Welcome to the world of ghosts

Haunting spook-tacular is perfect introduction to the Halloween season.
By MARGARET NERY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Victorian Players opened the fall season Friday night by staging the whimsical drama "A Gaggle of Irish Ghosts" at the Little Theatre off Spring Common on Mahoning Avenue.
The play proved to be a perfect spook-tacular preview for the upcoming Halloween season as it tweaked the imagination of theatergoers, but it also served as a tribute to the author, the late Jean McClure Kelty.
First staged at the theater several years ago during a Celtic Festival, the production follows the exploits of a young couple who inherit an apparently empty castle in Ireland only to find it has become the gathering place for a gaggle of ghosts.
Since some of the ghosts who come and go at will are bigger than life, the couple is never quite sure whether they are real or surreal.
While the young wife, Dr. Alexander Tate (a most impressive Marilyn Higgins), is inclined to like the prospect of living in the old structure, her pragmatic husband, Peter (Richard Haldi), isn't the least impressed with the idea.
'Wonderful world'
But strange things happen and strange people appear, leading Dr. Tate to welcome her confused husband "to the wonderful world of ghosts and things that go bump in the night."
Among those choosing to make herself known to the couple is Maura Kate (Jeanne Hanuschak), who professes to be over a 100 years old. But when told she doesn't look her age, she explains that "folk don't get any older after they die."
Also visiting the castle are Cormac (Rex Judd) and his beloved Aoife (Karla Judd), who, despite being dead themselves, pledge their undying love.
A warrior woman from the past named Grainne Ni Maille (Joan Hamilton) also appears to boast of her many encounters and of her ability to belittle the English queen who ruled ages ago.
The troubled, undercover Mr. Withypool (Pat Schauweker, who also portrays the prophecy-spouting Ullach) runs in and out, warning the others that "Cromwell is coming" but never seems to scare anyone.
The group of shadowy characters is fleshed out by the bigger than life and most impressive King Brian Boru (Gary Dekant), who looks forward to party time "when the dark is upon us."
As he becomes personally involved in the supernatural high jinks, Peter Tate is finally won over by his spirited guests and discovers that, dead or alive, the Irish love to party.
Figments of imagination?
Whether these characters are merely figments of imagination is never quite determined.
But adding a touch of reality to this fantasy is the brash, pushy, overbearing real-estate agent Portencia Swindler (a scene-stealing Carol Mathews), who is determined to buy the castle and turn it into the Playground of the World.
Although she is willing to spend a million dollars to make her project come true, she is not only rebuffed by the Tates but ultimately driven off by the Irish ghosties. And, of course, the couple live happily every after, left to wonder if what they saw and heard was real or imagined.
This tongue-in-the-cheek ghost story is more amusing than scary as it is brought to life by a most enthusiastic director Joan Hamilton and staged in a imaginative castlelike setting created by Tom Copeland.