| Dracula by Sion Eirian |
| First presented in 1991 by Sherman Theatre Company |
| cast size:8 |
There are 3 reviews of Sherman Theatre Company's Dracula in our database:
|
Dracula
by Sion Eirian
|
[print] |
|
venue Sherman Theatre, Cardiff |
|
|
June 5, 2004 |
|
| This review first appeared in the Western Mail Dracula may have been the starting-point for so many variations, spoofs and spin-offs, from Hammer horror flicks to the current Van Helsing, that we can lose sight of the basic theme, but the vampire myth is one of those stories that can strike at the very heart of civilisation – wherever and whenever it’s reinvented. When Bram Stoker repackaged it for Victorian England his story, replete with eroticism, feminism, psychoanalysis and mysticism, his novel sent shudders through respectable readers. Here, after all, was a tale of an evil outside force who could send men mad, seduce innocent young girls and live forever; only the Christian crucifix (and garlic !) could stop his advance. The many symbolic elements in what on the surface is simply a classic gothic horror story have been taken up ever since, usually with Count Dracula a transgressive alien whose roots are embedded in tradition and who represents a threat to contemporary society. As well as the Hammer series we had Nosferatu (the first vampire film), Andy Warhol’s Dracula, various Draculas in Swinging London, a black Dracula, nude female Draculas, Draculas revived by Professor Frankenstein – and so on. So as the AIDS scare hit the States in the 1990s we had a spate of films about a figure who lived by taking the blood of innocents, who was a feared (and misunderstood) individual, who either preyed upon bourgeois fears or was demonised by so-called respectable society – hence Interview with the Vampire, Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the rest. The original 1931 Dracula film was in fact based on a stage play and there have been several dramatic stabs at the subject, including one from Pip Simmons in the 1970s, but the most notable of which is probably Liz Lochead’s 1985 play, revived here by Martin Houghton for what has turned out to be an excellent year of Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama students. I have not been a great fan of Ms Lochead’s version but this production in the Sherman Theatre’s studio space is a cracker – visually stunning, lots of strange noises and effects and performances of a calibre that would credit any professional stage. And underlying it is that urgency that gives the Dracula story its perennial potency: it is quite chilling, for example, to see in the opening scenes a chained prisoner being beaten and humiliated by a female guard. Martin Houghton’s direction is, as ever, never blatantly political but addresses itself to the real world and questions of humanity and inhumanity and of sexual attitudes. Just as ten years ago Neil Jordan and Francis Ford Coppola in their movies found the story to resonate with the current AIDS scare, so this production cannot escape the issues of the day. Ms Lochead, writing as Thatcherism got under way, gave us an adaptation that not only took the tale seriously but raised other questions about attitudes to women and sexuality, science and morality and just where values lay in a mad world. Nearly twenty years on, the issues are not that different even if the manifestations change – not that this production ever nudges us very obviously towards politics. Full of tension, suppressed sexuality, fear of the unknown, it explores human nature – in particular the denial of female power. That this RWCMD achieves so much is thanks to Houghton’s imagination and risk-taking but also to his company: let’s hope that the likes of Kate Jazwinski, Harry Long and Stuart McLoughlin (to pluck out, rather unfairly, three names from a cast that in general is excellent) will stay in Wales as successful fully-fledged professionals. Chrissy Stergois’s design is stunning and Peter Bruus’s lighting design and Robert Betts’s sound are crucial elements in an impressive production, where my only real complaint is that the staging, which fully utilised the steep-raked studio space, was such that there were whole scenes that some of us simply could not see. |
|
| reviewer: David Adams |
|
|
Dracula
by Sion Eirian
|
[print] |
|
venue New Theatre Cardiff |
|
|
May 12, 2005 |
|
| Just picking up the programme provides an erotic and blood-chilling thrill. The well-crafted set looks suitably Gothic but the young boy sat at a computer in the bottom left-hand corner of the stage and two large screens set into the crumbling walls tells us that this Bryony Lavery version of the world’s greatest horror story has skipped a couple of centuries and that these horrors still happen right now! How right she is. Not that this ‘chilling’ Rachel Kavanaugh production attempts to make any more serious a point than providing us with a great fun night out. But all Bram Stoker’s original characters are there in their modern disguises. We have our latter-day Jonathon Harker, a carefully crafted performance from Giles Fagan who, in his legal dealings with the Count turns from urbane metrosexuality to scared and vulnerable; if not with tremendous sincerity then very much with the subtle tongue-in-cheek bravura that, adopted by all the cast, makes for an engaging, beautiful, highly irrelevant and wonderfully silly piece of sheer entertainment. The Internet has not yet come up with a more modern way of repelling vampires but has, as we shall learn provided Dracula with an opportunity to spread his evil powers on an even more world-wide basis. It is also the first means of contact between the Count and the English based solicitor who is overseeing the purchase of new real estate in London. Harker’s original journals now take the form of e-mails to his fiancé , Mina as he journeys out to Carpathia. The modern-day computer virus and the vampires from antiquity conjoin to cut off this line of communication just as all hell starts to break loose. Back home we meet Mina played with a subtle touch of sophisticated reality by Laura Howard, and her close companion Lucy, small, sweet, pretty and so vulnerable, a captivating and delicate portrayal from Katie Foster-Barnes. But in this milieu, despite being engaged to good old Arthur Homewood and readily protected by the stiff upper lips of Dr Seward and Quincey Morris, all stirling performances from Damien Goodwood, Hywel Simons and James Albrecht she soon is smitten and bitten, near the coast at Whitby by the vampire and becomes one of Dracula’s brides. Not long after Mina’s neck is penetrated by those two sharply pronged teeth and expert help is brought in. Colin Baker may have lost the flowing glistening locks and lithe figure of his Dr. Who days but he stills carries a bright Tony Blair smile and with that same charisma and strength, we are quickly convinced that he is just the man to get these good people out of the hole they are digging themselves into. And of course he does, but not without the regulatory steaks through the heart, the sawing off of poor Lucy’s vampire head and the final puff of smoke and magically empty coffin of the now happily deceased Count Dracula, symbolising maybe a final goodbye to Michael Howard, a really effective performance in this difficult role by Richard Bremmer. One might have expected a script of more telling consequence from best Play Award winning Bryony Lavery but there were no subtle post-modern metaphors. There were no traditional high melodramatic performances. At first the modern technology irritated and made the suspense of disbelief more difficult but when one had suspended all suspense of disbelief and allowed oneself to get taken up in to the ‘Boy’s Own’ adventurous spirit of the pieces one was able to celebrate with the cast, a bloody good night out! |
|
| reviewer: Michael Kelligan |
|
|
Dracula
by Sion Eirian
|
[print] |
|
venue Tobacco Factory, Bristol |
|
|
September 26, 2013 |
|
| Bristol’s Tobacco Factory is a low-ceilinged theatre space with half-round seating making for an atmospheric and intimate setting in which to see dance. As the lights go down, a gothic setting of dark twisted branches and wrought iron gates appear out of the mist, revealing the monster Dracula as a dark satanic figure setting out his territory like a dog spraying his smell around to declare his ownership of the stage. Performed by British dance star, Jonathan Goddard, he puts a firm stamp on the scene with a charismatic and extended solo that makes the flesh creep more than a little. With a dance vocabulary switching effortlessly from ballet to a twisted, impulse-driven muscularity, it’s a riveting opening from choreographer Mark Bruce and it defines everything that follows. From the eye-catching beginning, the story unfolds in a series of finely graduated scenes ranging from classic gothic horror to music-theatre comedy and erotically ghoulish comings and goings especially from the women dancers who scream and writhe in best hammer horror tradition. In the first half, the production offers up a multi-layered narrative in front of an inventive set powered by the dramatic lighting design. The low comedy and blood and guts humour is as black as black can be and is danced forcefully by an exquisite cast of ten dancers who play multiple roles through the show. Beside the extraordinary Goddard, Welsh dancer Chris Tandy provides a superb foil to him, creating a masterful portrayal of his decline and fall to the omnipresent Dracula. With huge energy, the superb cast perform at full tilt for nearly two hours in a dazzling series of set pieces that sweep them and the audience along with the frenzy and fun of it all. In Dracula, Bruce has given Goddard a riveting showcase for his enormous talents and his spooky eyes alone are worth the price of a ticket. Among the many fine ensemble dance scenes, there is a spellbinding and memorable section of night-time travel in a Victorian horse-drawn carriage with wolves and horses which creates an enduring and powerful image. The second half is a little looser and has less tension than the first with a slightly out of focus final image, but this is a premiere performance and with a bit of tightening up, Dracula reeks the smell of success and is one of the must-see dance shows of the year. It’s a rare dance production that can be enjoyed so much by audiences and puts Mark Bruce down as a creator of narrative work at the highest quality in British dance. The packed house showed their full-blooded appreciation at the end with a round of well-deserved cheers. |
|
| reviewer: Roy Campbell-Moore |
|
| If you know of any other existing review, or if you have any more information on Dracula, (perhaps you were in the production or were the author or director) then please use the form below to send us the details |