Wicked Tavern Tales

Production Consolidated and Manhattan Theatre Source present Wicked Tavern Tales, Greg Oliver Bodine’s adaptation of three tales by Edgar Allan Poe. Amber Estes directs.

Wicked Tavern Tales, adapted from three of Edgar Allan Poe’s best short horror stories: “The Cask of Amontillado,” “The Tell-tale Heart” and “The Black Cat,” combines classic storytelling and drama in the genre of the macabre. Welcome to the “Hell’s Hound” (circa 1850s) — a tavern in an un-named city where the beer flows freely and the tales are tall! Or are they? On a brisk October night, just as last call is announced, the tavern proprietor and a barmaid are entreated by the audience to entertain them with “a good story” before closing time. The narrators oblige and begin to spin – not one – but three yarns of mystery and murder. Soon, the characters from each story appear, breathing life into the words of their storytellers, supplying the action, and bringing to each vignette spine-tingling suspense, its own harrowing dénouement!