By Gary Murray
As part of an extensive tour, Blackeyed Theatre brought their production of Dracula to the Devonshire Park Theatre last night.
Like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dracula is one of the classics of Victorian literature.
Count Dracula resides in a castle in Transylvania, modern-day Romania. He is about to purchase some property in England and a clerk, Jonathan Harker, is sent to help finalise the arrangements. However, the Count is no ordinary buyer …
Harker becomes a prisoner of the Count and is forced to escape. Dracula comes to England and proves to be a malign and disturbing influence on polite Victorian society. A group led by Professor Van Helsing attempt to stop him.
The original novel by Bram Stoker on which this is based is written in the form of letters and diaries. This presents a hurdle for a stage production: here it results in a strangely underpowered evening.
There are an awful lot of scenes where we are told what has just happened or is about to happen.
As soon as any momentum starts, there is a sit-down discussion between two characters. We don’t get any real sense of why Harker might find the Count to be disturbing, and his reaction to finding out that he is a vampire is a bit low key.
There should be a growing sense of menace whether the Count is present or not, but we just don’t have it.
With three different actors playing Dracula, there is not a central, charismatic, performance underpinning the drama.
Nor does the set or direction help. While providing different levels for the actors to work with, the set resembles an overgrown Japanese garden.
In one scene, Dracula has to interact with Renfield, his most devoted servant (here portayed as a woman), from at least ten feet away up a flight of steps.
When the novel was written in the 1890s, the expectations of women were changing. There is a tension between Jonathan Harker’s conventional fiancée Mina, and the unease felt by men at their traditional roles being challenged by women’s new aspirations. This tension is reflected in the ‘uncontrollable‘ female vampire figures.
There is room for a strong piece about the struggles of women in Victorian society but here this theme is only partially successful.
That said, the strongest performances of the night are probably those of the two women actors, Maya-Nika Bewley and Marie Osman.
But overall, it all makes for a stodgy and, dare I say it, bloodless evening.
:: Dracula is on at the Devonshire Park Theatre until tomorrow, Wednesday November 20, when there is a matinee and evening performance. Main image / Eastbourne Theatres
:: The reviewer paid for their own ticket
