sinister. Characters often mirror each other jerkily, the repetition off just enough to be deeply unsettling. These mirrors are especially impressive when wrought between Poe and his doppelgänger the Imp of the Perverse, a leering version of Poe’s worst self snapping at his heels .
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