Once upon a midnight dreary
while we pondered, weak and weary,
lame Halloweens of yore,
suddenly, there came a tapping:
News of a haunted house at our chamber door.

Just the thing for bleak October,
Edgar Allan Poe unleashes ghosts upon the floor.
Eagerly you’ll wish the morrow,
when macabre characters spark fear and sorrow,
like William Wilson, Annabel Lee, and lost Lenore.

With thirteen chambers, the rustling of each curtain
thrills you with fantastic terrors never felt before.
To still the beating of your heart, you’ll stand repeating
“Video installations and trick lighting are so unsettling,
and I’ve never seen a terrarium of 1,000 cockroaches before.”

Hesitate, then, no longer
dawdling behind your apartment door.
Thirty-two actors have spent months scheming
to taunt your brain and keep you screaming.
And ensure that Halloween blows nevermore.

Haunted Poe, 38 Jackson Street (215-207-9369 or hauntedpoe.com). Through November 1. Tickets online at bratproductions.org. 

Sometimes seeing is believing! Check out our Haunted Poe photo gallery.

Photo: Gabriel Bienczycki / Courtesy of Canary Promotion + Design