Writer Cynthia Lee Looks Into Minds of Poe and Mary Shelley in ‘Demons and Angels’

Cynthia Lee is a defender of Edgar Allan Poe.

“He may not rank up there with Hawthorne and Melville, but he invented the mystery genre,” argued the writer, who devotes half of her “Demons and Angels” (at North Hollywood’s Group Repertory Theatre) to the creator of “The Raven” and “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

Although Poe’s work was well-received in Europe, he was taken less seriously at home. “Critics put him down; Emerson called him ‘The Jingle Man,’ ” Lee said. “But he wasn’t after a quick buck with his horror stories. He was really writing about the disintegration of the human soul.”

Lee is also a defender of Mary Shelley.

“I think she wasn’t given her due because she was a woman,” Lee said of her second subject. “ ‘Frankenstein’ was a great little book, the first science-fiction novel. And she conjured it all up in a daydream. I have to keep reminding myself she was only 18 when she wrote it; most people don’t even know a woman wrote ‘Frankenstein.’ ” Shelley’s reputation was also dwarfed by association--to her friend Lord Byron and husband Percy Bysshe Shelley--”and of course, she didn’t have their output. But she did write that book. And everyone knows ‘Frankenstein.’ ”

The title of the play, which is two one-acts with separate casts and separate curtain calls, comes from a line in Poe’s poem “Annabel Lee.”

“They both wrote in the same genre,” Lee explained of her decision to pair Poe and Shelley. “We meet one at the beginning of life, one at the end. They were both influenced by romantic poets, by demons and death.” Both pieces also take place in the minds of their characters.

In the piece set in Richmond, Va., in 1842, Poe’s short, unhappy life (including an unconsummated marriage to his 13-year-old cousin) is revealed through nocturnal “visits” by his dead wife, the Imp of the Perverse and the Angel of the Odd, who cajole, challenge and comfort the writer.

In the other piece, set in Geneva in 1816, the pregnant Shelley is held captive by visions of her mother (feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft, who died giving birth to Shelley) and her famous characters Dr. Frankenstein and the monster, who--sometimes petulantly, sometimes passionately--argue with their creator about her plot choices. (Eduardo Manet’s “The Day Mary Shelley Met Charlotte Bronte,” currently at the Burbage Theatre, has a similar conceit: a fictional meeting between the two women writers, each hounded by their come-to-life literary creations.)

Lee, who also directed the piece, fortified herself by diving into her subjects’ works and biographies about them.

“I don’t know if it’s confidence or arrogance,” she said of putting words in the characters’ mouths. “But I don’t think I’ve mutilated their truths. A lot came right from Mary Shelley’s journal, so that really gave me permission.” The piece marks the writer’s second biographical work at Group Rep--the first, “Blavatsky” (1985) was about 19th-Century theosophy founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Away from the stage, Lee writes and directs television commercials and documentaries. Her credits include the film “The Great Bronze Age of China,” which was broadcast on PBS.

“Demons” also signals an auspicious landmark for the 18-year-old Group Rep: its 100th production. “At the beginning, there were 14 of us--now there are 120,” artistic director Lonny Chapman said. “It started out with a group of actors as just a place to work. Then we decided to do some productions, to be an eclectic group--do avant-garde, classics, new work.” The Playwrights Unit, of which Lee is a member, has been in place since 1979; it is from that pool that many of Group Rep’s main-stage works are gleaned.

“There are 21 writers, people interested in not just having their plays done, but being part of a group, being nurtured,” added Chapman, who will direct Group Rep’s next entry, “Razzle Dazzle,” a tribute to his late friend, writer William Saroyan. “The plays are read every Saturday morning for the other playwrights. With this, we did three nights for an invited audience, then I said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ ” Although there is a board of directors, Chapman admitted, “we don’t vote about what gets done. I listen to them, we discuss it, try to convince each other--then I make the decision.”

“Demons and Angels” plays at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday at Group Repertory Theatre, 10900 Burbank Blvd. , North Hollywood, through May 11. Tickets: $12-$15. (818) 769-PLAY.