The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy returns to San Marcos for an immersive poetry reading featuring actors dressed in period costumes and themed cocktails at the Price Center on Aug 29 and 30.
This immersive experience unfolds on a haunting night for this gothic cocktail theater series and invites guests to step into the shadows of Poe’s most disturbing works, paired with handcrafted libations. This event is around 75-90 minutes and is 21 and up. There will be four acts, each paired with a signature drink.
Guests will be led through four of Poe’s gothic masterpieces, such as “The Cask of Amontillado,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher” (Chapter Two selections), each vividly reimagined by the Poe historians and elevated by immersive performances. Meanwhile, a “macabre lead mixologist” transforms every tale into a thematic cocktail.
Poe’s literary legacy comes alive through theatrics and ambiance that summon his atmosphere of dread and wonder.
“Unlike many of his contemporaries on the literary scene, Poe experienced fairly consistent poverty for most of his adult life and often found himself attempting to write his way out of that poverty,” TXST Associate English Professor Whitney S. May, Ph.D. said.
“Because he was a brilliant writer, editor, and literary critic, he was able to keep an eye on what was popular — what was selling — during his day. That necessary attention to the popular, combined with his own earnest passion for his craft, meant that he was uncannily good at remaining relevant in his lifetime. In a way, that he persists as such a globally-recognizable, pop-culture icon nearly 200 years after his death demonstrates just how excellent he was at it… hauntingly so!”
Central Texas has many communities that celebrate the macabre and the creepy. Haunt Happy Books located in Lockhart offers many of Poe’s masterworks amongst other horror titles. The indie bookstore has been featured in Texas Monthly.
”Edgar Allan Poe is classic for a reason. He’s definitely one of the most recognized,” manager Chris Hoyt said. He explained how Poe was born in Boston and spent time around New England.
“So I think he was at the right place, at the right time, with the right brain and heart to just do some really good creepy stuff. Now you have this goth culture that is Tim Burton-esque but I don’t think that would exist without Edgar Allen Poe.”
The Price Center & Garden is located at 222 West San Antonio Street Tickets are available for shows at 6 or 8 p.m. on both days at edgarallanpoebar.com.
