Dracula

Touring 28th September - 1st November 2009

He is coming from the east, the wolves are howling and the storm is gathering, and what will you do when he finds your door?

With the likes of 'Twilight', 'Demons', 'Being Human' on TV there has never been a better time to bring the most famous gothic horror of them all to the stage in a heady mix of circus, physical performance, film and music.

Terrifying, sensual, and exhilarating by turns this new interpretation of Bram Stoker's classic tale was created by the artistic team behind the widely acclaimed 'The Elephant Man' and 'Below Zero'.

Cast and Production Team

Dracula - Arran Glass
Harker and Renfield - Saul Jaffe
Van Helsing - Clive Holland
Mina - Mary Rose
Lucy - Jennifer Gabriele
Arthur - Stephen Love

Adapted & Directed by Mary Swan
Devised by The Company
Designed by Sam Pine
Devised by The Company
Original Music by Paul Wild
Aerial Choreographer by Lorraine Moyneham
Multimedia by Rob Thrush
Assistant Director - Andrew Hayes
Assistant Designer - Anna Rees

Reviews and Comments

The Stage
Thursday October 1, 2009

Dracula

"This interpretation of the legendary horror story is a sinister improvisation on themes previously explored but developed with creative ingenuity.

As Harker's mental state is interrogated by Dr Van Helsing (played with a cool, probing sincerity by Clive Holland), we realise that Harker has seen and heard inexplicable horrors and that he is in a far darker place than any normal psychiatric doctor could handle.

Saul Jaffe plays the mental patient who relives the horrors of his Transylvanian experience with passionate desperation. As Harker (and Renfield), he reflects on his visit to Dracula's territory with frenetic agitation, reverting smoothly and swiftly to his youthful carefree manner before his introduction to the darker side of the Count.

The sinister depths of the horror story are given an ethereal, nightmarish quality using Victorian doll puppetry and aerial gymnastics.

Arran Glass as Dracula works the trapeze and aerial silk with aerobic skill and physical control which emphasises the vampire's nocturnal paranormality.

Mary Rose plays Mrs Harker and Jennifer Gabriele and Stephen Love join the company from placement training schemes which gives them a real opportunity to perform in a production of such a high standard."

Julie Watterson

Basingstoke Gazette
Thursday October 1, 2009

A Gothic Masterpiece

"In keeping with their 25-year history of high-quality work, Basingstoke's Proteus Theatre Company transformed the most famous gothic horror of them all using a heady mix of circus, physical performance, film and music which they will be touring across the country until November 7.

Although Bram Stoker's original text was first published in 1897, Dracula's first-person structure through a series of diary entries and letters lend itself well to our modern “reality”-driven entertainment culture and the gripping script really is a credit to Mary Swan, who adapted and directed the production.

It is a dark romance, with themes of obsession, hunger, lust and love, and this production was bought to life with original, spine-chilling music by Paul Wild and superb aerial choreography by Lorraine Moneyhan.

Terrifying, sensual and exhilarating by turns, the production opened with the air of dark and bewitching anticipation, cleverly sustained throughout the performance by all the cast, with an especially impressive performance from Arran Glass, who possessed an eerie and outstanding stage presence as Dracula.

Stephen Love, currently on a gap-year work placement with Proteus, presented a fitting representation of Arthur and shows great promise as a young actor.

Also of Note was Clive Holland who treated the audience to a terrifically brooding presentation of the character Van Helsing, which contrasted with a zesty performance from Jennifer Gabriele as Lucy.

Overall, a very engaging, and at times challenging, piece of theatre that was certainly not for the faint-hearted! Basingstoke is very lucky to have a theatre company of Proteus' standard and I eagerly await their next production."

Genevieve Gillard