Beverly Hills, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/25/2026 – Before Sherlock Holmes ever picked up a magnifying glass and before Hercule Poirot put his “little grey cells” to work, Edgar Allan Poe was the first to unravel the mystery. In 1841, Poe introduced the world to C. Auguste Dupin, widely regarded as literature’s first modern detective, and this fall, Dupin’s mysteries finally take the stage. The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin, a world-premiere production adapted and directed by John Strysik, opens September 17 at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills, weaving together all three of Poe’s Dupin stories: “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” “The Mystery of Marie Roget” and “The Purloined Letter.”
Dupin didn’t solve crimes with luck; he solved them with observation, logic, and the science of deduction, setting the template that Holmes, Poirot and nearly every detective since would follow. Strysik knows his way around a mystery himself, with credits spanning horror, fantasy and suspense, including the screenplay for Stuck, work on Tales from the Darkside, Monsters and the ABC reboot of Land of the Lost, and co-authorship of Lurker in the Lobby: A Guide to the Cinema of H.P. Lovecraft. He leads a cast that includes Todd Andrew Ball, Randall Craig, Patrick Grant, Michael Mullen, and Caroline Quigley, with David Hunt Stafford producing the world-premiere engagement for Theatre 40.
The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin runs September 17 through October 18, with performances Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m., at Theatre 40’s Mary Levin Cutler Theatre on the Beverly Hills High School campus, 241 S. Moreno Drive. Free underground parking is available through the driveway at Durant and Moreno Drives. Tickets are $35; reservations can be made by calling (310) 364-0535 or visiting Theatre40.org.
Before Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot became household names, there was C. Auguste Dupin, and this world premiere gives mystery fans the rare chance to meet the character who started it all.
