The Murders in the Rue Morgue from "The Three Princes of Serendip", an Italian rendition of Amir Khusro's "Hasht-Bihisht". Poe may also have been expanding on previous analytical works of his own including the essay on "Maelzel's Chess Player" and the comedic "Three Sundays in a Week". As for the twist in the plot, Poe was likely inspired by the crowd reaction to an orangutan on display at the Masonic Hall in Philadelphia in July 1839. The name of the main character may have been inspired from the "Dupin" character in a series of stories first published in "Burton's Gentleman's Magazine" in 1828 called "Unpublished passages
The Masque of the Red Death (play) The Masque of the Red Death (play) The Masque Of The Red Death was an original theatre production by British theatre company Punchdrunk, in collaboration with the Battersea Arts Centre that ran from September 2007 to April 2008 The Masque of the Red Death was a major theatre production by British company Punchdrunk, following their production of Faust in 2006 and echoing the format of that show. It played for a 7-month sold-out run, and was seen by more than 40,000 people, involving a cast of around 35 and utilising almost all of the space within the Battersea Arts Centre