Whispers in the Dark

OCTOBER 18 & 25, 2026 |  MESA ARTS CENTER NESBITT/ELLIOTT PLAYHOUSE

by Edgar Allan Poe

written and directed by Elizabeth Kalita

edited by Keath Hall and Angee Lewandowski

Whispers in the Dark is a dramatic retelling of Edgar Allan Poe’s life in which Poe’s greatest works serve as the haunting inner world to the equally fraught life of one of America’s most influential writers. This October, the “veil between the dream and the dream within the dream” grows thin as Southwest Shakespeare Company proudly presents Whispers In The Dark, a theatrical production dedicated to the iconic stories and poems of Edgar Allan Poe and the creature of isolation and despair who wrote them. From the rhythmic heartbeat beneath the floorboards in “The Tell-Tale Heart” to the claustrophobic dread of “The Cask of Amontillado,” this production uses inventive staging, immersive soundscapes, and a versatile ensemble cast to explore the fragile psyche of the Master of the Macabre.