Edgar Allan Poe's Politian
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Edgar Allan Poe's Politian is an audio performance of Poe's melodrama theatrical play set in 16th-century Rome. It is directed by Misan Akuya and presented as a streaming YouTube video.
The play is a fictionalized version of a true event in Kentucky: the murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jereboam O. Beauchamp in 1825. The so-called “Kentucky Tragedy” became a national headline and attracted several fictional representations. Poe, however, chose to set his version in 16th-century Rome.
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The play takes place in 16th-century Rome. Castiglione, the son of a duke, becomes engaged to his cousin Alessandra, inciting the jealousy of his father's ward, the orphan Lalage. Lalage meets Politian, the Earl of Leicester, and, after some flirtation, convinces him to take revenge on Castiglione.1)