Love reigns over one man’s sanity when a broken heart controls the mind in “The Raven,” a play directed by undergraduate student Lizzy Ferdinandi.
Cal State Long Beach undergraduate students performed a version of Edgar Allen Poe’s 1845 naarative poem, “The Raven,” at the Studio Theatre every day last week.
Poe, who is known for his dark interpretations of love and death, was embodied on stage through the students’ performance.
The play kept the audience on the edge of their seats throughout the entire performance. It was entertaining from start to finish and extremely moving and the use of lighting, movement and costumes helped to create the abysmal feeling of the poem.
Ferdinandi, the first undergraduate student at CSULB to direct a headlining show, led the mystical movement-based show in front of a full audience at the sold-out performance Thursday. Ferdinandi became emotional as she told the audience that Poe’s dark, 60-line poem was written to come to life.
“The story isn’t meant to just be read,” she said. “The story is meant to be seen.”
Ferdinandi’s interpretation of “The Raven” told the heart-tugging story of a man grappling with grief. Using modern song and dance, the main character, known only as “The Man,” revealed his emotions of uncertainty and bewilderment as he faced the challenge of overcoming heartache while he deals with a series of supernatural illusions following the death of his lover.
Costume design, lighting, choreography and music maintained the dark feeling throughout the set. Ferdinandi paired songs from top-selling recording artists like Lana Del Rey and Sia with contemporary ballet, jazz and hip-hop routines.
“The Man” (Christopher Bearden) and his lost lover Lenore (Lexington Vanderberg) were both well-cast and entertaining. The pair displayed great chemistry with one another, which gave the audience a sense of purity and love.
The Raven, played by Tricia Arlene Bowen, was fascinating to see. Her ghastly portrayals as the spirit of Lenore inflicted fear and her daunting movements and scarce appearance were eerie, yet attractive. Her impact on “The Man” was captivating, and her use of the poem’s single, most famous word, “nevermore” was a gut-wrenching sound in a theater overflowing with anxiety.
Actors also played the Shadows, which illustrated the chaos surrounding “The Man’s” every thought. Collectively, they shook the walls of the room by pounding their feet on the stage, which increased the level of anticipation for what would come next.
Developing a sense of empathy and angst from the scenes acted out on the darkened stage, the Shadows portrayed the emotions of the natural-born pain one would feel from losing a loved one.
The assumption that the word “nevermore” was in fact the named spirit of Lenore, was captivating, which made “The Raven’s” ending just as powerful as its beginning.