REVIEW - Dracula, Blackeyed Theatre, 27th & 28th February 2025 - **

Is there room for another retelling of Dracula among the well-loved, but more often than not, dubious, collective of current versions, made up of Hollywood rip-offs, Hammer Horror campery, and the dozens of stage productions (faithful or not) and, of course, Bela Lugosi’s 1931 ‘master blueprint’? Of course there is - the captivating, titular Count of Bram Stoker’s 100-and-so-year-old classic novel has the power to enthral us time and time again. Blackeyed Theatre has gone to noteworthy lengths attempting just that; to give us the original, multi-faceted story, enriched with some genuinely pleasing theatrics, and a dollop of retrospective, and entirely unobtrusive, social commentary. However, while it’s all well and good not to be bringing something revolutionary to a well-polished classical text, Nick Lane’s adaptation of Dracula lacks a playfulness - a Gothic melodrama without any teeth.

The cast of 'Dracula' (c) Blackeyed Theatre

The production is doggedly faithful to the original story and, by and large, the key characters. Six actors multirole with precision, their pursuit aided by a lack of drastically varying costumes, instead demonstrating a reliance on vocal dexterity and subtle physicality shifts. Each actor tackles the through-line of at least one major role, while Dracula himself is covered by three actors, each taking over from the previous at certain points in the play. It’s an interesting gimmick, but it adds nothing to the story-telling or characterisation, and you could be forgiven for assuming that this facet was generated of necessity rather than an out-and-out creative decision.

Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, Arthur Holmwood, Dr. Jack Seward and Professor Van Helsing are truthfully and applaudably realised by the cast, as too are a vast array of secondary characters, with particular mention to Marie Osman’s Renfield, Harry Rundle’s Captain and David Chafer’s delightful butler cameo. The story, slightly streamlined but mercifully so, is divided into five chapters, and carries an epistolary structure, mirroring Stoker’s original text. There are letters, diary entries, recordings, newspaper articles...all interwoven with dialogue, but, with individual passages delivered by multiple actors, this cross-patter device soon becomes laboursome and ineffectual. It also derails the production from giving us extended dramatic scenes, as well as proving to be a constant reminder that some classical texts are better to be read, rather than to be seen.

Maya-Nika Bewley as Mina Harker and Harry Rundle as Dracula (c) Blackeyed Theatre

Where the production is more successful is in its remarkable set and lighting design. Victoria Spearing’s abstract, wooden-framed, skeletal frameworks interspersed with varying stone-effect platforms, provide multiple entrance and exit points for the actors, as well as some equally impressive, and atmospheric, lighting, designed by Oliver Welsh. Props are used sparingly but effectively, and the whole piece is lifted by choreography and movement by Enric Ortuño and a handful of melodic folklore-esque numbers by composer Tristan Parkes. Blackeyed Theatre are masters at this; ‘stripped-back’ storytelling with deceptively simple, evocative production aesthetics and soundscapes. It’s also an effective vehicle for Lane’s inclusive, albeit loquacious, script; topical matters such as the Women’s Suffrage movement; the sectioning and mistreatment of women during the period; even British Colonialism, are retconned into the piece – Renfield and Dr. Hennessey are portrayed as women, for example.

Richard Keightley as Dr. Seward, Marie Osman as Lucy Westenra, Pelé Kelland-Beau as Jonathan Harker and David Chafer as Van Helsing in 'Dracula' (c) Blackeyed Theatre

What is massively missing from Blackeyed’s Dracula is a sense of dramatic tension, genuine scares and sex appeal. Critics and commentators have charged vampirism with having swathes of eroticism, yet neither Dracula nor the Victorian behaviours of restraint and forbidden sexual prowess, carry any kind of frisson. The tension is zapped out of the production by the unimaginative dialogue, while any momentum struggles to pass muster. Also, there are some half-baked ideas that either aren’t successfully rendered (at one brief moment, there’s a recognisable nod to Dracula’s Past with claw-like hand-shadowing), or simply could be better explored.

If you’re largely unfamiliar with the story, then this version stands as a good introduction to the Dracula phenomenon, with strong performances and production values. If, however, you already know the basic plotline, then this retelling can sometimes be a lacklustre affair.

Dracula is being performed at Lincoln's New Theatre Royal on Friday 28th February 2025, at 1.30pm and 7.30pm. Please click on the link below for more information and to buy tickets.

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