DRACULA (UK Actors Support Network/Tread the Boards Theatre Company)*****

 

By Dave

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpAxjbNpWsA

Available until: Unknown

Everyone talks about Twilight and various other modern vampire stories but I’ve never found a vampire novel to beat Bram Stoker’s Dracula. It’s a really brilliant book and it’s difficult to imagine a better stage adaption than this one.

The script was written by John-Robert Partridge and Catherine Prout, the Co Artistic directors of Tread The Boards Theatre Company in Stratford Upon Avon and they’ve done really well to adapt it to the stage. The book is told in a series of diaries and letters, written by various characters, which means the characters are often not physically with the people they’re talking to. But the story hardly lacks drama! However, there is a lot that needs to be done in order to transform it into a play and this has been done really well.

Of course, a good script needs good actors and this is an absolute top-notch cast. I haven’t seen a cast list that shows who plays who so I’ve been comparing photos and Zoom stills and I’m paranoid I’m going to have a brain freeze and get people the wrong way round but I shall do my best (and there’s always an edit icon).

I believe the title role of Dracula is played by John Craggs, who created the company to help raise money for Acting for Others. After seeing what he’s capable of as Dracula, I’m not sure I’d dare not donate! It’s an incredible performance. He resists any temptation to get too creepy early on – after all, the story would have come to nothing if Jonathan Harker had turned tail and fled before he’d even got in the door – but there’s something just slightly cold in his manner when you look for it. Later on, he gives us the full horror and his Dracula is an alarming foe with an impressive presence. He seemed to be filling not just a small section of the screen but the whole room!

Anna Carteret is, as you’d expect, magnificent at Van Helsing but she still surprised me by taking the character in directions I wasn’t expecting. The character is male in the book but works perfectly well as a female. This Van Helsing is intelligent, distinguished and instantly commands respect. She’s real force of nature and Anna’s performance makes it very clear how essential she is in the battle against Dracula.

It’s a while before Van Helsing appears, however, and we’re hardly sitting around waiting because the other characters are so well-played. Dan Avery is a personable Jonathan Harker, clearly intelligent and elegant but not a natural vampire hunter, which isn’t at all a bad thing. It’s probably much better for married life if you aren’t regularly involved in all that sort of thing. Ayesha Casely-Hayford plays his fiancée (later wife) Mina: she’s gentle and kind but full of a remarkable inner strength and fortitude which slowly comes to the fore.

I think Richard O’Callaghan plays Dr Seward because I’m not sure who else he could be, but this outstanding actor’s characterisation is so good, he looks very different! It’s another very impressive performance with such incredible detail in every word and gesture. Jill Penfold is the rather shallow but not unlikeable Lucy Westenra.

The production really suits the online medium as we see things in close-up which we’d probably totally miss in a theatre. There are also few stage directions, though these are brilliantly-read by Michael Ross.

Of course, we really don’t want online productions to become standard so let’s get through this strange Christmas as safely as we can and do everything we can to get plays back where they belong. But in the meantime, let’s appreciate the positives – and this production is definitely one of those.