In need of some diversion, and seeking some way to celebrate the equinox, we made our way to Mount Gretna. With a population of less than 300 souls, Mount Gretna is remote and an area of natural beauty. But that’s not why we’re here. Each year the Mount Gretna Theatre—housed in an open-air playhouse—puts on an Edgar Allan Poe performance in the autumn. I’m not sure if it’s always titled “Nevermore,” but it is this year. And it’s a fine evening for an outdoor performance. The show is a walking tour of seven Poe vignettes. A guide starts the evening by telling us a murderer is on the loose and Dupin (for Poe invented the detective story genre) warns us to trust no one. I’m thinking this will be a murder mystery, but the first vignette is adapted from “The Fall of the House of Usher.” My favorite short story, I smile at the choice.
The next venue—we’re walking around the parameter of the playhouse now—is from “The Masque of the Red Death,” which has taken on new significance with Covid. These, by the way, are single actor vignettes. We’re then led to a saucy woman who performs “The Black Cat” with a subtle humor. As she’s led away, a madman leads us to a corner of the building where he retells “The Telltale Heart,” and you begin to realize just how much Poe wrote about revenge and guilt and murder. We’re then led to the only two-person vignette for a retelling of “A Cask of Amontillado.” A haunted young man crying “Lenore” next recites “The Raven,” from which the evening takes its name. The final vignette is the only unfamiliar one in the lot, based on Poe’s humorous—if politically incorrect—stories, “How to Write a Blackwood Article,” and “A Predicament.” (Set in Edinburgh, no less.)
It’s a beautiful September night in a delightful wooded setting. The fact that it takes some effort to get here is part of the draw. The actors clearly enjoy themselves and the stories are told in such a way that it doesn’t matter that we’ve read them all before. Once back home, I learn that the playhouse is in a borough founded by the Chautauqua Society. I think how times have changed and that it was quite a world that supported adult education institutes. Chautauquas are found around at least the rural parts of the country. Founded by a Methodist minister, Chautauqua was a wholesome competitor to Vaudeville, offering entertainment as well as education. I feel I’ve been both educated and entertained as we climb back in the car in a Pennsylvania night on the eve of the autumnal equinox.
