Hull New Theatre – until Saturday 27th October 2018.
Reviewed by Michelle Richardson
4****
How fitting that Bram Stoker’s Dracula is hitting the stage during Halloween season, and boy does it start here. Plunged into darkness with a sudden mighty bang and flash of light, I jumped out of my skin and numerous members of the audience let out screams. Brilliant intro and a promise of things to come.
In silhouette we get to see our first look at “the vixens”, writhing, crawling about, all sinewy and creepy, the set then evolving into a train station. Jonathan Harker (Andrew Horton) is saying goodbye to his fiancée Mina Murray (Olivia Swann), before travelling to Transylvania and a meeting with Count Dracula. Mina’s close friend Lucy (Jessica Webbber) is being wooed back home, in Whitby, by not one but three suitors, the most dogged being Dr Seward (Evan Milton). Seward practices at the local sanatorium where we get to meet the wonderful and totally bonkers Lady Renfield (Cheryl Campbell), who enjoys eating mice and spiders. Harker returns from Transylvania a shell of the man he used to be, confined to a wheelchair with no idea what had happened to him. Up until this point we had not had a sighting of Dracula. Through flashbacks we see what Harker has endured, and finally Dracula (Glen Fox) makes an appearance. The first act finishes where it started with a flash and a bang, but this time we have the illusion of Dracula flying off into the audience before plunging into darkness. I honestly thought that he was going to fly out into the audience on a wire, you really have to see it to appreciate it. Dracula is fully immersed in Whitby and Professor Van Helsing (Philip Bretherton) is bought in to try and help Lucy and eradicate Dracula once and for all.
All the cast delivered good performances with Webber as Lucy and Campbell as Renfield being the stand outs for me. Campbell seemed to relish the eccentricity of her role, eating that poor mouse with glee. The vixens writhing as one on the stage at various times was also very effective, working as one.
The whole production was quite dark with the set, designed by Sean Cavanagh, consisting of large towering columns, effortlessly sliding along the stage to create anything from the sanitorium, to Whitby and Dracula’s castle. The lighting by Ben Cracknell, was superb adding to the atmospheric conditions. What really stood out though was the sound, it was all consuming, booming all around the theatre, heightening our senses, the icing on the cake. Thank you to the music and sound designer Paul Ewing, for the experience. Talking about sound, I did occasionally struggle to hear what the actors were saying on stage as they were not wearing mics, and not quite loud enough. I wander if anyone else, especially those behind me or up in the dress circle had that issue. Ultimately it was only a minor niggle.
Was I scared out of my seat? Not quite, but I did jump a few times. Not quite up to the Hammer House of Horror films that I used to love and watch behind my fingers when I was a kid.
An atmospheric show ideal for Halloween, partly set in the good old Yorkshire town of Whitby, which has it’s famous Goth Weekend this coming weekend, how apt!!