Istvan Dugalin ➤

Mairi Babb with Poe Bear and Eric Woolfe with Cutlet from ‘The House at Poe Corner’, Photo by Adrianna Prosser

So, it’s been exactly a decade—to the very month!—since I caught an earlier incarnation of this show in the same venue and reviewed it for Mooney on Theatre. That was my first taste of Eldritch Theatre’s magical, Muppety brand of gothic capers and I was not prepared for its plushy, macabre lunacy. I’m older now, a little closer to the end, and Eric Woolfe’s whole deal is now entrenched in my theatre-going life! The House at Poe Corner, penned by Woolfe and Michael O’Brien, is an affectionate blend of spooky and cute iconography—riffing on the works of Edgar Allan Poe and A.A. Milne—and it was an absolute joy to revisit it.

The basic conceit here is that the adorable stuffed playthings we know and love—Winnie-the-Pooh and company—are fused with the grim and gloomy circumstances of Poe’s chilling stories. The Woodland of Weir is the stand-in for the Hundred Acre Wood and Christopher Robin is now Mr. Usher, who has grown-up, become world-weary and now gone! His despondent and deathly energy has seeped into our intrepid bunch, twisting them into ghastly, Eldritch™ new forms. Despite their bulging and bloodshot eyes; their sinister impulses; the knives, axes and traps they wield—spewing forth an impressive mass of red felt gore; they’re still adorable.

Our Masters of Ceremonies, Edgar (Woolfe) and Allan (Mairi Babb), are twin Poes regaling us with frightful, episodic tales of the Weird Woodland. All concerned are partial to ghoulish warbles (written by Cathy Nosaty). Woolfe works his creepy parlour tricks into the gruesome scenarios and the cozy space is saturated with eerily garish colours and textures. Melanie McNeill’s design elements are more restrained here than in some Eldtrich Theatre collaborations, but uncannily evocative none-the-less. The Blunderbeast, the big baddie here, is simple yet especially menacing.

Our characters have a habit of “un-murdering” each other, so there is a firmly established, cartoony revocability to all this death. That being said, the finale—which begins in the harsh and ominous beam of a single flashlight—is quietly, distinctly ominous and unsettling. Our main duo, Poe Bear and Cutlet (this narrative’s version of Winnie and Piglet), have each other though, and that makes the inevitable darkness a little easier to negotiate. For all its gruesome buffoonery, The House at Poe Corner is, at the end of the night, rather sweet.

The House at Poe Corner
running April 11 to 21, 2024
Red Sandcastle Theatre (922 Queen Street East)
running time: 80 minutes (no intermission)

Puppet ensemble from the ‘The House at Poe Corner’, Photo by Adrianna Prosser