Horror classics go glam in Theatre of the Damned
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Photo BY Jon christian ashby of Kasha Konaka as Samara Morgan. IMAGE COURTESY OF THEatre of the damned.
About halfway through The Beaumont Studio’s new Halloween spectacle, Theatre of the Damned, my friend turned to me and excitedly whispered a question.
“Is he about to start tap dancing?”
On stage, a yassified Hannibal Lecter (played by Joel Hanna) began to rhythmically stomp within the confines of his cell, a move that eventually (and rather cartoonishly) led to his escape. The audience, myself included, let out a roaring celebratory cheer. By that point in the show, we had developed a taste for the over-the-top depictions of some of the most iconic moments in horror movie history, and every act left us hungry for more.
Theatre of the Damned is the latest in The Beaumont’s annual run of Halloween immersive theatre experiences from the minds of Executive and Creative Director Jude Kusnierz and Show Director April O’Peel. Past iterations included dedications to spooky icons like Stephen King and Tim Burton, but this year, O’Peel says they wanted to go for more of a classic Halloween feel, framing the show around a century of horror film history.
“I like to think of it as a haunted house cabaret,” O’Peel says, describing how the production blends a cabaret-style variety show with an immersive narrative theatre experience. Going into my showing on Oct. 18, I had no idea what constituted “immersive” theatre, but I did know that as a lover of all things horror, camp and glam, I was precisely the target audience.
I received a quick education on the immersive nature of the production when a ghoulish bellhop greeted me as soon as I entered the venue. “Hello, welcome to hell!” he declared. “May I see your ticket?”
Photo BY Jon christian ashby of teresa riley as hellvira and Kasha Konaka as Samara Morgan. IMAGE COURTESY OF THEatre of the damned.
Every member of the staff—the ticket taker, bartenders and ushers—was in character as attendants of the haunted theatre helmed by the show’s deliciously devilish host, Hellvira (Teresa Riley). Unlike traditional theatre, the show is not bound by the confines of a set stage and an open curtain. Instead, the audience moves through The Beaumont’s 22,000 square feet of space to various stages and set pieces, meeting different characters along the way.
The fourth wall-breaking format allowed for natural moments of interaction and participation that kept the rowdy crowd engaged throughout. Performers are given the freedom to really let the audience in on the joke, ad-libbing during technical hiccups, clapping back at hecklers and passing out props.
Actors also interact with you as you leave one room to move to the next—haunted house style. At one point, as the crowd moved into a hallway to another room, we were greeted by Freddy Krueger, who spat out maniacal one-liners while we had no choice but to helplessly slink past.
The show’s main content consists of six tableaus, with interstitials from Hellvira, that reimagine iconic horror characters and scenes to new heights of camp extravagance. O’Peel explains how, when choosing which films to include, the team wanted each character to include a twist that offers an unexpected satirization of the original. “Theatre of the Damned takes the horror films everyone knows and loves, and flips them on their head, with more blood, more sparkle and a ridiculous sense of humour.”
That’s the thinking that led to the tap-dancing cannibal prison break in the show’s Hannibal segment and, in the opening act, a fuckboy Nosferatu whose hobbies include swiping dating apps and pole dancing. The production’s other segments offer similarly outrageous drag and burlesque-style performances, including a standout from one of my favorite movies of all time, Little Shop of Horrors, with a truly inspired take on the carnivorous plant Audrey II.
Photo BY Jon christian ashby of Kasha Konaka as Samara Morgan. IMAGE COURTESY OF THEatre of the damned.
O’Peel’s nearly two decades of experience in Vancouver’s burlesque scene is on full display throughout the show, particularly in the epic Midsommar-inspired finale (which I won’t ruin by divulging the details of here). “There's so much campy narrative in burlesque that I think it translates well to some of the campier horror moments you see on screen,” O’Peel says. “Even the powerful scary ones, too. Burlesque is fun like that, because you can make it your own.”
An act that pushed these boundaries between horror and glamour was Kasha Konaka’s transformation into The Ring’s genuinely terrifying specter, Samara. True to the source material, Konka looked as if she could have stepped straight out of the screen, with contortion skills equal parts impressive, terrifying and dare I say, a little bit sexy.
My favourite part of Theatre of the Damned had to be how much fun everyone was having, audience and performers alike. In bringing together a like-minded crowd of horror and theatre lovers, the boundary-breaking show created an atmosphere that was, as bizarre as it may sound, genuinely heart-warming. It’s a love letter to horror cinema, to campy cult classics and to freaks of all kinds, written in blood and finished with a kiss of red lipstick.
Theatre of the Damned runs at The Beaumont Studios until Oct. 30, 2025. You can find tickets online on The Beaumont’s website.
Phoebe Fuller is a journalist, researcher and labour consultant based in Vancouver, BC. She likes writing about LGBTQ2S+ stories, labour issues and all things screens. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Georgia Straight, and the Tyee, among others. She is one of the current web editors for SAD Mag and curator of the weekly events newsletter, Mood Swing.
