Loaded as it is with more salacious subtext than could ever possibly be needed, Bram Stoker’s fevered tale of horror, repression and desire has lent itself to many a bodice-ripping rewrite over the years. Of which Dracula... a variation by Bo List is one, recalling post-modern cinematic vampire mash-ups like Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Dracula (sexy romantic anti-hero searches hungrily for love/food) and the excellent Shadow Of The Vampire (bitter, bloodsucking vagrant offers his services as an actor in exchange for someone to eat), albeit on a somewhat smaller budget, and indeed stage.

Unfortunately, there aren't any ideas ingenious enough, nor jokes funny enough to redeem writer/director Bo List’s abridged tragicomic treatment of the story. This implies, among other things, that Dracula’s solicitor Jonathan Harker was also his repressed gay sex-slave, famous vampire-killer Dr Van Helsing is actually a 1,000-year-old semi-vampire of the Count’s creation, and that Drac himself is simply a misunderstood lovesick creature who just wants to bestow the gift of eternal vampire life to pretty ladies, if only they'd stop screaming and running away from him long enough for him to bite them.

The problem isn’t so much with the acting, which is competent and capable for the most part, as with the uneven, half-cooked script and workmanlike direction. The combination of music-hall comedy and high melodrama, hard to get right at the best of times, sits very uneasily here. Heartfelt monologues are often killed stone dead with the kind of crap, inappropriate comedy punchline that normally requires a snare-drum and cymbal to announce a laugh. That said, Shayne Brakefield's turn as Dr Seward – a camp sex-pest unable to keep his hands off the female cast's breasts – is an amusing tribute to the ludicrous fun of Hammer horror features. So is Josh Preston's portrayal of Harker as a gibbering, twitching wreck, and Dracula’s shambolic, zombie-like Weird Nuns (Pamela Perlman, Trish Clark). But Carmen Geraci’s portrayal of Dracula’s insane minion Renfield as a smug dandy is mystifying, and grates.

They're characters who could have worked in a different scenario – anywhere but in this confused and confusing piece of work. Scenes change with scant indication of location or what's happening. The cast rattle through dialogue as if they're worried they'll miss the last bus home. By the time the Count appears – dressed in a daft, pointed-collared Halloween costume yet played with ruler-like straightness by Bob Singleton – tonally, the play is all over the place. Things are hampered further by the cramped production space and rudimentary lighting rig – no fault of the cast or crew, but the resulting clumsy stage-exits and scene-changes make any suspension of disbelief nearly impossible. Not without its merits, but not as funny, sinister or original as it thinks it is, either.

Cast Credits: (alpha order): Bob Singleton – Count Dracula. Ellie Clark – Mina Murray. Joanna Berner – Lucy Stone. Shayne Brakefield – Dr Charles Seward. Josh Preston – Jonathan Harker. Paul Thomas – Dr Abraham Van Helsing. Carmen Geraci – Renfield. Pamela Perlman – Weird Nun 1. Trish Clark – Weird Nun 2.

Company Credits: Writer/Director – Bo List. Stage Manager – Josh Preston. Assistant Stage Managers – Kay Lea Meyers, Carolyn Sesbeau. Lighting Design – Josh Preston. Set Design – Tony Koehler. Costume Design – Monica Willett. Properties Design – Carolyn Sesbeau. Original Musical Score – Christopher A Tolliver. Production Co-ordinator – James W Rodgers. Company - Chance Theatre. www.chancetheatre.info

END

(c) Dan Geary 2007

reviewed Dan Geary Saturday 4 Aug 07 / Zoo Southside

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com