May 12, 2010
As I entered the (appropriately gloomy) confines of the OFS, an usher handed me a slip of paper warning me of strong language and scenes of an explicit nature throughout the production. The stage itself had been transformed into a split-level diorama, with a charming English garden (complete with swinging love-seat) overlooked by a grim asylum corridor behind it. A bald man in a straightjacket sat hunched in a filthy cell at the back of the stage, quietly gibbering. Altogether, a very promising start to an evening of gothic horror!
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the production ever quitre lived up to this promise. The acting and direction were good, but erratic. As a whole, this production felt clunky, even slow at times. Occasional pauses in dialogue (suggesting that someone was groping for a line) and some awkward blocking even gave the occasional feeling that this was under-rehearsed. Of course, these problems are likely to disappear as the run continues, but I don’t know whether the pacing will improve as well. Tense and thrilling scenes of supernatural terror were followed by leisurely domestic interludes, or what felt like irrelevant scenes of nurses in the asylum baiting Renfield. Choosing to focus on the Murray household, and Lucy’s suffering in particular, was an interesting and original choice, but it left the actual hunt for Dracula almost as an afterthought crammed into the last half-hour of the play.
There were plenty of inventive and unusual choices made in this adaptation, many of them excellent; a neurotic, anorexic Lucy, for example, made much more believable prey for the incredible supernatural menace that Dracula presented. Some of the production’s decisions, however, seemed just plain odd. I’m no raving purist (unlike my companion, an English student, who writhed every time a character’s name was changed), but why did characters from the book who don’t appear in the play keep popping up in the dialogue? Many of the most dramatic scenes (such as the final dreadful encounter with Lucy) happened entirely offstage, and there were more subplots than the cast or director seemed to know what to do with. The whole effect was more silly than spooky.
There were, of course, some really great moments in this production. I can’t commend Ashley Wilce’s performance as Renfield highly enough. He was onstage for the entire evening, (including the interval), muttering jokes, insults and profane commentary on other scenes. As a kind of Greek chorus with Tourettes, he provided most of the laughs, and as a disturbingly enthusiastic madman, a good deal of the thrills. Bekah McDougall as Florrie and Hannah Nicholas as Lucy were also very good, playing off each other nicely. Kieran Donnelly as Van Helsing and Fraser Price as Dracula were likewise a fine pair, both clearly having great fun in a pair of bombastic roles where it’s impossible to overact. Aneurin Rees lovably pathetic Jonathan encountering Dracula for the first time was as delightfully dripping with dramatic irony as anything from the silver screen (and Rees is certainly a less wooden actor than Keanu Reeves), and Lucie Cox as Mina excelled whenever she was paired with Lucy or Florrie.
On the whole, the evening was disappointing rather than bad. There’s plenty to like in this play, some laughs, some thrills, some really great scenes, and, yes, nudity. The problem is that it doesn’t really gel, and there’s little sense of tension. Tighter pacing and more rehearsal might well help keep the audience on the edge of its seat, rather than in danger of dropping off. Dracula didn’t suck, but it didn’t really sink its teeth into me either.
Unfortunately, I didn’t feel the production ever quitre lived up to this promise. The acting and direction were good, but erratic. As a whole, this production felt clunky, even slow at times. Occasional pauses in dialogue (suggesting that someone was groping for a line) and some awkward blocking even gave the occasional feeling that this was under-rehearsed. Of course, these problems are likely to disappear as the run continues, but I don’t know whether the pacing will improve as well. Tense and thrilling scenes of supernatural terror were followed by leisurely domestic interludes, or what felt like irrelevant scenes of nurses in the asylum baiting Renfield. Choosing to focus on the Murray household, and Lucy’s suffering in particular, was an interesting and original choice, but it left the actual hunt for Dracula almost as an afterthought crammed into the last half-hour of the play.
There were plenty of inventive and unusual choices made in this adaptation, many of them excellent; a neurotic, anorexic Lucy, for example, made much more believable prey for the incredible supernatural menace that Dracula presented. Some of the production’s decisions, however, seemed just plain odd. I’m no raving purist (unlike my companion, an English student, who writhed every time a character’s name was changed), but why did characters from the book who don’t appear in the play keep popping up in the dialogue? Many of the most dramatic scenes (such as the final dreadful encounter with Lucy) happened entirely offstage, and there were more subplots than the cast or director seemed to know what to do with. The whole effect was more silly than spooky.
There were, of course, some really great moments in this production. I can’t commend Ashley Wilce’s performance as Renfield highly enough. He was onstage for the entire evening, (including the interval), muttering jokes, insults and profane commentary on other scenes. As a kind of Greek chorus with Tourettes, he provided most of the laughs, and as a disturbingly enthusiastic madman, a good deal of the thrills. Bekah McDougall as Florrie and Hannah Nicholas as Lucy were also very good, playing off each other nicely. Kieran Donnelly as Van Helsing and Fraser Price as Dracula were likewise a fine pair, both clearly having great fun in a pair of bombastic roles where it’s impossible to overact. Aneurin Rees lovably pathetic Jonathan encountering Dracula for the first time was as delightfully dripping with dramatic irony as anything from the silver screen (and Rees is certainly a less wooden actor than Keanu Reeves), and Lucie Cox as Mina excelled whenever she was paired with Lucy or Florrie.
On the whole, the evening was disappointing rather than bad. There’s plenty to like in this play, some laughs, some thrills, some really great scenes, and, yes, nudity. The problem is that it doesn’t really gel, and there’s little sense of tension. Tighter pacing and more rehearsal might well help keep the audience on the edge of its seat, rather than in danger of dropping off. Dracula didn’t suck, but it didn’t really sink its teeth into me either.