DRACULA

DRACULA

BlackeyedTheatre at the Civic Theatre, Chelmsford

22.01.2014

Five accomplished actor/musicians bring atmospheric freshness to the familiar story of the vampire Count, in this pared-down touring production from Blackeyed Theatre.

Paul Kevin-Taylor, impressively inhabiting the title role, makes a striking entrance, with his long coat, his cadaverous voice and his red hair. In a master-stroke, he also gets to play vampire-hunter Van Helsing, pursuing his prey from Victorian London to Transylvania. Much more doubling elsewhere, including Will Bryant outstanding as the strait-jacketed madman Renfield and young Jonathan Harker.

The women, whose role is enhanced in John Ginman's adaptation, are sympathetically played by Katrina Gibson and Rachel Winters.

Eliot Giuralarocca brings many clever touches to his production – the silent movie “A Fugitive Seeks Shelter”, the Music Hall number – as well as some spine-chilling effects. All on a spare scaffolding set, with atmospheric lighting, a candle or two, and live music from the versatile actors – Latin chant, folk music to set scenes, Psycho fiddle for Lucy's decapitation.

Scarcely any blood, no fake fangs, but a fast-moving drama, admirably true to the spirit and the style of the original.

DRACULA

DRACULA

Early Doors Productions at Ingatestone Hall

31.10.13

Did Bram Stoker ever see Ingatestone Hall, on his way from Dublin to Golders Green [via Whitby] ?

His classic Gothic horror Dracula has been popular on stage for many years, but this site-specific production, using Liz Lochhead's free adaptation, must be one of the most unusual. And thankfully light on fangs and gore.

We sit in the long, narrow gallery, watching rapt as the simple staging, fluently directed by Amy Clayton, tells the chilling tale, moving swiftly from Carfax to London to Hungary and back again. A company including many of the very best local actors ensure an unforgettable encounter with Paul Sparrowham's Doctor Seward [Julie Salter his sluttish nurse], Justin Cartledge's innocent Harker, the deranged Renfield [excellently done by Darren Matthews], the powerful Carpathian Count himself [an imposing Lionel Bishop], Alan Thorley's vampire hunter, and three seductive succubi …

Clayton herself plays a great Florrie the Maid [not in the original], and the two sisters who are the object of Dracula's predations are played as very modern young ladies by Hayley Webber and Laura Newton.

Flickering candlelight, ancient panelling, solid furniture and the remote setting add an extra thrill to this inventive version of a familiar chiller – just the thing for Halloween.

and for Sardines

An ambitious Halloween choice for Early Doors Productions. Liz Lochhead's imaginative reworking of Bram Stoker's story, itself almost a classic now. And, well outside their studio theatre comfort zone, the atmospheric sixteenth century gallery of Ingatestone Hall. Is that a “Tudor chimney breast” ???

This rather wordy version is perhaps a little long for this venue, but it is well served by an excellent cast, working in a small acting area, lit by hundreds of candles and a few carefully placed lamps.

Central in every sense is the padded cell – a small cage in this production – inhabited by Renfield, one of the patients in the madhouse of Dr Seward [a powerful performance from Paul Sparrowham]. Impressively played by Darren Matthews, Renfield has some excellent speeches, raving and railing in “moon talk and baby babble”.

The Count himself is Lionel Bishop. Palpable stage presence, an aura of evil, and that hypnotic voice “library dust on every syllable”. His beautifully timed entrance stage right, his imposing figure framed in the doorway are typical of a meticulous, memorable performance. Innocent Jonty Harker, the lawyer lured to Dracula's lair by a property deal and then detained there, is Justin Cartledge; Alan Thorley brings gravitas and energy to the crucial vampire-slayer Van Helsing.

Lochhead makes Lucy and Mina sisters, and I might have expected her to make them more interesting as characters. But they are well played here, Hayley Webber as the playful teenager [excellent as a vampire, too] and Laura-Leigh Newton as the bride-to-be. It's the servants who get the best of it: Julie Salter as GriceSeward's nasty, feisty assistant in the asylum, and the show's director, Amy Clayton, superb as Florrie, the maidservant, another canny invention of Lochhead's.

The historic setting comes at a cost: not everything is audible, or visible – Renfield in his cage is a disembodied voice for most of the capacity audience.

But certainly worth it for the frisson of footsteps on the stone flags, the brush of the Count's heavy cloak, the ancestors staring in disbelief from the walls and those candles lighting the dark wooden panelling.

This is a nightmarish, often erotic, vision, dwelling on blood, blackness and bats, dreams and the immortal soul. The soundscape [the baying, screaming “children of the night”], and the music, enhance the atmosphere further.

And outside, in the gloom of the Hall's courtyard, nine tombstones, each engraved with the name of an actor and their part in the dark, demonic drama of Dracula.

DRACULA

CTW at the Old Court

21.10.09

Bram Stoker was keen to see his vampire saga on the stage. Not an easy task – the letters, diaries and newspaper cuttings that make up the narrative do not lend themselves to dramatic impact.

John Godber and Jane Thornton's version, done for Hull Truck in the mid-nineties, was intended as a small-scale, unscary reworking.

Danny Segeth and Dean Hempstead, in their ambitious production, used a cast of thousands and effective lighting and sound, and did not stint on the gasps and screams.

Much of the narration was in the hands of Jonathan Harker, a natural, engaging performance from Harry Sabbarton, who was also impressively haggard and haunted in Act II. The Count himself, a riveting, sinister Kevin Stemp, grows younger and more vigorous, until his final, violent demise [somewhat of an anticlimax here]. This was a confident, charismatic Dracula, complete with creepy accent. “I have dined,” he drawled, and the tiny gesture as he wiped the corner of his mouth spoke volumes.

His Dutch adversary, van Helsing, was the equally charismatic Mike Gordon, though his performance was one of several areas which could usefully have been much tighter.

Kat Tokley and Rebecca Errington were both impressive as the love interest – well spoken and elegantly dressed. Rebecca's Lucy went effortlessly from virgin to vampish vampire bride. And there were more erotic frissons from Kelly McGibney as a seductive succubus.

The other stand-out in the large cast was Steve Holding's zoophagous lunatic Renfield, a brilliantly sustained physical performance.

A great strength of this production was the use of the stage – a kind of gauze light box at the back became the castle walls, the lunatic asylum and so on. Time and again, the grouping, the stage picture, made a real impact: the letter scene, say, or the warning. Sometimes, though, we could imagine the concept, see the vision, even if the technical constraints prevented it from being fully realised. For instance, the offstage voices, effective though they were, would have been so much more so with amplification and echo added.

Jim Hutchon's review:

This was a very long play full of good, imaginative ideas and a sinister minimal set, which went some way to countering a surprisingly leaden-footed script from John Godber and Jane Thornton. Director Danny Segeth mixed in a series of effective tableaux, and there were some super scary moments. The revealing of Dracula in his casket brought goose-pimples, and unnerving screams from Rebecca Errington as Lucy helped the atmosphere no end. Supporting this was an evocative sound-scheme with occasional howls and manic laughter over an almost film-like music background.

The eponymous anti-hero was played by Kevin Stemp who stole the show with a beautifully balanced juxtaposition of menace and parody. The two ‘decent types’ bewildered by his plans were Harry Sabbarton as Harker and Nicholas Milenkovic as Holmwood. Incarcerated in the English asylum was Steve Holding as Renfield, who added convincingly to his well-established portfolio of manics, and head of the asylum was Joe Kennedy as Dr. Seward, who ably kept up the pretence that he understood what was going on.

A programme note told us that Mike Gordon had only recently come to the play, and read much of his part from the script, which was a pity, as acting the part is key to the resolution of the play, and rather damaged the narrative drive. Although she had no words to remember, a special mention goes to Kelly McGibney as the salacious vampire who embodied everything we expected to see in a production of Dracula.

There is a second run of this play on 28th -31st October.

* The role of van Helsing will be played for the rest of the run by Dean Hempstead.