Edgar Allan Poe's Mystery Theatre, the winner of a 2015 Telly Award and nominated for a 2015 Southeast Emmy for Best Writer, is a fictional account fusing the biography of America's first great mystery writer with his most bizarre tales. In the dramatization, Poe enjoys his emerging notoriety in the New York literary clubs, where he squanders his celebrity status on a strange poker bet. 

Scoundrel? Genius? Madman?  Everyone loves an enigma.  Poe suddenly uproots his family and returns to his childhood home in Richmond, Virginia, on a desperate quest to revive the crumbling theatre where his mother once performed. His bitterest rival and former friend, the reverend Rufus W. Griswold, follows Poe on a mission to destroy his fragile legacy. In Richmond, Griswold allies himself with Poe's estranged foster-father John Allan, to try to take control of Poe’s literary work. 

Seemingly oblivious to the plot against him, Poe enlists the help of his family and friends, and even his rivals, to bring his works to the stage. His own struggle with alcohol and poverty, which causes deep tension with his loyal wife Virginia, forms the back-story to his tour-de-force The Cask of Amontillado, leaving the audience in shock. The finale is capped off by Poe's dark comedy Hop-Frog: A Tale of Revenge, which delivers poetic justice upon his enemies.

 

Acclaimed stage actor Paul McClain stars as Edgar Allan Poe, with Keith Brooks (The Walking Dead) as Rufus Griswold, Carrie Anne Hunt (Sleepy Hollow) as Virginia Poe, and Geoff McKnight (I'll Fly Away) as John Allan.