Jay & I saw this last night at the Birmingham Rep and were very impressed. We were wondering how anyone was going to stage Dracula, but it really does work.
The cast were brilliant and all very convincing - acting was a definite necessity as the production was performed on a fixed set with only a limited amount of moving of large prop chests and the appearance of a coffin in act 2. The stage was very cleverly dressed to give an isomorphic look and roughly dividing the stage into 4 areas with angled walkways runing front to back and left to right. This division of the stage with close and careful lighting creates a dark and moody atmosphere to the extent that the house lights seemed excessively bright after each of the two acts.
I don't want to give anything away for those that might like to see it, but it is a contemporary setting which uses new technology very well, both with in the story and within the play - the use of two screens allowed the projection of reinforcing material, which could have been a distraction, but which were well chosen and worked very well to reinforce the action, especially for audiences used to big screens at gigs where you look at the screen for the details.
Many of the actors were familiar from TV and film work - Colin Baker (ex. Dr Who) playing Van Helsing was probably the biggest name, though it seemed that all the other cast had either worked in Casualty/Holby or Doctors!
I thought it all worked very well and the actors played well. Jay wasn't so sure about the portrayal of Dracula, but then he wasn't Gary Oldman! I'd agree, however that his portrayal was far closer to Nosferatu than Chistopher Lee or Oldman, but as a fan of early film I thought that was perfect.
A suitable level of humor, especially from the protagonist, lightened the mood when necessary and made the shocks more shocking. Special effects, other than the screens and lighting, were used sparingly but to excellent effect with a couple of truely magical "where the &*$% did he go moments".
Even if, like Jay & I you know the story backwards the adaptation is great and they even manage to throw in a twist!
Get to see it if you can, it's worth the money, but you'll have to be quick; the play finishes in Birmingham on Saturday 11th June and then has only a week run in Brighton (13th to 18th) before closing. Shame, this one should run and run!
Here's another picture of Jack - he looks so much healthier than when we got him a nearly a year ago. If you look closely you can see his black eye! He got into a disagreement with Sabre over a ball in the paddling pool (yes, our dogs have a pool) - Jack grabbed the ball and Sabre grabbed Jack. Ouch! Still after a smidgen of antiseptic and a dab of vaseline it's healing nicely.
