Nevermore, Barbican Theatre

The raven croaks in this imaginary life and death of Edgar Allan Poe

by Alexandra CoghlanThursday, 08 July 2010

Bretta Gerecke's costumes are Edward Gorey by way of Tim BurtonEmily Cooper

If there was an opposite to the limitless “ever after” of fairytales, the relentlessly nullifying "nevermore" of Edgar Allan Poe’s raven would come pretty close. A deformed, sickly smiling "musical fable for adults", the ominously named Nevermore is Canadian theatre company Catalyst’s grim(m) take on the life of that greatest of storytellers, Poe himself. Had Little Red Riding Hood decided to meet the Wolf at an S&M club for a spot of burlesque (and had Nick Cave been on hand to write some songs about the encounter), Nevermore would be the result.

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