THE TELL-TALE HEART

A MALTHOUSE MELBOURNE PRODUCTION

THE TELL-TALE HEART

ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY BARRIE KOSKY
AFTER EDGAR ALLAN POE
PERFORMED BY MARTIN NIEDERMAIR AND BARRIE KOSKY
ORIGINAL MUSIC BARRIE KOSKY
DESIGN ADAPTATION
ANNA TREGLOAN (SET AND COSTUME)
& PAUL JACKSON (LIGHTING)
SONGS BY BACH, PURCELL AND WOLF

The Tell-Tale Heart is based on the classic short story by Edgar Allan Poe, a writer whose legacy haunts the shelves of our greatest modern literature. He is credited with the creation of the detective genre, but is better known for his macabre tales of murder and grisly retribution. A chilling thread of soot black humour permeates his tales, and this utterly original vision demands a collaborator of equally singular mastery. Enter Barrie Kosky.

A man - a murderer - sits alone upon a staircase, pursued by shadows, weeping darkness and throwing up demons. If at first he seems a mass of neuroses, his tics and spasms the symptoms of a terrible guilt, soon enough he is revealed as the dark soul of our age and, eventually, of the state of a theatre trembling on the edge of obsession and madness. Together with Austrian actor, and angelic singer, Martin Niedermair, Kosky has created a thrilling voyage into the morbid and fascinating world of the “Master of Horror” with a performance that is sharpened to steely perfection - straight to the heart.

“THIS IS THEATRE THAT PLAYS IN THE MINDS OF THE AUDIENCE AS MUCH AS IT DOES ON STAGE, THAT INVITES US TO COME ON A VOYAGE INTO OUR OWN SUBCONSCIOUS…THIS IS POE RENDERED NAKED, STRIPPED OF THE RAGS OF GOTHIC MELODRAMA, AND IT IS A TERRIFYING VISION.”

THE AUSTRALIAN