Stephen Antony Smith has made a bit of a name for himself by producing short and snappy ‘horror double features’ based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. We adored his previous takes on Poe’s work, and this performer’s one-man take on The Pit & The Pendulum is one of the best we’ve ever seen, and we’ve seen a few versions over the years.

Smith’s new show features two more Poe tales: The Business Man and The Case of M. Valdemar. As we walked into the show, we were handed tatty and stained American flags and asked to wave them in support of Peter Proffit, a businessman of dubious value. Poe’s original tale is one of political parody (and shows its age at times). Stephen adds flourish to the tale by embodying the convincing conman. As our salesman expands on his increasingly vile schemes, the audience begins to wave the flag less and less. This story ends with an impassioned plea to vote for this monstrous business fellow, showing that the more things change, the more they stay the same. The tale is 186 years old and still relevant. Brilliantly told.

The next story, The Case of M. Valdemar, is more the sort of thing we expect from a Poe show. It’s the tale of a hypnotist who, through experimenting with his art, decides to use his eerie powers for medical discovery. His attempts to see if hypnotism can defy death, however, are not what he expects. The transition from the previous story to this tale is impressively done, and Smith’s talent does the rest. Spooky stuff.

This is a very short Poe tale, and Smith does very well to embody what is effectively a slow crawl of a story, building tension in the time we have left to hit every emotional point just well.

Impressive stuff; see all the One Man Poe shows if you can.

You can find out more about ThreeDumb Theatre here.