Classic Edgar Allan Poe short story The Pit and the Pendulum has been made into a film and a play before, but never anything like this. Joanna Price quizzes director Christopher York about his decision to morph the story into something that “knocks down prejudices”
Details
Venue: Omnibus Theatre, Clapham
Upcoming Shows & Times:
6-24th November at 7.30pm on weekdays,
9 pm on Friday and Saturday and 4 pm on Sunday
Tickets: www.omnibus-clapham.org
First published in 1842 as a short story, The Pit and the Pendulum tells the story of a political prisoner trapped in a dark dungeon alone, experiencing physical and emotional traumas. Typically assumed to be a white male protagonist, Christopher York breaks all the norms and assigns a Middle Eastern woman the lead role, giving the play a dynamic never seen before.
Having directed smaller productions before but nothing on this scale, The Pit and the Pendulum at Omnibus Theatre is Christopher’s professional directorial debut, and he is determined to make it interesting.
Christopher says “To me, “white man struggles in prison” – I don’t know how interesting that becomes once you get past the two obstacles (the pit and the pendulum) in his way.
“As a 90s kid, the horror I used to watch was tacky. Now it feels like we’ve linked horror and drama again and made it relevant to the political themes of today. Looking at the protagonists in modern cinematic horrors it seemed that women drove horror most because they are infinitely more empathetic than guys are, due to the play on maternity and the ability to open up emotionally to an audience. And so I decided that our protagonist would be female.”
But the controversy doesn’t stop there. After watching A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night – an Iranian/American vampire film – a film which he describes as “very Edgar Allan Poe in terms of its aesthetics”, Christopher decides to cast his female lead as Middle Eastern.
“I had the idea that if our protagonist is from the Middle East and is a woman, we can give our audience another world to go into – a world that normally might scare them. Hopefully, we can knock down some prejudices by saying, ‘Hey, look, this woman is going through some stuff. She’s just like you and she feels the same things just like you.’ I want to show a part of the world in a more positive light. I want to show all the beautiful mountains and the desert landscape and the beautiful culture and language.”
Christopher evidently had an ambitious approach to casting and directing his version of The Pit and the Pendulum, but when it came to casting the right woman, he knew immediately that she was the one. And with presenting such a different culture to his own, he welcomes any input Afsaneh Dehrouyeh gives.
“Obviously I’m a straight white guy telling a Middle Eastern story, and that comes with a certain amount of responsibility. My actress has had to act like a collaborator at times to make sure that I’m doing the culture justice.”
Collaborating with Creation Theatre Company allows Christopher some creative freedom with his adaptation, and having worked with them since 2013, they are evidently in no doubt of Christopher’s skills, and that the play will be a hit with both the modern audience and with Poe fans alike. Although having changed the text dramatically from the original, Christopher is keen to include the gothic elements of Poe, which he knows fans may expect.
“Two of Poe’s more famous works are The Raven and The TellTale Heart, and we do reference those and have taken parts of the stories and implicated them into the play. Even though this is The Pit and The Pendulum, it kind of feels like my ‘love letter’ to Poe generally.”
And in true Poe style, the play will incorporate elements of horror, with the aim of making the audience truly terrified – not something commonly associated with a theatrical production.
Trust us when we say that this is not something you want to miss!
