The Masque of the Red Death Decay and the Red Death held dominion over all". Directly influenced by the first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole's "The Castle of Otranto", in "The Masque of the Red Death" Poe adopts many conventions of traditional Gothic fiction, including the castle setting. The multiple single-toned rooms may be representative of the human mind, showing different personality types. The imagery of blood and time throughout also indicates corporeality. The plague may, in fact, represent typical attributes of human life and mortality, which would imply the entire story is an allegory about man's futile attempts to stave off death (a commonly accepted interpretation).
The Masque of the Red Death (play) Friday and Saturday nights throughout the run were "Red Death Lates", an open after-party for show attendees and others, involving members of the cast together with changing external entertainment. The move from the main theatre show through to the afterparty was handled seamlessly by virtue of the fact that the final scene in The Masque Of The Red Death involved a party in the main hall in celebration of the passing of the eponymous plague. Although the main elements of the show were a collaboration between Punchdrunk and the Battersea Arts Centre, the production also commissioned other artists and groups