Through Sun 11/5
Well, Boo! Watch out.
Between Great Lakes Theater’s Dracula: The Bloody Truth and the Cleveland Play House’s Frankenstein, Playhouse Square is going all out for the spooky season.
While I’ve yet to see CPH’s Frankenstein (coming up next), I can testify that GLT’s Dracula may make you laugh merrily, but it’s not likely to scare you. Put together by Le Navet Bete (a UK physical comedy touring company) and John Nicholson, it’s a zany celebration and (purported) exposé of the true story behind Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula.
Under the direction of Charles Fee, and with the mighty efforts of four actors playing 40 characters, the opening night show offered an impressive display of physical comedy. Nothing seemed static as performers switched characters and sexes as needed for the storyline. Age-bent bodies turned into nimble youths in the blink of an eye.
Dracula’s cast included Lynn Robert Berg (who played, among others, Professor Van Heising, the man who exposes the “true tale of Dracula”), as well as Jodi Dominick, Jeffrey Hawkins and Joe Wegner. Their work reveals how farce is not just an art. It’s also an extreme team sport insisting on quick changes, posture shifts, rushing on and off-stage. Each actor skillfully portrayed multiple characters, all the while making fun of the story and themselves.
Sets and quick costume changes seem essential to bring off this satire of Dracula’s loathsome murder-mission and to make it funny. So bravo to the crew and dressers who made it possible, especially Esther M. Haberlen (costumes) and Iran Michael Leon (hair and wigs). Credit also goes to scenic designer Gage Williams, who created doors and walls that shifted (on purpose) as the storyline moved from Transylvania to London and back.
Choreographer Boe Wank, with Christopher DuVal, also kept the stage vibrating (and the actors from bashing into each other). Sound designer Matthew Webb brought a bit of music (into the second act, especially) which added a welcome touch.
[Side note #1: Imagine teens spending a stormy night as guests in a Swiss lakeside villa. Their host? The notorious poet Lord Byron. (Imagine any famous rock figure today and you’ve got his public persona.) Bored, they challenge each other to write something. From that we get the original 1816 vampire dream by John Polidori (Byron’s doctor) and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley What a writers’ workshop that must have been. Some argue Byron’s persona inspired the vampire, some (me) argue that Percy Bysshe Shelley must have inspired Mary’s monster or his creator, or both.]
[Side note #2: If you’ve been yearning for a beautifullycustomized Dracula cape made by the Great Lakes costumers, the GLT company invites you to attend the show on Halloween night. The winner’s name will be drawn from paid tickets for 10/31/23. How cool is that?]
This cleverly staged show took a bit too long to set the story up in Act One, but Act Two romped along with gusto, especially when Hawkins’ Dracula squiggled and died under the weight of a huge cross. Took him a while though.
Bottom Line: I should say it’s “horrible,” since Stoker’s Dracula is shelved under the “horror” genre, but it’s not. It’s a well-done wacky farce with laughs for everyone (though maybe not as many as the Loud Laugher — a friend of the cast? — who guffawed even before the jokes were finished).