written and directed by John Heimbuch
adapted from the novel “Dracula” by Bram Stoker
February 11 – 26, 2011
Red Eye Theatre
Under the electric lights of London, Mina is enamored of a handsome young solicitor. But when Jonathan disappears on a business trip and Mina is approached by an alluring foreign prince, a shadow falls over their lives. Now, seven years since the defeat of the vampire, the wounds of betrayal remain… until their private journals are published under the name “Bram Stoker” and they must either face the past or be destroyed by it.
Cast
Production Team
| prince vlad drakul | Charles Hubbell | writer/director | John Heimbuch |
| mr. jonathan harker, esq. | Ian Miller | set | Steve Kath |
| mrs. mina harker | Melissa Anne Murphy | costumes | E. Amy Hill |
| dr. john seward | Wade Vaughn | lighting | Logan Jambik |
| the hon. arthur holmwood | Keith Prusak | sound/music | Tim Cameron |
| mr. quincey morris | Erik Hoover | props | Kristin Larsen |
| dr. abraham van helsing | Alan Sorenson | stage manager | Sarah Holmberg |
| miss lucy westenra | Joanna Harmon | dramaturg | Justin Alexander |
| mr. r.m. renfield, esq. | Sam Landman | dialect coach | Mira Kehoe |
| szgany, dark lady, etc. | Kelly Bancroft | fight choreographers | Brian Hesser |
| szgany, dark lady, etc. | Jennifer Probst | Amie Root | |
| szgany, butler, etc. | Philip D. Henry | dance choreographer | Tracy Vacura |
| firearm expert | Richard Eue | ||
| assistant director | Maya LeBeau | ||
| lighting assistant | Bronwen Marshall-Bass | ||
| romanian lang. coach | Oana Zayic | ||
| portrait photos | Elise Radtke-Rosen | ||
| production photos | Dan Norman |
Reviews
“…a text that works both as a reimagining and a sequel to Stoker’s tale… Heimbuch intriguingly explores the psychology of these characters and the peculiar motivations that drive their actions.”
-Examiner.com
Heimbuch has produced a sprightly and unusually intelligent adaptation of Stoker’s original novel that is fathoms better than any stage adaptation I have ever seen. He teases out themes that Stoker merely touched on in his book, and they’re awfully fun…
Although Heimbuch follows many of the details of the book rather closely — he includes the aristocratic Arthur Holmwood as a character, who is almost always left out, and ends the play with a wild west-style chase through the Carpathian Mountains, which is likewise usually abandoned. But some of it he draws from later inventions — the madman Renfield, as an example, is a minor character in the book whose particular lunacy makes him a sort of motion sensor to the presence of the vampire. Later plays and films expanded his role greatly, sending him off to Transylvania to assist with some real-estate transactions before he loses his mind to the occult. Heimbuch’s play goes a step further. Renfield, played here by Sam Landman, is as developed a character as any in the play, a witty eccentric whose madness might merely be his philosophical attempt to come to terms with having been witness to an impossibility that is born of and sustained by blood. Heimbuch rescues a line from Francis Ford Coppola’s bonkers 1992 adaptation of Dracula, having Renfield declare “I’m a sane man fighting for his soul,” and it makes a lot more sense here.
In some ways, Heimbuch’s version is better than Stoker’s, although I know it is heresy to declare so… Heimbuch carefully limns each character, and, in an unusual framing devise, revisits them after the terrible events of the book have ended, and they have badly reintegratred themselves into their former lives or definitively failed to do so. They’ve become a wretched, haunted lot, their interactions fraught with jealousy and an unspoken shared history, and they’re far more interesting characters than Stoker could be bothered to create.
-Max Sparber, MinnPost
Heimbuch seems to have a Dracula “toy playset” for his own imagination to have fun with, taking these characters as if they were action figures and inserting the missing sections of Stoker’s epistolary novel, speculating both on the elliptical elements in the story – which Stoker may or may not have wanted us to pay close attention to – and the fates of the characters several years after they’ve defeated the vampire. With what I appreciated – being a novice theatre goer – as a fine set and opulent costumes, moody lighting, sound effects, and music, Drakul is a scenario Stoker enthusiasts dream and speculate about, while also skilfully avoiding the smugness of any cult revisionism…
Drakul then works marvelously as a cerebral experience for a Dracula fan, designed so as to work on our own knowledge of the book and its mythology, expanding on – and remaining true to – the novel’s themes… I found this to be an endlessly interesting, well-acted treat of speculation on one of my own longtime lifelong obsessions.
-Niles Schwartz, The Niles Files
Walking Shadow Theater Company breathes new (and yet eternal) life into Bram Stoker’s Dracula with their latest production, Drakul, written and directed by John Heimbuch. The play speculates about the lives of the book’s characters seven years after their final, violent encounter with the Greatest Vampire of All Time.
As is so often the case with Walking Shadow productions, the company pairs a compelling story with strong performances. Charles Hubbell pulls off not only a spot-on Eastern European accent but also Bald-Man-As-Sex-Symbol, something we don’t often get to see in theater (notable exception: any production featuring Patrick Stewart). Melissa Anne Murphy as Mina is proper and restrained throughout, making her scenes of abandon with the Prince all that much more titillating (and gives us an inkling as to why she was recently voted Vita.mn’s 2011 Hotness Queen).
-Rebecca Collins, TC Daily Planet
