Julia Tirinnanzi, the creator of the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy landing at The Fallser Club in East Falls, said she was hooked on Poe from the minute she first encountered his stories in junior high school.
Her teacher set up an impromptu classroom campfire and read some spooky stories in October, including “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Monkey’s Paw.” “I had nightmares that night after coming home from school,” she remembered. “So I was instantly addicted and I picked up all of Poe’s work, along with a few other Gothic authors, and I just fell in love with macabre literature.”
The life of a macabre master
Poe lived in Baltimore, Richmond (where he married his teenage cousin), and New York City before settling in Philadelphia for six years beginning in 1838. His Philadelphia house at Seventh and Spring Garden Streets is a National Historic Site.
While living there, he wrote some of his most famous stories, including “The Masque of the Red Death,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and many others. He moved back to New York in 1844, and achieved fame with his poem “The Raven,” which he published the next year. Coming home from a Southern lecture tour, he died in Baltimore under mysterious circumstances in 1849, at just 40 years old.
Starting a speakeasy
Tirinnanzi said “The Tell-Tale Heart” is still her favorite story, because it was her introduction to Poe. She grew up in Indianapolis, and earned a degree in hospitality management from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. For a long time, she didn’t think about her favorite literature. She interned with a company specializing in large craft beer festivals (despite her own preference for cocktails) and was eventually hired there.
She began to urge her employer to offer a cocktail event, and her boss gave her the reins. In 2019, she piloted a 40-person cocktail evening concept called The Boozy Cauldron. It was a success, and she was inspired to take the concept even further. She remembered her childhood obsession with Poe, and that was when her two passions dovetailed.
The Boozy Cauldron was “more of a cheeky show,” she said. The show she wanted to develop around Poe would be different. “Almost like a love letter to Poe himself, to be able to combine literature and libations in a more serious, less playful tone,” but also spooky, Tirinnanzi said. Her concept launched successfully with short runs in Austin and Atlanta, and when the pandemic hit, it was the perfect excuse to downsize the audience, which fit the vibe she wanted for her new show.
Today, Tirinnanzi is the creative director of Midnight Creative, a production company with shows touring throughout the year, including the Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy.
“Poe was very much an enigma,” she said. In researching the show, Tirinnanzi and her team traveled to historic sites and museums around the country. “It really became a huge passion project to get as much data as possible about him.” Today, the speakeasy features five actors, and Tirinnanzi says no two performances are the same. Some stories are necessarily abridged and have “slight modernizations,” and sometimes feature gender-swapped casting. But for the most part, the evening is true to the iconic author.
An immersive experience
It’s an immersive experience from the moment you arrive, Tirinnanzi explained. The actors are in Victorian costumes as they welcome you, and you’ll pass a “shrine” where you can leave your own parchment note to the master of the macabre. The stage itself features a modest desk and crumpled papers, “to imagine what it might’ve been like to sit in his home as he’s writing these pieces.”
This iteration of the speakeasy includes four stories: “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontillado,” and “Annabel Lee.” Audiences will enjoy these paired with four custom cocktails inspired by the stories: swing of fate (featuring prosecco), Montresor’s revenge (amontillado and fresh orange juice), lover’s lament (bourbon, lemonade, and hibiscus), and Roderick’s ruin (cold brew and pomegranate with creamy mocha and vanilla vodka). Midnight Creative’s mixology team developed them, but Tirinnanzi loves the taste test, and helps to curate the cocktail selections.
The 21-and-over experience will run for 12 performances October 9-11 at The Fallser Club, with the $55 tickets covering the show and the drinks. Guests are encouraged to dress up with the theme. For some, that means Victorian-inspired costumes, but others dress up as Poe himself, or his most famous avian character: “I see a lot of ravens at the shows,” Tirinnanzi says. “The experience is very cool to immerse yourself into.” That’s all a pretty good outcome for a childhood nightmare.
Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy, 3721 Midvale Ave., East Falls (parking near the East Falls train station driveway at 3610 Midvale Ave. and a paid municipal lot three blocks away at 4100 Ridge Ave.) For tickets, visit edgarallanpoebar.com. The show runs about 90 minutes, and the venue is wheelchair-accessible.
