SCREAMING WITH DELIGHT: Thalian Association slays Dracula
The stage glows red. Thalian's lamps, scattered through the theatre, flicker like candles. Before the curtain even comes up, the audience is already whispering about the spooky atmosphere, waiting with anxious anticipation. We're warned about what's to come: flashing lights, fog, and a whole lot of blood.
Dracula opens with a dapper Renfield in front of the closed curtain: cross-legged on a stool, smoking a cigarette, being served in a crystal flute by a maid. He tells us about Bram Stoker, about his story that's lasted through the years. He warns us about the horror we're about to see. And then, as swiftly as the curtain rises, he's bound in chains at an asylum, screaming for his one comfort in this world: master.
The cast is small but mighty, each delivering incredible performances from start to finish. John Gibson plays three different versions of Johnathan Harker over the span of the performance: an innocent traveler, a madman lost in his own mind, and a returned and determined fiance set on ridding England of Dracula. Each segment of his character is well played.
Caylan McKay's Renfield is one of the best performances I've seen. If you jump scare easily, watch out: you never know where in the theatre a bloody Renfield might pop up! McKay's Renfield isn't just pure comic relief; it's also an undertone of madness that punctuates Dracula's dark world. (But also, it is positively hilarious!) The movement back and forth between drama and comedy could easily have felt stiff and out of place, but McKay jerks us back and forth with ease, creating a sense of pity one moment only to have us laughing in the next. The dedication to staying in character, even in the curtain call, is incredible!
Georgia Cole is flawless as Mina. At the production's beginning, Mina is timid and mild, longing for Harker's return, worrying over Lucy's illness, and fretting over those around her. As the plot develops, so does she—transforming into a determined woman who takes control of her own destiny and creates agency for herself. Cole plays the character arc well, tugging us softly behind her as she gained more and more power right up until the end.
Okay, look, are we biased when we say encore's own theatre critic Chase Harrison stunned as Dr. Seward? Of course we are. But that doesn't make it any less true. Harrison plays the complex, complicated character of John Seward seamlessly: stone cold as he used Renfield for his own experimental gains, soft and hungry when looking at Lucy, eager and determined to save his love and eradicate Dracula. I ached as he sobbed over Lucy, as he wrestles with the moral dilemma of letting her go post-transformation. An absolutely fantastic performance!
The duo of doctors is rounded out, of course, by Van Helsing, who's called in by Seward when Lucy continues to fade, much to his avail. Mark Sutton's Van Helsing is kind, thoughtful, and full of power—I trusted him instantly. His deliveries are sharp and methodical, with a voice you could listen to for hours. I adored his Van Helsing.
In many adaptations of Dracula, the character of Lucy is a bit of a side character to Mina, but Cat Thomas's was every bit Mina's equal. In life, Thomas was flirtatious, hilarious, and bubbling, a light drawing the attention of not one, but three suitors. The way she teases Seward so playful and entertaining that you can't help but adore her. In death, she's equally as captivating as she was in life—but far more terrifying. Thomas is a true standout for me, an absolute scream queen to the extreme—only, in this case, the kind that makes you do screaming! The baby shoes on her post-transformation costume are an excellent, even if unsettling, touch!
The set is truly incredible: an asylum bed for Renfield to the far left; Dracula's castle, represented by a winding staircase and eerie balcony in the center; with Lucy and Mina's shared quarters to the right, a bed in front of a large, stained glass window. Upside down crosses hang over a dark, red sky above, and the lamps throughout the audience flicker along with the ones on stage, creating the illusion we, too, were in the castle. As the actors move between sets, the action flows seamlessly from location to location, never breaking the spell of the play. Each setting has its own feeling of dread and horror, each one as well crafted as the next. At one point, there's even movement happening in each set all at once, creating a perfect storm (quite literally; it was during a storm!)The piece that truly made me gasp, though, is the tomb in which they lay poor, dead, vampirized Lucy: a stone coffin with an angel carved above it, as though to cast out the evil that's settled inside her—an angel just dying to be splattered with (someone's) blood.
Sound designer Ethan Goldan and audio engineer Neilly Carrol significantly contribute to the haunted atmosphere with the sounds of the stage. In Renfield's asylum, water drips from somewhere unseen, an unsettling background to his moments of silent reflection. When storms brew both in Lucy's dreams and in real life, you can hear the wind whistling, the waves lapping, the sky howling. Together with the light designs by Andrew Fisher, I've never experienced a more horrific and realistic storm in a theatre: lights timed perfectly with thunder, sounds of rain pouring down, gusts of wind blowing open Lucy's bedroom window. The lights and sound in this production felt like their own characters, contributing to the feelings of unease and anticipation.
And then, of course, there was the blood. Look, Zach warned you in his preview there would be blood. There was so much blood.
And, as warned, there is absolutely a baby, fed to the vixens by Dracula after he scolds them for tampering with Harker. A woman in front of me whispers to the woman beside her at intermission, "Well, I just wasn't prepared for that dead baby." (She didn't read Zach's warning, obviously!) The blood effects are impressive—not just blood splatters on clothes after the effect. No no, we watch in real time as characters were plunged with daggers, fed upon by Dracula and his vixens, and even in a horrifying real-time blood transfusion. With each eruption of blood, the audience gasps in surprise, only to quickly giggle at ourselves for our exaggerated reactions.
Though Dracula has substantially less stage time than one might imagine for a play bearing his name, Corey Ahlers is chilling. His entrance drew gasps across the theatre, and his cackles and attacks set the audience on edge. This Dracula was perfectly cast.
The army of vixens is equally fantastic, staying in character even to rearrange set pieces between scenes. They walk like the dead, hiss as though possessed, and the looks in their eyes are as terrifying as their costumes. Linnae Budusky, Bella Bellomo, Amber Brianna Moore, Susie Lukens, Carson Sikorski, and Jacob Kwak are a horrifying ensemble, their acting skills most prominently on display towards the end, when, in a moment, they transform from undead to some former facsimiles of themselves. In a single instant, as a unit, their spines straighten up, their eyes become focused. Brilliant!
From set design to light and sound effects to performances, Dracula was a smash hit. They're running all this weekend, so be sure to get in on the screams while you still can!
Details
Thalian Hall Friday, September 25: 7:30pm Saturday, September 26: 7:30 pm Sunday, October 4: 2:00pm
