Poe-Dunk: A Matchbox Entertainment is theatrical alchemy—a golden marathon of Edgar Allan Poe’s lesser-known works, humbly sprouted from two sides of the humor spectrum. Actor-turned-director Kevin P. Hale returns to the stage as a slightly exaggerated version of himself, crackling with both the energy of an impassioned Poe aficionado and the leveled, snarky wit of a professor. He seamlessly streams through thirty-five Poe pieces in one hour, making full use of creative license to condense each tale into an offbeat skit laden with guilty-pleasure puns.

Though presented on a standard-sized stage, much of Poe-Dunk’s action occurs on a miniature scale. A series of painstakingly intricate matchbox stages—among many, a fully furnished living room for “The Philosophy of Furniture”— serves as the setting for spirited interaction between matchstick puppets. (A camcorder films the palm-sized theatres live; the video is projected in real-time for easy viewing.) Whether it be Poe’s grim “Annabel Lee” or sinister murder tale “The Cask of Amontillado”, Hale breathes a lively fire into his matchstick characters, crafting subtle tongue-in-cheek humor with good-natured slapstick. “Desultory Notes on Cats,” Poe’s brief reflection on the origin and appeal of cats, in particular sees the charm of his liberally comedic hand. Though initially in keeping with Poe’s written Adam and Eve explanation of cat behavior, Hale abruptly changes course, culminating the piece with a sly pun about Cats on Broadway.

The performance’s true zest, however, lies in Hale’s one-man monologues. Laced with an irresistibly earnest appeal, the solo digressions offer a quaint reprieve from the whimsical action of his matchbox plays. Most ingenious is a seconds-long rendition of “The Man that is Used Up”. Hale—speaking as the “used up man” in question— delivers the modestly poignant one-liner: “This show exhausts me.”

I was recently able to delve into the method of Poe-Dunk’s mastermind and Artistic Director of Playlab NYC, Kevin P. Hale. Here’s what I found:

The High 5 Review: What inspired your specific focus on Edgar Allen Poe versus other authors of the same time period? What attracted you to Poe’s style?

Kevin P. Hale: I love reading horror, and in the United States, horror stories all end at Poe. Poe’s a mopey guy, I’m mopey guy…his stories temperamentally appeal to me.

H5: How do you handle making all of your matchbox stick characters and props? Is there any special equipment necessary to work with such small-scale pieces?

KPH: I use a photocopier to shrink all drawings down to size and make sure my puppets are to scale. I have spent a lot of time at a Kinko’s shrinking down my sketches and patterns to make my matchboxes, I also use a variety of X-Acto knives, changing the blades frequently to make sure that I’m getting clean cuts in the cardstock and poster board.  I also use a bookmaking tool called a bone scorer, which is a sort of dull knife made of cow’s bone that allows me to make sharp folds. Besides those tools, there is a lot of Elmer’s glue and acrylic paint. A lot of Internet research has to be done for constructing the matchbox sets—researching images of the Park Theatre, for example.

H5: You maintain a wonderful balance between endearing comedy for children and more mature, tongue-in-cheek wit for adults in the audience. What approach do you take when writing the script for Poe-Dunk? Do the puns and jokes flow as you write?

KPH: I love bad, corny jokes, so they tend to come out when I write. The repetition of rehearsing helps me see where the laughs are and develop more jokes. “The Fall of the House of Usher” was initially meant to be a longer piece, but it didn’t get many laughs. So I shortened it and changed up the humor.

H5: You’re following the humor, in a sense.

KPH: Exactly. If there’s no sense of playfulness and whimsy, I’m not terribly interested in developing the story. Perhaps it’s just my short attention span.

H5: How do you manage the pressure of running a one-man show? Does manipulating the matchbox theatre and puppets take off the nervous edge?

KPH: It takes the edge off a lot. I haven’t been on stage in sixteen years, and I’ve thought of myself as more of a show-off than an actor. It can get uncomfortable being myself in front of an audience, trying to be funny. The matchbox theatre lets the audience disappear, and the focus is on the interaction between the matchsticks. Laughs from the audience sometimes make me forget my next line. I just think, “Oh! I got a laugh!” But when I’m focused on the matchsticks, it’s easier to remember what I’ve written. I get inspiration from seeing my son play with his trains and cars…he becomes so focused and absorbed in moving the toys.