THE LOWRY, QUAYS THEATRE, SALFORD – UNTIL 13 NOVEMBER 2021
REVIEWED BY MIA BOWEN
4****
It’s New Years Eve in the 1960’s, a young woman sits silently at a wooden table in what we learn to be a police interrogation room. It soon transpires that she has information about a recently discovered body. The woman is Mina Harper (Riana Duce), a young lady who disappeared in 1905, yet the woman in the room is in her 20s, fresh faced and youthful. But why? We were soon to find out.
The play unfolds with only three characters on stage, Mina Harper and two interrogating officers, WPC Williams (Adela Rajnović) and DS Donaldson (Matt Prendergast). A simple stage set is suddenly transformed into a graphic novel, where three cameras capture the actor’s faces and translate them into line drawings that are projected onto the back screen. The use of this media, ingenious camera angles, simple props and green screens bring the novel to life most dramatically.
The three actors change characters seamlessly; with clever lighting, media use and slight costume changes to highlight different roles, the drama is cleverly told. The additional use of other languages (Italian, French, Spanish, Russian, German) interwoven in the script adds further emphasis to the plot.
The face paced story has clever twists and keeps the audience captivated throughout. The famous story of Dracula is known by most however this adaptation gives a new untold perspective.
Dracula, The Untold Story was performed in the smaller Quays Theatre situated within the Lowry Theatre complex. The smaller Victorian feel of this venue only added to the atmosphere of the story.
The Lowry theatre complex is situated right in the middle of the Salford Quays development. One of the many bars has impressive views of the Manchester Ship Canal, MediaCity UK and the Imperial War Museum North.