Village bite night draws in crowds
Compton Players Dracula
at Compton Village Hall
from Thursday, October 24 to Saturday 26 and Thursday, October 31 to Saturday, November 2
Review by TONY TRIGWELL-JONES
What better way to celebrate Halloween, than with a staging of Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic masterpiece? Although Dracula was not the original vampire fiction (Polidori’s Vampyr was published some 70 years prior) it is to Stoker’s Count that we owe much of modern lore about the bloodsucking world of the undead.
Pete Watt’s intelligent, faithful adaptation makes clever use of Strigoi characters (performed with macabre joy by Catherine Lee and Hollie Genevieve), who weave around the narrative with sections of the epistolary original. Like Macbeth’s “wyrd sisters” they appear to be ministers of fate, reciting the letters and diary entries which give the book its sense of the uncanny.
The play opens by foreshadowing the regret of its key protagonists, giving what is essentially an atmospheric horror, something of a human quality. This helps to highlight the central themes of morality, science, the natural and supernatural.
Teagan O’Brien (Mina) and Caroline Edwards (Lucy) show great versality as prim Victorian ladies, turned carnal creatures of the night, much to the consternation of their medic guardians Van Helsing (Jasmine Mullany) and Dr Seward (Alan Johnson). Meanwhile George Buckland’s Jonathan Harker portrays a vulnerability that draws out the young man’s confusion and wide-eyed naivety.
Pete Watt plays the titular count with a romantic strength that stays just the right side of camp; and Naomi Read’s well pitched performance questions the nature of power, humanity, the mind and body in the industrial age, as an excellent Renfield. Both performers command the space with skill and are central to some of the strongest moments in this production.
Careful direction from Phil Prior, ensures a taught, chilling atmosphere is maintained throughout, avoiding the temptation to play moments for shock value or melodrama.
This ambitious Compton Players’ production has three more performances this week, on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
I would commend it to lovers of literature and classic horror alike.