You’re invited to the masquerade. Do you dare attend?

112,184 plays|

Iseult Gillespie |

TED-Ed

• May 2026

Looking to avoid the plague devastating his country, Prince Prospero summons a thousand nobles from his court and sequesters them in his abbey. Months into their seclusion, the Prince throws a lavish masquerade ball held in seven colored rooms. But amidst the revelry, a mysterious shrouded figure appears. Iseult Gillespie shares Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story, “The Masque of the Red Death.” [Directed by Mohammad Babakoohi, Yijia Cao, narrated by Adrian Dannatt, music by Aron Fard].