Photo by Anna Levin
“There is no beauty without some strangeness”
Edgar Allen Poe
THE RAVEN is a performance art theatre adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s elegy to loneliness, grief, and transformation.
A man sits alone, wrapped in memory and inertia. Like Pinocchio, Poe’s haunted narrator is not quite real—flickering at the edges of his own shape. Surrounded by old books and flickering screens, he ruminates, overstimulated and under-chased. In today’s world, he might be obsessively scrolling for bad news, caught in the endless echo of digital noise. Until—something taps. A bird enters. And death, or something stranger, arrives.
The Raven is a solo multimedia performance that reimagines Edgar Allan Poe’s gothic poem for the contemporary moment. Blending physical theatre, poetic text, and live video, the work teeters between theatre and performance art, asking: What is it that’s frozen within us? What part of ourselves cannot move on? What knocks, asking to be transformed?
Created and performed by Charles Sandford, The Raven speaks to the haunted spaces of modern life: isolation, grief, technology, and the possibility of becoming whole again. It is both an elegy and an invitation.
“Visceral, disturbing, timeless”
“Profoundly moved, met and changed by the performance..one of the best theatre pieces I’ve seen”
“Deeply moving, left me speechless”
“Visually arresting, atmospheric & Original.”
“Radical, contemporary & moving.”
the team
Lead Artist, Writer & Performer: Charles Sandford
Somatic Dramaturgy & Direction: Mary Pearson
Production Manager Rhianna Compton
Lighting Designer Xenia Bayer
Photographer & Co-Designer: Anna Levin
Creation & Rehearsal Space: Bidston Artistic Research Centre
Collaborators & Supporters:
The Unity Theatre, Eli Randle, Sean’s Place, Eden’s Cave Company, Animikii Theatre, Adam Davies
Work In Progress Performances:
March 25 @ Up Next Fest! Unity Theatre
July 25 @ Totnes Fringe, Civic Hall
July 25 @ RADA LAB Works, Corronet Theatre
The Raven Is in partnership and support with The Unity Theatre, Liverpool & Men’s Mental Health Charity Sean’s Place.
“What haunts us is something that seeks its own disappearance, it wants to become fully itself and so depart.”
David Whyte
