Play Review: ‘The Castle Spectre’

Through the dark of death, life could smile in a mother’s liberating love, a lover’s gallant romance, a fool’s daring wit, and the goodwill of a few who dare to wield a sword against ambition’s treacherous blade. Lauren Tamke and Katrina Kunkel’s directorial The Castle Spectre delivers it beautifully. 

Tamke has a penchant for twists. Her production plays with romance in a beautiful and unexpected way, contesting the centuries-old legacy of stereotypical love. Here we see Angela (Irene Poole) with eyes of benevolence, curiosity, and daggers steadfast in compassion and justice for the innocent. Abducted by the villain, Lord Osmond (Christoff Lundgren), Angela is the damsel-in-distress waiting for her beloved Percy (Carly Pettitt). Lundgren’s power-packed performance captures the soul of a decrepit aristocrat using desperate power to gain his ends. The emerald of his velvet robe, enhanced under the fluorescence of the stage light, washes him in the venom of his character.

The stage is created with a meticulous eye, making sure it does not overcompensate for a distant time. The play is able to enact “gothic” vibes in its dialogue delivery, choreography, and mise-en-scene. The spirit appears to all, yet she appears to none. Against such eldritch presence, the physical comedies of Louisa (Katrina Kunkel) and Gilbert, the manoeuvrings of Father Philip (Andrew Mecready), the affectations of the chambermaid Alice (Samantha Beck), and the quixotic persona of Percy all add to the interluding guffaw.

The performance captivates and frees you in many ways and instances. But one that I really found interesting was the pervading ghost of the murdered lady Evelina (Maggie Salopek). She looms across the stage in dark and light, clothed in white, humming a muffled tune against the eerie backdrop score. Her presence sustains the bars that keep the spectator from stepping out of its world. But it is also she who opens these bars (literally and metaphorically) for the captives to flee towards liberation — towards love.

The play draws us into a melodramatic world of the living and the dead whose destinies are tied together by honour, love, and betrayal. This production is not like other Gothic plays that enchant us with their chivalry, fraternal spite, or unsettling sounds. It amuses us with its relatable humour while also making us ponder the timeless evil of unchecked ambition.

As the gothic cold wheezes on our doorstep, this performance brings us warmth in its swashbuckling melodrama. Characters evaluate their loyalties throughout the play as dark curtains are raised and shocking discoveries made — this solemnity, but with an appetizing dose of laugh. That said, this show —marked by resilience — also complements the Halloween spirit lingering in the autumn that refuses to yield to winter. The soldiers boasting their swords to defend truth, chambermaids screaming and swooning, and a contriving tyrant within a suspicious murder mystery could get adrenaline rushing through the alleys of your flesh.

Fleet to the Gateway Theatre on 8529 Gateway Boulevard. The show runs from November 21–30, 2025.