Bram Stoker Classic Given First Class Treatment.

Richard Keightley and Marie Osman. Photo by Karl Andre Photography.

Dracula Performed by Blackeyed Theatre at The Bridge House Theatre, Warwick, From Tuesday 15 October to Wednesday 16 October.

Review by Charles Essex

There have been several Hollywood versions of Dracula so one might image that this is yet another predictable production.  But this performance by the Blackeyed Theatre, using six actors and clever staging, kept the audience on the edges of their seats - Bram Stoker classic given first class treatment.

Inevitably the story starts in Transylvania.  David Chafer is Dracula hosting Pelé Kelland-Beau as Harker, a British lawyer who had gone to finalise the purchase of property in England.  David, with a sound eastern European accent, brings an increasing menace to Harker’s stay in the castle as he becomes aware that he is in effect a prisoner in the castle. 

The boat journey to Whitby was particularly cleverly portrayed.  The captain [Harry Rundle] became increasingly alarmed as the weather deteriorates and the increasingly fraught crew gradually disappear.  Marie Osman is exceptional as two very different characters in the third and fourth acts, firstly as well-brought up Lucy and then [possibly mad] Renfield.  Maya-Nika Bewley played two roles well, as Lucy’s friend Mina, as she changed from light-hearted to serious once Lucy had died, and then being business-like Dr Hennessey at the asylum.  Marie and Maya-Mika were dangerously enticing as Dracula’s sirens.  David appears again as Professor Van Helsing, with the necessary seriousness of a man who knew the danger of  what he was dealing with.

David Chafer and Pele Kelland-Beau. Photo by Karl Andre Photography.

Scene 5 overlapped with events in scene 3 and 4, but actors giving the dates of events helped us to follow events smoothly.  Harry, as Dracula in the last three scenes, gave him a ruthlessness that was essential for the part.  As Dracula was pursued to Europe in scene 5, the final confrontation approached.  The ending was an unexpected twist which kept this full auditorium engrossed.

This was a superb production of Dracula, adapted and directed by Nick Lane.  Use by the actors of giving dates for events over a two to three month period kept us on track and generally moved the story along.   Each of the three male actors played Dracula, and each brought a different angle to the character. 

The staging was a lattice of wooden struts and several short sets of steps which were incredibly effective as different rooms, with the cast moving between them effectively.  Simple crates had multiple uses to allow us to envisage every scene.  Often all or most of the cast were on stage at any time, and sometimes even visible behind the lattice work, yet this in no way diminished this wonderful production.

Tickets from www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk