One of my favorite things about any We Happy Few production is the vigor and joy with which the performers throw themselves into the work.
The story, like Bram Stoker’s original Dracula, is told through a series of epistolary devices, primarily letters, with a good mix of telegrams and ships’ logs and the like. At times it deeply revels in its own language, and at other times it clips along at a light and sharp pace. These are the moments in which the show really excels; functioning almost like opera, with recitative to move the pace and aria to delve into the emotional meat.
With endless adaptations of Dracula, (Gerard Butler in Dracula 2000 anyone?), I’m so pleased that We Happy Few chose to return to the original novel, the source of so many of the myths surrounding some of our favorite supernatural hunters. and which I first saw in its developmental stage at the Kennedy Center’s Page to Stage.
The four performers, Meg Lowey, Kerry McGee, Jack Novak, and Jon Reynolds function with purpose and precision, bringing life nearly forty characters. They slip deftly in and out of those characters, often with a small piece of costume or an accent switch, or pure physicality. McGee is a bit of a dervish as she whips about the stage, rapid fire delivering events as they occur while occasionally taking a moment to provide commentary. She switches deftly between Jonathon Harker, the cursed Renfield, and the innocent turned devilish Lucy. Lowey’s voice stands as the star of the night, singing haunting songs as if she were a wraith on the heaths. Lowey also shows us a determined and intelligent Mina Harker. Novak ably serves up his two characters, one of whom, Dracula, is performed entirely in silhouette with Reynolds who rounds out the ensemble as Van Helsing, and a Ship’s Captain. [ezcol_1third]
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Dracula
closes November 10, 2018
Details and tickets
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The ensemble lurks in the shadows, awaiting their turns, while performing bits of trickery with shadow puppets and flashlights, much to the delight of the audience and providing the music, ranging from raucous and baudy Gogol Bordello-like numbers, mixed with what sound like haunting Irish and English folk song, and at one point modern rock. It is an eclectic mix of instruments – an accordion, guitars, a tambourine, and a ukulele – and styles that, like the genres they’ve selected to represent Dracula, doesn’t always mesh. In this world, the anachronisms stand out like sore thumbs, especially in the face of the Victorian language which they have chosen to retain. Director Robert Pike makes valiant efforts to keep the pace and liveliness of the piece up, but the mish-mash of elements keeps Dracula from truly unifying into a cohesive whole.
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The choice to keep Dracula always cloaked in silhouette may be a good one, adding to his mystique and allowing the audience’s imaginations to create the images. But it removes any sense of the Count’s sensuality. Dracula is often described to us as “gaunt” and awful looking, yet there is this appeal to him; the hypnotism of the vampire.
Most of the magic of the show is done in front of us, in terms of foley and shadow puppet tricks. While many of the shadow play moments are neat and clever tricks of light and shadow, we always see how they’re done. And we sometimes see the actor contorting comically into the shape required to make the shadow of Dracula work. When the magician shows us how he pulls the rabbit out of the hat, we’re never quite as enthralled.
Despite its flaws, I’m still excited to come back and see what the team has done with the other two shows in their Horror Rep at the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop.
Dracula runs in rep with the company’s adaptations of Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) and A Midnight Dreary (Edgar Allan Poe). Individually, these are monstrously ambitious projects. All three together? A trifecta of spooky treats for those clinging desperately to the vestiges of Halloween.
Dracula by Bram Stoker. Adapted for the Stage by the devising ensemble of Grant Cloyd, Keith Hock, Meg Lowey, Kerry McGee, Robert Pike, and Jon Reynolds. Direction by Robert Pike. Featuring Meg Lowey, Kerry McGee, Jack Novak, and Jon Reynolds. Lighting Design: Dan Smeriglio. Costume Supervision: Paige O’Malley. Production Manager: Kerry McGee and Jon Reynolds. Dramaturgy: Keith Hock. Stage Management: Sam Reilly. Produced by We Happy Few . Reviewed by Jon Jon Johnson.
