Drac top

Dracula

Malvern Theatres

***

All aboard the SS Demeter as adaptor and director Nick Lane unravels the tale of the classic gothic horror Dracula at Malvern Theatres this week for a Transylvanian telling as old as time over the seas to Whitby.

Jonathan Harker, (Pele Kelland-Beau), embarks on an unforgettable journey to meet Count Dracula, first played by David Chafer, in his lair high up in the Carpathian Mountains with just a couple of vampire women, Maya-Nika Bewley and Marie Osman for company. It is remarkable that Harker somehow manages to escape but his sanity suffers as he recovers in a Budapest hospital, leaving the Count to embark with his boxes of earth to England with a thirst for blood and a sleepwalking Lucy Westenra, (Marie Osman), set firmly in his sights.

As Lucy’s health deteriorates, I also begin to feel befuddled as Dracula takes on a new identity and the script races through Mina Harker’s, (Maya-Nika Bewley) letters and newspaper articles to the fate of the Demeter, Arthur Holmwood, (Harry Rundle), asking Doctor Seward, (Richard Keightley), for answers and help with Lucy and Mina racing off to Budapest.

Without too much cause for concern Lucy is taken care of with a wealth of garlic on the advice of Van Helsig, (David Chafer), and a stake through the heart and a beheading sorted that problem out then it was swiftly onto the next conundrum in the straight jacket at Carfax Sanatorium, Renfield, ( Osman).

The second act switches timelines and with a bit of backwards and forwards and some ruffled, well digested feathers, Dracula is holed up at Carfax Abbey and the hunt begins, with a dash of holy water, a crucifix, and some silver.

Bram Stoker would be proud at the amount of dialogue and how close to the book this version has replicated with lots of school children in the audience talking of the unnerving atmosphere with the haunting notes of Oj Borovaja, an ancient ritual spring song.

An incredible opportunity for the actors to be involved with so many characters and plot twists and turns on stage but made for an unnecessarily complicated narration without any change to the heart rhythm lacking in action and terror.

Tickets are available for performances until January 18 so grab your garlic and stake out the box office on 01684 892277 or check out the website malvern-theatres.co.uk

Emma Trimble

14-01-25

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