The Madness Of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story at First Folio Theatre

Daily Herald - Highly Recommended

"...The show, whose scenes unfold in various rooms in the Tudor Revival-style mansion at Oak Brook's Mayslake Peabody Estate, premiered in 2006. I've seen it under three different directors with three different actors playing the titular role. The first time I was struck by Poe's overwhelming grief; the second by the profound love between the writer and his much younger wife. But what impressed me about director Skyler Schrempp's intimate, emotional production is how thoroughly it reveals not only madness born of grief and love, but also madness born of obsession, fear and artistic impulse."

Windy City Times - Highly Recommended

"...David Rice's adaptation of Poe's life and works takes theatergoers through six different scenes, moving them through six locations inside the looming mansion. Under Skyler Schrempp's direction, the audience feels as if it has stepped not only inside the mind of the writer, but also into the threadwork of his literary works as they are being pieced together one agonizing thought after another."

Chicago On Stage - Highly Recommended

"...Played out in various rooms around the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, First Folio Theatre's The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe: A Love Story is a unique experience. Theatre-goers follow Edgar himself (Christian Gray) and the ghost of his wife Virginia (Erica Bittner) from place to place within the old mansion, experiencing their love, her death from consumption, and what these did to Poe. Along the way, we find ourselves in the middle of several of his haunting and haunted stories and poems; it isn't a night anyone is likely to forget easily."