One Man Poe: One Man Poe: The Black Cat and The Raven and One Man Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart and The Pit and the Pendulum are both stand-alone shows at the Fringe, so you can see either or both at Greenside this Fringe.
One Man Poe is a solo theatrical production by Stephen Smith performing at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe. The show commemorates the 175th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s death and presents four of Poe’s classic works: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Black Cat, and The Raven. The storytelling is divided across two sets of performances, where each night features two stories. Audiences can attend either set or both.
Paul Levy met Stephen outside Greenside two days before the start of the Fringe, at the Greenside Press launch. Listen here …
Performed in an intimate 60-seat studio at Greenside’s Riddles Court, the staging is minimalistic, with a focus on the original 1840s texts and Smith’s narrative delivery. The show explores themes of madness, guilt, and horror through immersive characterization, soundscapes, and on-stage makeup application. The four pieces bring out different facets of Poe’s exploration of the human psyche and supernatural elements.
Each story is presented in its original form, with The Raven performed as a poem. The format allows the audience to engage directly with Poe’s language and atmospheric storytelling, supported by Smith’s varied portrayal of characters ranging from a disturbed madman to an elderly academic narrator.
The production maintains a gothic tone appropriate to Poe’s style and is performed by the award-winning storyteller Stephen Smith, who previously sold out the 2024 Fringe run with this show.
