Poe-Dunk: "Annabel Lee"

I began work on the Poe-Dunk matchbox theaters because Playlab NYC had just finished up doing Professor Ralph’s Loss of Breath at the New York International Fringe Festival and I was looking for a new project I could work on alone. Originally I had conceived of combining my interest in tabletop theater with Shakespeare and creating a matchbox production of The Winter’s Tale. I wanted to take a practice run with some self contained Poe Stories, and Poe-Dunk was born.

The first story I tackled was Poe’s 1849 poem “Annabel Lee.” Here is the summary from Wikipedia:

The poem's narrator describes his love for Annabel Lee, which began many years ago in an unnamed "kingdom by the sea." Though they were young, their love for one another burned with such an intensity that angels became jealous. For that reason, the narrator believes, the angels caused her death. Even so, their love is strong enough that it extends beyond the grave and the narrator believes their two souls are still entwined. Every night, he dreams of Annabel Lee and sees the brightness of her eyes in the stars. He admits that every night he lies down by her side in her tomb by the sea.

The photos are pretty self-explanatory, but I've added a few comments about the choices I've made.


I began with a box of penny matches (2 1/16" x 1 3/8" x 1/2"), and gave it a base coat of white.

I only painted the two sides shown below of the matchbox. I wanted each of the Poe-Dunk shows to be flipped over to look like a normal box of matches. (Like so many of my self imposed rules, I will end up being pretty inconsistent about this as the project develops.)

The stage and set pieces have been painted in acrylic on the matchbox itself or on poster board.

I’m no artist, so almost everything you will see in the Poe-Dunk series has a visual reference. Because it might be of interest to see my swipe file, I include some of the images.

The kingdom by the sea came from a desktop wallpaper image that is readily available on many websites.

Annabel Lee’s final resting place was referenced from an image of the Macquarie Mausoleum in Scotland.

The angel in heaven above, and the demon down under the sea are separate pieces painted on poster board that can be easily added to or taken from the castle.

Below are the characters of Annabel Lee and the narrator. The characters are acrylic on watercolor paper and mounted on penny matches with Elmer’s Glue. Also pictured is the chilling wind that kills the young Annabel Lee.

The narrator’s dreams are illustrated on a strip of watercolor paper that rolls up inside the matchbox. The idea came from Lara Heit’s “Look for Me” which is part of The Matchbox Shows. “Look for Me” uses a similar visual to depict various animals and people fleeing a forest fire.

Below is the completed piece.

In the last photo, I wanted to show how all the pieces pack up into the matchbox. It turns out though that the castle is too big to fit into the box. It was the first time I broke my own rule that the shows each fit inside the stage, but it won’t be the last.

Next week: "The Cask of Amontillado."