An ensemble of storytellers will bring “The Raven” and other dark tales to life this weekend in Kihei. Courtesy photo

“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before,” Edgar Allan Poe wrote in “The Raven.”

Originally published in the New York Evening Mirror in 1845, the narrative poem brought Poe immediate fame.

On Friday and Saturday, an ensemble of storytellers will bring “The Raven” and other haunted tales to life in the theatrical production of “A Night of Edgar Allan Poe” at the ProArts Playhouse.

Unfolding as an immersive journey filled with suspense and atmosphere, a sequence of six captivating performances builds in intensity.

“Essentially, it’s a 90-minute theatrical live show where our actors and actresses perform their creative adaptation of six of Poe’s most famous stories,” explained the show’s tour director, Russell Vandiver. “Like ‘Tell-Tale Heart,’ ‘The Raven,’ ‘Black Cat’ and ‘Fall of the House of Usher,’ it’s a very dark, macabre experience.”

Similar to other performances on mainland, the show features a series of one-person monologues. “We’ll have three people performing two stories apiece, and one person will be the narrator, the guide, talking about the history of Edgar,” said Vandiver. “It kind of intertwines the history with the stories.”

The Orlando-based Midnight Creative company is behind the Poe night concept, having previously staged shows like “The Vampire Supper Club,” “The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy,” and “The Haunted Tavern,” all with a Gothic twist.

“We’ve done theatrical live shows and cocktail experiences,” said Vandiver. “Our themes normally lean very dark. They love this brand of literature and like turning it into a stage adaptation. And of course, Edgar Allan Poe is the perfect example to put on a production in that vein, as he is the master of the macabre.”

Orphaned as a young child by thespian parents, Poe briefly enrolled at the University of Virginia in 1826. He was an excellent student, but his time there was marked by gambling and excessive inebriation. He published stories throughout the 1830s and his work “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” in 1839.

Death, living interment and the dark, haunting places beyond the grave are all themes in Poe’s work. His narrators are haunted by the voices of loved ones and the voices of those who have been wronged.

“He had a lot of pain and darkness in his life,” noted Vandiver. “Everyone he ever loved or attached himself to all died from tuberculosis. His mother died of TB. His stepmother died of TB. His father abandoned the family when he was 2 years old, and his stepdad was terribly abusive. Poe’s entire life is just a chronicle of loss and despair.”

Regarded as the architect of the modern short story, Poe was also the principal forerunner of the “art for art’s sake” movement in 19th-century European literature.

One of the first American authors of the 19th century to become more popular in Europe than in the United States, in his letters, H. P. Lovecraft described Poe as his “God of Fiction.” Legendary director Alfred Hitchcock once said, “It’s because I liked Edgar Allan Poe’s stories so much that I began to make suspense films.”

Poe died under mysterious circumstances in 1849 at 40 years old.

“I didn’t realize that no one really knows how he died,” said Vandiver. “It’s very much a mystery. Some people think that he could have stumbled around Baltimore for a week, drunk out of his mind. He might have gotten some head trauma from a local group of ruffians, or some people think he might have died of syphilis.”

There’s obviously a lot of contemporary interest in Poe and his works, as Midnight Creative fields teams of actors all over the country.

“We have two teams out of Florida, one out of New York, two teams out of Nashville, one out of Houston and two on the West Coast,” he said. “We’ve taken this production to all 50 states. There’s just a huge demographic of people who love dark and macabre. It’s been a very successful production and people love it.”

“A Night of Edgar Allan Poe” will open Friday with shows at 6, 8 and 10 p.m., and then continue on Saturday at 2, 4, 6 and 8 p.m. at the ProArts Playhouse in Kihei. Tickets are $30 at proartsmaui.org.