REVIEWS REVIEWS
This is a bold adaptation by Bryony Lavery of the classic Bram Stoker tale of Dracula, transferred into a 21st century environment.
A menacing mood is established in the opening scene, with brooding music playing as a child searches the internet for information on Dracula, dwarfed by a gloomy, monochromatic set built on multiple levels. The set design, created by Ruari Murchison, works well, suffused in darkness with occasional flashes of light and symbolic blood-red imagery as well as the obligatory bats and wolves.
The narrative style, as in Bridget Jones's Diary, is slightly irritating, but cleverly and amusingly supplemented by giant screens that display the emails, SMS and videos sent between Jonathan Harker, played by Giles Fagan, trapped in Transylvania with Count Dracula, and his wife Mina, played by Laura Howard.
At first there is plenty of entertainment as Dracula, a very well-cast Richard Bremmer, manipulates and outwits everyone around him while plotting his seduction of Mina. The underlying sense of malevolence gradually becomes stronger, but sometimes the cast wavers uncomfortably between playing for laughs and building up the tension.
In the second act the darker elements of the story come to the fore. There are several strong performances by the main characters, in particular a harrowing portrayal of a possessed woman by Katie Foster-Barnes as Lucy, who succumbs to Dracula, seeks out children from whom to suck blood and becomes one of the undead before having a stake driven through her heart and her head cut off. What could easily have been a melodramatic depiction was carefully modulated, although it is hard to "decapitate" someone convincingly.
The disturbing sexual dimension of the relationship between Dracula and the women is forcefully played out and there is a particularly intense coffin scene that was one of the most powerful moments of the entire play. More of that concentrated sensation is needed throughout and if the cast can achieve a finer equilibrium between laughter and tension, this will be an excellent show.
The biggest challenge in telling a story of vampires to a modern audience is overcoming 21st century scepticism. This was achieved with varying degrees of success; the audience laughed at times when the cast was probably aiming for gasps of horror and it wasn't until the very end of the first act that a chill finally went down my spine; but I experienced a few more shivers in the second act and ultimately left convinced that such "a story at variance with possibility" could happen today.
The final word has to go to the special effects in the second act — the illusions, created by Scott Penrose of Jonathan Creek fame, are superb. I'm still puzzling over how Dracula manages to disappear into thin air not just once, but twice... and is he really gone forever? © DOS
“Dracula” is in Richmond on the 21st until the 26th of March, 2005.
