Dracula Review

Jack Studio Theatre until 27 October

Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud 1 -3 November

Reviewed by Claire Roderick

5*****

Whether it’s Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen or the Sesame Street Count, everyone has a favourite version of Dracula. Bram Stoker’s novel is still ripe for adaptation, with the vampiric mix of seduction and repulsion irresistible to new audiences and creating a tourist boom for Transylvania. (Top travel tip: don’t bother going to Bran Castle if you’re Welsh – it’s like being on the tube during rush hour and makes Castell Coch feel authentic.) After creating magic with Frankenstein, the prospect of Arrows and Traps getting to sink their teeth into Dracula (sorry, I promise that’ll be the only one) was pretty damn exciting. And Ross McGregor hasn’t disappointed – everything about this production screams quality.

Francine Huin-Wah’s set, full of arches and trapdoors out of with vampires can slink, Ben Jacobs’ eerie lighting design and Alistair Lax’s sound design create a gothic and intense atmosphere that is guaranteed to make you a little jittery before anything spooky actual happens. Ross McGregor’s masterful adaptation keeps some of the epistolic style of the novel in the opening scenes, with wonderful comic timing from Beatrice Vincent, Conor Moss and Lucy Ioannou as Mina, Jonathan and Lucy establishing their relationships and character clearly and quickly.

From the moment he appears, you can’t take your eyes off Christopher Tester’s Dracula – magnetic and mesmerising, but with subtle hints of the underlying repulsiveness and pitiful need – Tester just nails it. McGregor cuts the number of men in Van Helsing’s unwilling gang of vampire hunters, and alters the dynamic of the story wonderfully, with the men – Jack (Alex Stevens), Arthur (Oliver Brassell) and Jonathan all becoming even more bumblingly stereotypically “English” than in the novel, while Van Helsing (Andrew Wickes) is a gentle old soul and Mina and Lucy strong women completely comfortable with who they are. McGregor’s masterstroke is casting the ever-brilliant Cornelia Baumann as Renfield – lurching from giggling, insect-gobbling coyness to full-on demonic possession with consummate ease, Baumann’s Renfield is complex and compelling. Baumann’s spellbinding performance ensures that the ease with which Dracula controlled her, and her finding the strength to deny him are completely believable, understandable and relatable.

McGregor’s direction keeps the story rolling, with the necessary exposition not dragging the pace. There are shocks aplenty, but a laugh follows quickly, which is just what you need in a spooky tale, and this is theatrical storytelling of the highest calibre.

Dracula is the perfect spinetingling treat for chilly autumn nights. Arrows and Traps have, once again, breathed wonderful new life into a classic with a production full of surprises, thrills and chills. Get a ticket while you can.