Bridge House Theatre's ingenious production breathes new life into Bram Stoker classic

This production of Dracula was adapted and directed by Nick Lane and moved the story through six short acts. Clever use by the actors of giving dates for events over a two to three month period kept us on track and moved the story along apace. Dracula was played by each of the three male actors, each of whom brought a different slant to the character.

We start inevitably in Transylvania with David Chafer as Dracula, with an excellent eastern European accent, hosting Pelé Kelland-Beau as Harker, a British lawyer who had gone to finalise the purchase of property in England. David conveyed an increasingly menacing demeanour as Harker became aware that he was in effect a prisoner in Dracula’s castle. The woke speech by Dracula accusing the British Empire of, in effect, being a vampire on Commonwealth nations was contrived and unnecessary.

The second act on the boat to Whitby was perhaps the cleverest with an increasingly fraught crew and the captain [Harry Rundle] becoming increasingly alarmed as the weather deteriorates and the crew gradually disappear. The third and fourth acts allowed Marie Osman to shine as two very different characters, well-brought up Lucy and [possibly mad] Renfield. Maya-Nika Bewley played Lucy’s friend Mina well, as she changed from light-hearted to serious once Lucy had died, and then being no-nonsense Dr Hennessey at the asylum. Marie and Maya-Nika were eerily slick in their movements as Dracula’s sirens. David reappears as Professor Van Helsing, his Dutch accent and earnestness helped to portray him as a man who knew what was at stake [if you’ll excuse the pun].

Being told the dates of events cleverly helped us to understand that scene five overlapped with events in scene three and four. Harry took the role of Dracula and gave him a cold ruthlessness that was ideal for the part. The diversion with Renfield coming under Dracula’s spell and ultimately being his victim was something of a distraction which could have been trimmed or even deleted.

Pursuit of Dracula back to Europe was shrewdly developed so Scene five kept us on the edge of our seats as the final confrontation approached, with the audience clearly engrossed. Indeed the ending was an unexpected twist.

The staging was a lattice of wooden struts and several short sets of steps which were incredibly effective as different rooms and locations, with the cast moving between them effectively. Simple crates had multiple uses to allow us to envisage every scene. Often all or most of the cast were on stage at any time, and sometimes even visible behind the lattice work, yet this in no way diminished this wonderful production.

Tickets from www.bridgehousetheatre.co.uk