Designer takes pleasure in pain

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Thursday, August 20, 1998

BY RANDY McNUTT
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dungeon master Shannon O'Hare demonstrates a head crusher at the Ohio Renaissance Festival in Harveysburg. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

HARVEYSBURG -- Shannon O'Hare's job is sheer torture, and he loves it.

For months, he and his wife, Katherine, have worked inside a hot metal building at the Ohio Renaissance Festival to create the 3,000-square-foot Tower of London Dungeon of Doom.

The $300,000 tower will open with the festival Aug. 29, surely making Harveysburg the only little town in Ohio with a working torture chamber.

Racks, whips, head-crushers, iron masks -- Mr. O'Hare's got them all inside a building fronted by a massive castle.

"A head-crusher, contrary to what you might think, won't crush your skull," Mr. O'Hare observed as he strolled through the new dungeon Wednesday. "Actually, it pops out your eyes and crushes your jaw."

IF YOU GO

The festival is open eight weekends, Aug. 29 through Oct. 18, including Labor Day, Sept. 7. There are three student days Oct. 1, 7 and 8. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., rain or shine. Tickets can be bought at the box office. Prices: $12.95 for adults; $6 for children ages 5-12; free for children under 5. Discounts are available for groups of 20 or more. The Ohio Renaissance Festival is at 317 Brimstone Road in the village of Harveysburg, in northern Warren County. Information: (513) 897-7000 or www.renfestival.com.

Mr. O'Hare, 39, a theme-park specialty designer from Houston, was hired by Peter Carroll, festival owner and founder, because he is talented in making "dark rides."

Mr. Carroll predicted that the tower will become a major attraction in "Screams in the Park . . . Terror in the Dark," a three-week Halloween event coming next year after the festival closes.

He said the special-effects project will create 50 new jobs with an estimated payroll of $100,000.

The dungeon itself is frightening enough. The walls are filled with paintings of infamous torturers, including Vlad the Impaler, Ivan the Terrible, Caligula and Marquis de Sade.

Divided into four sections (imprisonment, interrogation, punishment and death), the dungeon includes 18 rooms with more than 30 exhibits depicting scenes from the 15th and 16th centuries.

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