PILLOW TALKING
By Wayne J. Keeley and Stephanie C. Lyons-Keeley
DRACULA at HARTFORD STAGE
HE SAID:
By Wayne J. Keeley
Hartford’s Dracula is a riveting, creative revisualization of one of the world’s most popular fictional narratives. Indeed, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s imaginative and well-crafted adaptation of Bram Stoker’s iconic classic together with a more than capable vibrant direction by Jackson Gay infuses new blood (pun intended) into what has
become a sometimes an anemic and wholly predictable tale. With Gay’s astute direction, expect the unexpected. Like Stanley Kubrick did for those who were already familiar with the story of Stephen King’s The Shining, Gay took advantage of that prior knowledge to forge a fresh, new adaptation.
Case in point. When I first heard Hartford was presenting Dracula, my mind went to the theatrical portrayal by Frank Langella on Broadway in 1977 (yes, I am that old). Cinematically, I immediately thought of Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, and the plethora of other male actors including Langella himself who reprised the role for the 1979 film version.
But the creators here flipped the script and took a totally new take on the immortal classic by telling the story through the eyes of Dracula’s main victim, Mina Harker. Since almost everyone knows the story of how Stoker’s Dracula arrived by ship from Transylvania, I will not waste words reviewing it. Mina does an incredible job of retelling the story through her eyes, although all the main details are all laid out from Jonathan Harker’s journey to the appearances of Renfield and Van Helsing. The strong female-victim take is a perfect “ME TOO” version that is completely updated and relevant to the times in which we live.
The acting is as solid as the wooden stakes used in the production. Sara Gutierrez is fantastic as Mina, the narrator and victim of the story. Her ability to go from 0 to 60 in mood changes is highly effective as are the times when she breaks the fourth wall which has the ultimate effect of pulling the audience into the nightmare. Lucas Dixon is wonderful as the hero-anti-hero of the play. His arc between fearless journeyer to rather
confused and bumbling “yes” man is effective. The same can be said for Lucy’s arc, who also has the ability to go from 0 to 60 depending on when she is an innocent maiden to being ravaged by the demon. Kudos also must go to the rest of the cast Catlin Elizabeth Clothier, Anney Giobbe and Pauli.
Fear is the first word used in the play, and it is the underlying feeling and theme throughout. But it is a subtle fear. The fear of knowing what is going to happen and waiting for it, the fear of anxiety, expectation, and realizing that there are individuals and events that occur beyond our control and we are powerless to do anything.
My only critique is at least two points in the show we see a heavily liveried figure in black clothing that ravages both Lucy and Mina. We must assume that this is Dracula. As an artist, if we were utilizing the Waiting for Godot mindset, I would not have shown the dark, animal-like figures who had to be Dracula. I would have let both Lucy and
Mina wrestle with an unseen poltergeist and left Dracula as the calm and seductive disemboweled voice just before he takes Mina.
Apart from my one critique, Hartford’s Dracula is a tour de force.
In terms of full disclosure, no AI was used in this review, I played Jonathan Harker in a high school production. In my filmmaking days, in 1993 I took Murnau’s 1922 classic, scored with a popular goth band Type-O Negative at the time and had David Carradine host it: Nosferatu—The First Vampire.
SHE SAID:
By Stephanie C. Lyons-Keeley
Who Is the Monster?
Hartford Stage’s Dracula Bites Where It Counts
Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s adaptation of Dracula, now in its American premiere at Hartford Stage, keeps the diabolical Count mostly in the shadows and turns the light on everyone else. Bram Stoker gave us the vampire, front and center. Malcolm instead gives us the people who matter most: his victims and the woman who’s left to tell about
him. In doing so, she asks a much more unsettling question than “what’s lurking in the dark?” She asks who decided who, or what, was a monster in the first place.
Mina is our guide. She opens the story trying to piece together what happened to her husband Jonathan, whose business trip to Transylvania ended with him a prisoner in the Count’s castle; and her beloved friend Lucy, who became the Count’s first prey in England. Sara Gutierrez is captivating as Mina. She holds the stage for ninety unbroken minutes with grief, wit, and a kind of furious clarity, and she never lets us settle into the comfort of a story we think we already know. Lucas Dixon is superb as the bumbling, hapless Jonathan, and Scout Backus makes a memorable Lucy while doubling in the ensemble. Caitlin Elizabeth Clouthier, Anney Giobbe, and Pauli round out a nimble company.
Director Jackson Gay trusts her ensemble and very little else, and the gamble pays off handsomely. The staging is spare. Actors shift from narrators to stagehands to creatures to voices deep within the castle walls and back again, and the effect is genuinely haunting. Without spectacle to lean on, Gay lets your imagination do the
heavy lifting, and imagination is always the best special effect a story can have. She gets plenty of help. Riw Rakkulchon’s scenic design proves how far a little can go, and Fabian Fidel Aguilar’s costumes are evocative. Paul Whitaker’s lighting and Caroline Eng’s sound do the rest, conjuring dread out of shadow and silence.
What lingers most, though, is the play’s quieter undercurrent. Woven through the gothic machinery is a story about being different, about the people society has always found it convenient, and baseless, to fear. Desire that doesn’t fit the Victorian mold, love that has to hide, identities branded as sickness or sin: the production threads these LGBTQIA+ nuances through Stoker’s tale with a light but deliberate hand. There’s no soapbox here, just the slow realization of how often “monster” is the label for anyone who refuses to be ordinary. I was still turning that over with my “He Said” partner on our drive home.
This is a Dracula that haunts more than it horrifies. In the thick of October, I might have craved a few more moments that would make me grab my husband’s arm, but I didn’t miss them. This production chooses slow-building psychological dread over the jump scare, so don’t expect horripilation (good old-fashioned goosebumps). No matter what, it has its hooks in you from the first minute. Ninety minutes have rarely gone by so fast.
Bring someone you’ll want to fence with afterward. I did. You’ll have plenty to talk about.
Dracula runs through November 1 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford.
