In a city known for spectacle and stagecraft, a new theatrical experience in downtown Los Angeles is stripping performance down to its most primal elements: sound, imagination, and fear. “Poe: Pulse and Pendulum,” presented by Theatre Obscura LA, invites audiences to experience two of Edgar Allan Poe’s most haunting tales in a way few have ever encountered them before—completely in the dark.
Created by playwright and producer Paul Millet, one of the minds behind the long-running immersive theater favorite Wicked Lit, the production promises a chilling journey into the psychological horror that made Edgar Allan Poe a master of the macabre. Audiences attending the show will be blindfolded and seated in total darkness, where the story unfolds not through visual spectacle but through immersive sound and the listener’s own imagination.
The result is a deeply intimate and unsettling theatrical experience that challenges conventional storytelling.
Two Poe Classics Reimagined
The production features two classic Poe works: The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum. Each story has been adapted for the stage, allowing audiences to step inside the psychological terror of Poe’s worlds.
Knocking, Knocking at My Bedroom Door
“The Tell-Tale Heart,” adapted by Millet and directed by Gabriel Griego, explores the unraveling mind of a narrator haunted by guilt after committing a terrible crime. The cast includes Wicked Lit veterans Eric Keitel, Richard Large, Andrew Thacher, and Andrew Villarreal, whose performances rely entirely on voice and presence to guide the audience through the character’s descent into madness.
The second story, “The Pit & the Pendulum,” adapted and directed by Millet, plunges listeners into one of Poe’s most claustrophobic nightmares. The tale follows a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition facing an elaborate and terrifying execution. The shared role in this production is performed by Wicked Lit veterans Joe Camareno and Melissa Lugo, whose performances bring tension and urgency to the experience.
The Reader Becomes the Page
Without the aid of lighting, costumes, or stage movement, the production relies heavily on its creative team’s ability to craft an immersive sonic world. Art design and graphics are created by James Castle Stevens, while the crucial soundscape—arguably the star of the show—is designed by Joseph “Sloe” Slawinski. Layered audio, atmospheric effects, and precisely timed cues envelop the audience, creating the sensation of being inside Poe’s unsettling narratives.
There will be 12 performances only. Held March 20 – April 12, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at 8pm, the stage is set inside one of the hidden speakeasy theaters located in downtown Los Angeles, known as the Count’s Den.
Photo courtesy Counts Den, DTLA
The Count’s Den is an intimate theater, dark and purposely equipped with just the right amount of goth for the South Park Social District. Into the night, a line forms outside a brick-laden wall upon a cracked concrete sidewalk; the dimly lit street adds to the night’s allure as patrons slowly step inside, one by one, blindfolded and left to their own imagination played to the sound of Poe’s words. Without vision, the mind is forced outside the three dimensions into an extra-sensory overload—an absence of sight where every creak, whisper, and heartbeat becomes amplified.
For Millet, the production marks both a creative evolution and a bold experiment.
“I’m thrilled that we’re launching Theatre Obscura L.A. with a couple of pieces by Poe. It seems like a perfect creative marriage.”
The choice of Poe’s work is fitting. His stories often focus on internal psychological horror rather than physical action, making them particularly well-suited to a format that relies on sound and imagination.
Yet even for an experienced theatrical creator, the project has presented new challenges.
“It’s also pushing me outside of my comfort zone as a director since I’m such a visual person. I’ve never tackled anything like this before. No sightlines at all. It’s exciting and a bit scary too!”
That mix of excitement and unease may be exactly what makes “Poe: Pulse and Pendulum” so compelling. In an entertainment landscape filled with visual overload, this production asks audiences to do something rare: close their eyes and listen. The result is theatre that unfolds entirely in the mind—where the unseen becomes unforgettable.
Poe: Pulse and Pendulum will be presented at The Count’s Den, 1039 S Olive St Los Angeles, CA 90015. There will be 12 performances only – March 20 – April 12, Friday, Saturday, Sunday at 8pm. Tickets are $60 + $3.86 service fee and available at: https://theatreobscurala.ludus.com/
Use DTLA-specific promo code DTLA10 for $10 your ticket purchase!
