THE Surrey-based Blackeyed Theatre celebrates its 20th anniversary with a new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic epistolary novel Dracula, 100 years after it was first brought to the stage. The production, adapted and directed by Nick Lane, is on a UK tour until May next year, so if you miss it at Bath Theatre Royal, where it plays until Saturday 12th October, you have several more chances to catch it.
We all think we know the story, which, over the years since its publication in 1897 has been read, filmed, staged, cartoonised, pantomimed, turned into comedy, T-shirts, badges … you name it. In typical Blackeyed fashion, Nick Lane has stripped away the hype and delved deep into the psychology of the original, brilliantly “explaining” its timeless attraction for successive generations … that’s what vampirism is about, isn’t it?
On a simple and flexibly skeletal set, six actors perform all the characters, with three of the men taking the title role in reverse-chronological order – the oldest begins the tale, and, as the vampire drinks more life/death-giving blood and gets younger by the gulp, the youngest actor ends the story. Once the audiences’ expectations are confounded, it’s easier to go along with the premise, and mighty effective it is!
This version is firmly set in the England of the late 19th century, when our gallant explorers and brave military were dispensing excruciating punishments to their foes, who were often just residents of other lands whose riches we sought to plunder. How different was that from vampirism, Lane asks.
The actors, Maya-Nika Bewley, David Chafer, Richard Knightley, Pele Kelland-Beau, Marie Osman and Harry Rundle, weave in and out of the narrative by way of letters, telegrams, messages and meetings, sometimes repeating elements of the story with changed consequences. It’s an involving and thought-provoking way to tell a tale you think you know.
The early section has much scene-setting to do and the audibility needs to match the speed. Travelling to many different theatres, each with its own acoustic, this can be challenging for both performers and audience.
After years of “classic” Draculas, dancing Draculas and Draculas who pair up with Granulas to do it in panto style, the Blackeyed show is a memorable revelation.
G-PW
The tour stops from 25th to 27th November at the Wyvern Theatre, Swindon, from 30th January 2025 to 1st February at MAST Studios, Southampton, from 13th to 15th March at Poole Lighthouse and from 22nd to 24th April at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter.