“There are far worse things awaiting man than death…”
Well, unless you’re Dracula. The world’s most famous vampire is more alive dead (or undead) and has been for more than a hundred years. He’s taking yet another bow, this time over at Classical Theatre Company, where they’re offering up Chris Iannacone’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula just in time for Halloween.
The year is 1897, and English solicitor Jonathan Harker embarks on a long journey, traveling quite the distance to Transylvania to meet with a mysterious man named Count Dracula. Harker has recently procured Dracula an estate in England, but the business reason for the trip quickly falls to the wayside as Harker starts to notice strange happenings at Dracula’s castle, as well as Dracula’s request that he stay for one month.
Back home in England, Harker’s wife Mina anxiously awaits his return, in the meantime visiting with her dear friend Lucy, who’s about to wed a Mr. Arthur Holmwood. As time passes without word from her husband, Mina becomes more unsettled until one night, a mysterious ship crashes ashore during a violent storm. Not long after, Lucy begins to suffer from blood loss – cause unknown. They send for Dr. Seward, who calls on Professor Van Helsing for help deducing the cause of Lucy’s unexplained anemia. Van Helsing suspects there’s something more to Lucy’s illness—and the two puncture wounds on her neck—than meets the eye.
Bram Stoker released his novel Dracula in 1897, and really, the gist of the story you know even if you never attempted slogging your way through Stoker’s epistolary snooze fest; its core has been filtered through the years in countless adaptations and parodies across multiple mediums with varying levels of fidelity to the source material.
Though, to be fair, more so than Stoker’s novel, it’s Tod Browning’s 1931 Universal Pictures film starring Bela Lugosi that people know best – which in turn was based more on Hamilton Deane’s 1924 stage adaptation and John Balderston’s 1927 American revision. The point is, pretty much since its inception, Stoker’s novel has existed to be adapted into better versions of itself.
Iannacone’s broad-stroke swing at Stoker’s novel is decently paced and well-plotted, but the production is noticeably devoid of much substance. The focus is on the horror of the story, yes, but with the themes that underpin that horror – repressed sexuality and desire, anxiety around gender relations and otherness, etc. – tamped down, if not almost entirely stripped from the production, the show is little more than empty calories.
By not leaning into the more common themes that usually come up in this story, director Blake Weir certainly created a challenge for himself and, somehow, it’s a challenge he overcame in terms of still mounting a thoroughly watchable show. It’s genuinely scary at times, funny in moments, and unsettling throughout – i.e., just what you want to see around Halloween. And despite a script that does a lot more telling than showing, the action scenes here are top-notch.
One positive change to the story that deserves a mention is that Iannacone has added a much-appreciated agency into the character of Mina “I will not be the cause of our failure” Harker. Other hand, with only two women in the piece, it exacerbates the usual horror pattern that still rears its typical head here – the superficial one who discourteously calls a place “backwater country” is the one who is punished in the story while the loyal, responsible other one who thoughtfully considers the beauty of said “backwater country” is the one who survives. It’s more subtle than what’s in Stoker’s book (and in many works of horror in general), but it’s disappointing that it’s still there.
Going back to the novel, Stoker didn’t exactly go all in on characterization, leaving Iannacone with a flat character problem that goes unsolved in his script. The actors are left to give us reason to care about these people, a chore they approach valiantly and overall successfully.
There’s Kyle Clark as weary traveler and nervous talker Jonathan Harker. There’s the tight-laced skepticism of David Akinwande’s Seward. Jonathan Robinson, who brings a shuddering insanity and a hauntingly maniacal laugh to Renfield. Eva Olivia Catanzariti’s sympathetic Lucy and Patrick Fretwell’s steadfast Holmwood. And though their appearances are brief, the Weird Sisters, played with haunted house vibrance by Luke Fedell, Maggie Maxwell, and Jasmine Christyne, are the theatrical equivalent to statement pieces, uniquely designed by costume designer Leah Smith.
Maggie Maxwell as a Weird Sister, Kyle Clark as Harker, and Jasmine Christyne as a Weird Sister in Classical Theatre Company’s Dracula.
Photo by Pin Lim
Elissa Cuellar’s Mina shines brightest in those moments where vampirism takes hold and flashes of an almost sinister nature appear. Greg Dean’s Van Helsing reads as knowledgeable and well-meaning if a bit scattered in appearance and mannerism, something unimpeded and maybe unintentionally aided by noticeable line flubs.
Finally, there’s the man himself – Dracula, played by Spencer Plachy. In Plachy’s hands, Dracula is menacing. He’s not at all dandified or sexy like we often see; instead, Plachy’s Dracula comes off as a patronizing predator. (This choice right here, by the way, is the closest the production comes to making substantive meaning.) And not unlike the shark in Jaws, Plachy’s Dracula is used sparingly, which makes each time he appears, all hunched shoulders and harsh breath like he’s barely restraining himself, all the more enjoyable.
Scenic Designer Afsaneh Aayani’s frightfully versatile set, with an assist from Properties Designer Charly Topper, serves the entire production with ease. The use of the windows as screens for essential projections by Weir, Edgar Guajardo, and Brenda Palestina, as well as photobooth-like framing for the characters, is particularly clever and reflective of the production’s great use of space. They also help with smooth transitions, with scenes blending into each other.
Aayani’s set is lit by Guajardo’s hope-you’re-not-afraid-of-the-dark lighting schemes. Really, I can’t remember a show so happy to live in the shadows, which it does deftly. The playground is only better in the moments when smoky red light fills the theater and washes across the stage. And Jon Harvey’s eerie soundscape, from the buzzing of flies and barking of dogs to the non-diegetic, synth-y rhythms and jump-worthy musical cues were absolutely killer (no pun intended).
The final verdict: If you’re looking for a little chill down your spine, Classical Theatre Company’s Dracula is just the lean, alluringly atmospheric production for you.
Performances will continue at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays and Monday, October 21, and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays through October 26 at The DeLUXE Theater, 3303 Lyons. For more information, call 713-963-9665 or visit classicaltheatre.org. $10-$30.
Natalie de la Garza
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