There are some nights at the theatre where everything comes together, not only on the stage but in the audience. Eating a rushed steak across the road, while the restaurant's fire alarm blared in our ears, witness to one more cow cooked a little beyond medium-well, I reflected on what might be about to happen with my go-to co-conspirator, Calmer Sounds.
It is possible to produce a version of Dracula without a narrator, but the immediacy of the epistolary novel is challenging to recreate without some kind of authorial voice, whether that be a traditional narrator, totally detached from the play (perhaps like a sports commentator in today's world) or some other device that allows the diary entries and letters, the doctor's notes, the ship's log... you need a way to get that across.
We also discussed that the only omission from the actual Dracula, Bram Stoker's novel Dracula rather than any movie, TV series, radio play, audiobook, podcast, eBook, soundtrack, musical, or opera... is Dracula. He's not really in it.
The notion of a spoiler alert for a novel that is well over a century old and fully out of copyright in every known jurisdiction in our galaxy is ludicrous. Isn't it? So consider this your spoiler alert. And consider reading my slightly breathless review (below) penned just hours after the event. This article goes beyond.
PAUL DETTMANN
My Dracula
I have always been haunted by Dracula. Growing up in East Yorkshire, the coast was never far away. South of my home city of Hull is nothing but water, the Humber, spanned by the longest bridge of its kind, at least when it opened in 1981 after nearly a decade of building. East of Hull is nothing but water, and Holland. The sea is both threatening and promising. It offers a means of escape, and arrival.
Childhood summers were spent (moving north in sequence) in Bridlington, Filey, Scarborough, Robin Hood's Bay and... Whitby. Whitby is the furthest north you can go in terms of decent-sized Yorkshire seaside resorts and it is quite unlike the others. It has fewer arcades, less beach somehow, and... the Abbey on the headland known as East Cliff, casting its shadow over the whole town.
Whitby and Scarborough were somehow a 'cut above' the rest. Larger, certainly in Scarborough's case, which also featured the Stephen Joseph Theatre, the theatrical home of Alan Ayckbourn, a man second only to Alan Bennett on Yorkshire's cultural map of the time.
And for fans of the visual arts, David Hockney lived in nearby Bridlington with its cultural venue, Bridlington Spa, a venue still sought-after and featuring gothic act The Last Dinner Party this autumn. If Ayckbourn, Bennett and Hockney could 'make it' then maybe I could. And if Philip Larkin, Everything But The Girl, Roland Gift, Paul Heaton and Norman Cook could 'make it' after choosing Hull (no less!) as their base, then again, anyone could.
I mention all of this because I'm in the mood but mainly because Bram Stoker experienced all of this excitement when he first arrived in Whitby in 1890. At the time, Whitby stood tall as one of the main seaside resorts of Britain, never mind Yorkshire. The noteworthy point is that the Abbey, St. Mary's church next door, and the eerie graveyard, all sitting at the top of the cliff, at the top of the (not) 199 steps, remain unchanged. [Although there was that bit of the Abbey that fell down in 1830. Ed.]
Close to my current home lies a modest-sized National Trust property, Greys Court. Greys is unusual in many respects. First owned by the de Grey family at the time of the Doomsday book, it has been owned by thirteen women, including Evelyn Fleming, mother of Ian and Peter. In 1937 the house was bought by the Brunners. Lady Elizabeth Brunner, née Irving, was the granddaughter of Henry Irving, a man more closely associated with Bram Stoker than any other. This is relevant because many now believe that the character of Dracula himself was inspired by Stoker's complex relationship with Henry Irving.
I did not read Dracula until A-Level English, and I was captivated. At the time I was mainly into complex John Le Carré spy novels, murder mysteries of all eras and Stephen King. Strange though it may seem, if you combine all of those influences you basically end up with Dracula. It is not a novel so much as a case file of evidence, a modern-day escape room which you can dip in and out of without seriously reducing your enjoyment.
I encountered the real Dracula, being the novel, the same year I first read Wuthering Heights. What the hell had Kate Bush been on about? Who was Cathy or Catherine, or Heathcliff for that matter? Then I moved to Tess of the d'Urbervilles. Both books sprang to mind as I sat enthralled by the latest music video from Florence and the Machine yesterday morning. Gosh, here were some strong women. And not to brag, as if I had any say in the matter, but Dracula and the Brontë sisters were all from Yorkshire. Today, you can find Anne in another graveyard on a Yorkshire seaside headland, at Scarborough, where I last saw her in 1986.
The Lyric
Without realising it, these matters were one reason we arrived for our first visit at the Lyric Hammersmith on Saturday night, for a preview performance of a new Dracula. In a twisty coincidence, the Lyric Opera House opened for the first time in 1895, as Bram Stoker was tinkering with various projects. He had already made his first visit to Whitby in 1890 and would finally publish Dracula in 1897.
The theatre lost its way around the time of the First World War but revived considerably during the 1920s. I mention this because nothing can prepare you for the jolt when you finally arrive at the theatre itself, after wheezing and panting up many flights of stairs.
How could such an old theatre sit at the top of such a modern building? The answer is that throughout its many redevelopments, the theatre auditorium itself, the Frank Matcham-designed "Main House", has always been preserved and was fully refurbished in 2018.
The Play
My first review focused on the role of Mina Harker, as indeed the whole show is anchored by her as both narrator and main participant. The casting of up-and-comer and BBC Dope Girl Umi Myers in that role was a stroke of genius. But what else happens, and to whom?
This is a play full of delights. The next person that springs to mind is Mei Mac who plays Lucy Westenra. For the first half or so she is bright and bubbly, thrilled to receive three marriage proposals on the same day from suitors including a highly eligible American.
I can't say too much about the pathetic rendition of Jonathan Harker, Mina's husband, but I can say that he is made deliberately pathetic for dramatic reasons that you need to go and discover for yourself. But Jack Myers in the role is pathetic in such a brilliant way, you have no option but to feel sorry for him: Jack is the only man in a small room full of very strong women both on stage and off. He also has some of the most dramatic stunts, at one point almost sliding face first through the footlights and into the audience.
The other three cast members have even more work to do as supporting cast playing a wide range of other roles. You will each have your own favourite but we have a female Van Helsing played by Phoebe Naughton, Macy Seelochan as Elise and B Terry as R. M. Renfield, the crackpot asylum patient who might just be the most clear-sighted of all the characters. I can easily imagine another play that focuses only on Renfield, in the style of The Silence of the Lambs. This ensemble also appear as the various (very funny) suitors of Lucy in several of the lighter scenes.
I have read more about this production since Saturday and am relieved that I managed to capture a fair chunk of what the crew and cast were trying to achieve. There are so many versions of Dracula it is difficult to stand out and indeed, another version starring Cynthia Erivo of Wicked is coming to the West End in February. But this production does stand out. It has revived my interest in a book that has cast its shadow over my life since childhood. It is one of the canonical texts of the Victorian Gothic which might include Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights as well as Tess of the d'Urbervilles, although Mary Shelley's classic is technically a year too old to be officially Victorian. You might choose to add your own favourites to this list.
Tickets are selling fast and press night is almost upon us, so this show is going to be sold out within a week. There are still tickets available in all price ranges. There are matinees and accessible performances. So go! Go fast and go now. Book here.
