Dracula

Dracula by Liz Lochhead
Dir. Joyce Deans
@ The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama

It will come as no surprise to those familiar with me that to discover a production of "Dracula" playing it would prove an irresistible lure, possibly something not unlike the attraction held by the Prince of the Undead, though more likely the urge to compare notes with my own production, in which I played the Transylvanian count himself.

The script is a new adaptation of StokerÂ’s novel, remaining faithful to the spirit of the original. Lucy Westenra (now Lucy Westerman, played by Christine Bottomley) is the younger sister of heiress Mina Westerman (Claire Lamont), which left me with concerns about some implications. For instance, much is made of MinaÂ’s ability read shorthand (as only she can read HarkerÂ’s (Tim Robinson's) account of his nightmare trip to Transylvania), something that an heiress of the time would avoid. Also, the aristocratic Lucy of the novel made the only real choice for her husband (Lord Holmwood), and yet Mina is affianced to a man who was put through school on a scholarship.

The extra creativity of the script came in the first act, where the new relationships of the characters are established for those who (like me, probably) came to the theatre already overly familiar with the original. So much so, in fact, that the traditional starting point for "Dracula," HarkerÂ’s trip to Transylvania does not occur until well past half-way into the first act.

We are presented with a sequence of scenes that alternate between MinaÂ’s home in Whitby and the London asylum run by Arthur Seward (Aaron McCusker), where the focus is invariably Renfield (Peter Robertson), an inmate who performs as a kind of barometer for the Count. This leads to a far larger role for Renfield, an opportunity not seized by the playwright. While Nurse Grice (Toni Frutin) uses the enlargement of RenfieldÂ’s role to build a strong rapport with Renfield, which develops from strict discipline to a truly sympathetic relationship (her final monologue over the corpse of Renfield near the end of Act II was a moving farewell for his tortured soul), unfortunately, many of the Renfield scenes degenerated into people talking *at* him. Robertson spoke with strong Glaswegian accent (compared with the English accents of most of the cast), and his frequent dropping into rhyming couplets provided a beautiful contrast with the more formal language that marked the speech of the other characters.

In Whitby, we see a Lucy who is headstrong, a spoilt younger child. She accepts SewardÂ’s marriage proposal against her sisterÂ’s wishes. Through her willfulness she becomes the ideal target for Dracula upon his arrival in England. As she surrenders to him, she becomes an active instrument in her own demise, not merely the passive victim; she persuades her maid Florrie to remove the garlic protecting her. BottomleyÂ’s Lucy has a liveliness to her onstage presence that contrasts with MinaÂ’s "responsible" veneer; where Mina is shocked at anything suggesting sexuality, Lucy appears eager to embrace it. However, I think BottomleyÂ’s performance suffered from some misdirection. Although her subtlety is admirable (between "pure" Lucy and the vampiric Lucy before her death), it is stretched to breaking point in the graveyard scene. Arthur being confronted with the vampire Lucy is far more frightening now his pure wife is a woman of "wanton voluptuousness," but there had been too much wantonness in the earlier parts of the play, and all Bottomley had left was a hoarse breathlessness.

Susan BurnettÂ’s Florrie is the third woman in the Westerman household, someone who could have simply been a miscellaneous plot device (assist Dracula attack Lucy) but Burnett gave us a real young woman, betrayed by her own desires, and betraying her mistress in the process (although this did provide Florrie with a conspicuous anti-Empire speech when her lover is killed - a political statement for the upcoming British election?). And her presence allowed the exquisite touch that the three Westerman ladies, with their different approaches to sexuality, also doubled as DraculaÂ’s wives, the fiendish women who attack Harker in Transylvania.

Because of the extended opening, the Transylvanian scenes are correspondingly (and disappointingly) brief. The sound and lighting brilliantly evoked a dense, threatening atmosphere that I wanted to immerse myself in, particularly after the relative brightness of Whitby: doors open of their own accord as Harker steps into DraculaÂ’s castle, Dracula presses Harker about England, persuades him to stay as a guest despite all protestations. I have previously played the Count, and this has probably affected my view, but Aleksandar Mikic was not convincing in these scenes. Yes, his accent was flawless (with a name like Mikic he had a head start!), but his movements were obviously of a fit young man pretending to look old, his attitude and demeanor were too quick for a man who had patiently planned his expedition to England.

However, once in England, MikicÂ’s physicality was a benefit to the reinvigorated Count. His sensuous approaches to Lucy (the first, which served as the curtain for the first act, ended in a striking image of the white-clad Lucy, lit by a spotlight, being embraced by the darkness of Dracula as red rose petals dropped down upon them) are echoed in his brutal attack upon Mina and killing of Renfield towards the end of the play. But even so, his performance lacked the spark that marked by BottomleyÂ’s or RobertsonÂ’s performances.

DraculaÂ’s nemesis is in the form of Van Helsing (Simeon Wren). I may be no master of accents (I readily acknowledge that my attempt at Transylvanian drifted well towards Germany), but all I can say about Van HelsingÂ’s accent is that it must have been somewhere in the Mediterranean. In it. Perhaps Wren was over compensating for his own Glaswegian accent (I canÂ’t comment about the other actorsÂ’ own accents), but he affected a speech impediment that suggested a palate deformity that in modern times would be surgically corrected at birth. But I cannot remain completely unsympathetic: in his "King Laughter" speech after the death of Lucy, he was required to laugh for an embarrassingly long time, and for more than half of it I was cursing the sadist who inflicted this upon him.

My review seems to have become distracted from LamontÂ’s Mina and RobinsonÂ’s Harker - the true central characters of the play - which were simply wonderful. The brash confidence of Harker before Transylvania is shattered by his trip to Transylvania, and all we see upon his return is a shell of a man, while Lamont plots MinaÂ’s course from heiress to loving wife to DraculaÂ’s victim with effortless assurance. These two actors occupied their spaces on stage with ease, and delivered their rather formal dialogue without any sense of artificiality. This solid grounding, this believability, made the audience all the more receptive to the fantastic events that occur in the course of the play. McCuskerÂ’s Arthur, is stolid and correct, but his performance lacked any intensity or passion, even when he is courting Lucy.

The numerous strong elements in the cast pulled the show together admirably, and I was treated to a fine eveningÂ’s entertainment. Technically the show was superb (except for one scene where Renfield was left shouting inaudibly into the wind), and there were a number of truly affecting tableaus. Everything in the "Dracula" world had been so engaging that my major dissatisfaction came with the hurried ending. There is only one scene between DraculaÂ’s attack upon Mina and the final confrontation in front of DraculaÂ’s castle. In the final scene, Dracula makes the fatal mistake of wandering out to meet his unwelcome visitors only a few moments before sunrise.

Oh, for a good Swiss clock!

Neil McDonald (Dr.)
Your Correspondent in Glasgow