ONE MAN POE to Return to Edinburgh Fringe
Actor Stephen Smith brings six Poe stories to the Edinburgh Fringe across three separate shows.
Lurking in the shadows behind everything from the cases of Sherlock Holmes to the films of Alfred Hitchcock is the Irvine-educated 'Godfather of horror' Edgar Allan Poe. According to actor and Poe enthusiast Stephen Smith, it's difficult to overstate the influence of the American author and poet - his tendrils are everywhere. Smith is celebrating his hero by bringing six of his short stories to the Edinburgh Fringe (in three separate shows) under the banner of One Man Poe. Most fit snuggly into the horror mould while others, like The Business Man delve into other dark areas of the human psyche.
Performances will begin on August 7 at Greenside Venue @ Riddles Court (Willow Studio).
Smith believes that Scotland, and Poe's Scottish family influences, had a profound effect on his identity, life and writing. Indeed, performing Poe in Edinburgh is almost a homecoming.
He said: 'So much great literature would not exist without Poe's writing. And Poe's writing would not have happened without Scotland.
'Scotland was the source of so many of the ideas, settings, stories and relationships that shaped him. Performing Poe's work in Edinburgh feels like coming to the wellspring.'
Born in Boston in 1809 and orphaned in 1811 he was taken in by John Allan (the source of Edgar's middle name), a Scottish merchant based in Virginia, and his wife Frances.
In 1815 he had the exceptionally unusual experience of crossing the Atlantic and being educated for a year at grammar school in Irvine while John worked on business ventures, including in Edinburgh. The relationship between Edgar and John was a tortured one.
Smith says many of the bleak, rugged settings Poe described in his stories are likely to have come from the wild coasts he saw in Scotland.
More directly, Poe was a fan of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (known as Maga), which was famous for its 'tales of terror' - stories that were a powerful influence on his own work. He even penned a satirical short story called 'How to Write a Blackwood Article'.
Smith will be presenting two tales per show: The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat and The Raven, and The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar.
He had sell-out runs at the Fringe in 2024 and 2025 with the first four, scooping the Derek Award for Best Overall Show and the Spookies Award for Best Horror Solo Show.
But the final pair of spinechillers are new for 2026. All are performed in the atmospheric surroundings of Greenside's 16th-century Riddles Court complex, a place Poe might have seen when he visited Edinburgh as a child. Described by the author's descendants as a 'tour-de-force', One Man Poe offers horror fans and classical literature lovers an atmospheric experience rich with imaginative storytelling.
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