Katerina Bakolias as Rose and Geneviève Steele as Delilah. Photo by Stoo Metz
Eastern Front Theatre’s production of The Ghost of Violet Shaw, playing at Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Studio until May 24th, is a Victorian farce written by local playwright Katerina Bakolias, whose play ’Til Death Do Us Part played in the Studio in 2022. Bakolias also performs in this play, as Rose, a sensible young medical student trying to manage her highly spirited theatrical Grand Dame of a mother, played to perfection by Geneviève Steele. I sat down with both Bakolias and Steele via Zoom to chat about how this play came about.
Bakolias describes the play by saying, “Delilah, who is played by [Geneviève] Steele believes that her late wife, Violet, is haunting their house. She is trying to figure out why, and help her move on. She believes the family curse has killed Violet and Violet has some unfinished business. Meanwhile, Rose, her daughter, who I play, doesn’t believe in the ghost, [and] is just trying to finish her medical degree and become a doctor like her father. We’ve got a cousin, Edward, played by Nathan Simmons who brings chaos into the house, a bookie is hot on his tails, following him for money that is owed. Rose is in love, but doesn’t want to tell her mother because there’s a curse, and there’s a bunch of misunderstandings and spooky mishaps [that take place].”
Steele describes her character as a bit of a “drama queen,” saying, “she’s an actress processing her grief theatrically. I think she genuinely wants to figure out [the curse], and she wants to be able for her daughter to love freely moving forward without fear of the curse wrecking everything. She’s a bit hard on Rose, I will say, but she gets over herself, and… there’s a lot of heart in Katerina’s writing. There’s some very tender moments which absolve her of some of her earlier meanness.” There is a unexpected twist here having a mother who is an actor chastising her child for wanting to be a doctor. “That’s recognized by the audience,” says Steele. “Often when you hear a certain kind of laughter, they’re people that have had that experience of trying to be in theatre and their parents wishing they would do something realistic. Having that flipped on its head gets nicely recognized.”
Jeff Schwager plays Baxter, the villain of the piece. “He’s just absolutely amazing,” says Bakolias. “His physical comedy is incredible.” She says that something that he did in the audition amazed both her and director Kat McCormack. “It was like theatre magic happening right before our eyes,” and they incorporated that move from his audition into the show. She says that when she was writing the show she didn’t realize that it would be mostly Nathan D. Simmons, as Edward, who kept having to run up and down the staircase. Even in rehearsal, where there were no stairs, it wasn’t immediately apparent how physical a role Edward was going to be. “He brings such a loveable charm to the role. You could call Edward a villain, but I don’t think he actually is. I think he’s just a loveable oaf [who is] a little bit oblivious and a little misguided. He kind of unknowingly brings danger to their doorstep, and then he tries to deal with it himself. Nathan brings such a charming quality… that even though he’s doing questionable things, you can’t hate him.”
James Arthur MacLean plays Vic, Rose’s love interest. “James is so fun to work with,” says Bakolias. “[They] also wind up disguising themself as a medium, and I’m not going to spoil it, but James had a hand in picking out certain qualities of the medium. It’s just very funny, and not at all what I would have… picked, which is why it’s so great to have such creative collaborators on a project. Nothing gets made in a vacuum, right? Having people bring their own ideas and talent and skills just elevates the show so much. I find James really, really did that- they took the character on themselves and brought this very unique, funny quality to the medium, and then this really wholesome, lovely character of Vic.”
“I concur all around,” says Steele.
Kat McCormack brought that same sense of collaboration into the rehearsal as well. Bakolias says, “The rehearsal hall was really, really funny. Kat said several times, ‘don’t do something in here as a joke, because we take jokes very seriously,’” and often those moments that actors found funny in rehearsal got incorporated into the blocking for the show.
“It was super fun working on this at Neptune as a [co-production] because the team of set, props, and costumes were sort of set up camp in the Oland [Rehearsal Hall], and we were rehearsing in the Pratt [& Whitney, an adjoining rehearsal hall], so this hive of activity and creation was happening, and they would come and check in on rehearsal, and then take something back and work on it based on what we were doing. It felt like an organic process that is not the norm, and it was really great… I’m super collaborative, and Diego [Cavedon Dias] with the costumes, and [scenic designer] Brenda [Duran], I feel like they must have met together for some design [discussion], because even in their presentation [they were] sort of from the same world. It all comes from Katerina’s brain, but they seem to have definitely landed on the same planet,” says Steele.
“I feel like half of my laughs are me trying to conquer my costume though… On Sunday night Genevieve and I came up to backstage and Jeff was there and he was like, ‘How’s it going?’ and I was like, ‘Well, G and I both tripped on our way up here. It’s a good start to the night.’ She fell going up the stairs, and then I tripped over a brick in the doorway… It’s a farce backstage and onstage,” says Bakolias laughing.
She says that there wasn’t one specific event that inspired this story, but that she loves the macabre and “anything kind of witchy,” citing having been interested in Ancient Egypt, and the Titanic, and the Victorian occult at different times in her life. “I like to read tarot cards, and I believe in the power of nature, so there was just kind of a vibe that sort of built the show where I knew that I thought it would be really funny to have a seance gone wrong.”
“What a treat to get to work on the play with the playwright as an actor in the company,” says Steele. She notes that they workshopped the play first, and says, “It’s actually very convenient to have the playwright in the room. We did try not to put two hats on Katerina at the same time, but when you did have a question or wonder, what if we tried [this idea] it felt luxurious to be able to just turn to the person right beside you and say, ‘what do you think?’”
Steele also thinks that Bakolias being an actor helps her to be able to write the precise timing needed for the farce. “You sort of know how you would do it, so you put yourself in the characters, and you can see it play out,” says Bakolias. She loves writing farce as a genre because she loves to make people laugh. “I really love entertaining people… ever since I was a kid I loved to make people laugh. If I heard a good joke you bet I was going to tell it at the dinner table with my family. And farces make me laugh. I love farces like The Play That Goes Wrong, Noises Off, any kind of summer stock theatre that’s just a good time. I think there’s such power in comedy and… and being in a room full of people all enjoying and laughing together is so wonderful and healing. I think comedy can really make you think about things that are sometimes difficult because it gives you this gentle sort of way in.”
On staging a fun, farcical spooky comedy against a dark and tumultuous political and cultural landscape Bakolias says, ”We need laughs right now… my god, we need laughs.”
Eastern Front Theatre’s production of The Ghost of Violet Shaw directed by Kat McCormack plays at Neptune Theatre’s Scotiabank Studio Theatre (1589 Argyle Street, Halifax) until May 24, 2026. Performances run Wednesdays to Saturdays at 7:30pm with 2:00pm matinee performances on Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets range in price from $25.00 to $55.00 based on seating, and they are available online here, by calling the Box Office at 902.429.7070, or visiting in person at 1593 Argyle Street.
Talkback
Thursday, May 14 – 7:30pm
Relaxed Performance
Saturday, May 16 – 2:00pm
Neptune Theatre has a range of Accessibility Options for folks (Both Fountain Hall and the Scotiabank Stage are accessible for wheelchairs). Patrons can now purchase wheelchair seats for individual shows online with the promo code WHEELCHAIR. For more information, please contact the Box Office.). Click here for more thorough information.
