Snippitts of Illusions

Dracula

This past weekend I took the opportunity to journey to Salt Lake to see some friends and take in some theater. I had two close friends both doing shows and another individual I like and respect doing one as well. Part of me going on this venture was to take in a lot of theater, and that I managed to do. I saw three plays in two days time and I intend to write a short review for each.

Dracula has become the iconic vampire. Though he wasn't the first he's the one we think of when we think of vampire's. His mannerisms and exotic eastern European voice, his cape and ability to change from man to bat. The most ingrained version of Dracula, of which there's been literally hundreds, is that of Bela Legosi. Perhaps it's fitting that the Heritage Theatre's production of the play, directed by Nick Hutchinson, uses the first play adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel, adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. This version of the play was originally produced in 1927 and featured that mentioned iconic actor as the lead. It has a tremendous amount of history behind it and sadly that history also makes the play feel a bit dated. There are certain modern sensibilities that the play itself ignores, in fact the way the two acts of drama are structured leave the audience a bit let down at the end as the second act is incredibly short.

But I get ahead of myself. This particular adaptation finds one Dr. Seward (John Belliston) meeting with the youthful fiance of his daughter Lucy (Tokiah Jade), Jonathan Harker (Nathan P. Cunningham). Harker and Seward are worried because Lucy has come down with a mysterious malady that leaves her weak and seemingly drained of blood, and had previously killed another young woman in the community. Dr. Seward has sent for an old colleague of his, Prof. Abraham van Helsing (Daniel B. Kaminsky) to help further diagnose Lucy, as he's completely at a loss. Helsing arrives and suspects there may be a vampire on the loose. The idea seems preposterous to Seward but he's willing to consent to Helsing as everything else has that has been attempted to cure the girl has failed. The two primary candidates for the vampire are one of Seward's patients, R. M. Renfield (Josh Weinfurter) and a newly arrived Count Dracula (Mike Gardner) who has just bought a nearby estate. It soon becomes obvious who the culprit is, though Renfield seems to be in league with the vampire (and is slowly turning into one himself).

The plot unfolds with Dracula seducing the maid Miss Wells to help him continue to prey on Lucy. Now that Helsing is here and knows what Dracula is the vampire, the Count has difficulty gaining access to his latest victim. He uses Miss Wells to take away the protection that has been put up around Lucy and then performs a sacrament to bind her to him. The second act unfolds very quickly. The three men have been about the country side destroying all of Dracula's lairs they could find, after deducing how the vampire is hiding during the day. They've destroyed all except one that they are unable to locate. Harker, Seward and Helsing decide to use the guilt laden Renfield as bait to lure Dracula into Seward's library and hopefully kill him. Their attempt fails as he flies out the chimney so they let Renfield go in hope that he will lead them to his master. Renfield flees through a secret passage and descends a long flight of stairs. There the three men discover a vault hidden deep under the asylum where they quickly locate and dispatch Dracula.

The play is short, and honestly the pay off is a bit of a let down. This isn't the casts fault, but lies completely at the feet of the playwrights. That said there were a few issues with the play that were noticeable. Unfortunately all the action takes place in Seward's study as the small stage doesn't lend itself well to busy scene changes or even small isolated sets. The set itself is busy, and the placement of a divan creates some awkward blocking at times that is only exacerbated by the small stage and the number of people on it during a few of the scenes.

There's a lot of fresh, new actors on stage as well, it takes several of the actors, including Miss Jade and Mr. Weinfurter a bit to really sink into their roles and I don't think they've dug as deep as they could into the characters, particularly Mr. Weinfurter's portrayal of Renfield. While the young actor does a good job there's a spark missing and I couldn't help but feel he hadn't really got into the meat of the part. Both John R. Belliston and Daniel B. Kaminsky are both narrow in their portrayal of their characters through much of the play. Both actors are very capable, but I couldn't help but feel they were both holding back a little bit. Mike Gardner's Dracula was fun, but was not sinister enough. While definitely charming I never felt that he was a genuine threat to any of the other men on stage. I can't help but think Mr. Gardner could really bring that out a lot more. There were sinister moments from his role to be sure but only during the scenes with Lucy and Miss Wells, and one scene with Renfeild, which is the first time I felt like the monster was a genuine threat. In general there were many moments I felt the cast failed to click both with the parts and with each other. I get the impression that the actors weren't in the moment but simply reciting (or struggling with) lines and waiting for their ques. This isn't present through the entire play, just during a few key scenes, though it is enough to be noticeable at times.

The production and has 4 more weeks of performances so may be worth your time and effort to go see if you like Dracula or you just want a fun little Halloween experience. The script is completely safe and the show itself is very family friendly. I will admit I'd have enjoyed something a little grittier, and perhaps the cast find that click to bring the insanity of Renfield or the menace of Dracula to the spot light and really make the other parts shine.

Dracula is being performed at The Heritage Theater in Brigham City every Friday, Saturday and Monday until November 4th.

Labels: Theater Reviews

posted by F.G. Shaw @ 6:56 PM