Combs As Edgar Allan Poe
1 min readJeffrey Combs, best known to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans for his roles of Weyoun and Liquidator Brunt, and to Star Trek: Enterprise fans as the Andorian Shran, is going from the future to the past in taking on the role of Edgar Allan Poe.
Combs is starring in the ninety-minute one-man play Nevermore which is now appearing at the Steve Allen Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.
“Poe is this interesting, charismatic and demonized soul who I wanted to hold this light up to,” said Combs. “He’s like the American Van Gogh.”
The play is set in 1848, the year after the death of Poe’s wife, and a year before his own death. In Nevermore, Combs’ Poe starts off the evening as a gracious host, expressing his love for poetry. But by evening’s end, as Poe continues to drink whiskey, he begins to rant and the alcohol takes its toll, exposing his broken heart. “Much like Poe did a lot in his life,” explains Combs, “he destroys his whole evening.”
Combs went through over two thousand pages of Poe’s works. “The depth of [Poe’s] ability is just staggering,” said Combs. “He was a very imaginative and phenomenally brilliant man. But he didn’t have a lot of luck.”
Nevermore runs through the end of September and is likely to be extended into October.
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