Carolyn Howarth swears horror isn’t her thing, but by the end of Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, you’d be hard-pressed to believe it. Under her direction, the Arvada Center’s stage is drenched in blood, transforming Kate Hamill’s satirical take on the vampire legend into a savage spectacle.
Hamill’s version retains Dracula’s framework while modernizing its characters and themes. Jonathan Harker (Lance Rasmussen) travels to Transylvania to arrange a deal for Count Dracula (Geoffrey Kent), leaving his pregnant wife, Mina (Annie Barbour), back in England. But Mina doesn’t sit on the sidelines; she travels to Whitby to visit her friend Lucy Westenra (Noelia Antweiler), whose fiancé, Dr. George Seward (Gareth Saxe), oversees the mental hospital housing the vampire’s obsessive devotee, Renfield (Jessica Austgen).
When Jonathan fails to return home and Lucy’s health deteriorates, Seward enlists his colleague Dr. Van Helsing (Prentiss Benjamin), who quickly discovers the bloodthirsty source of Lucy’s illness. Mina, Seward and Van Helsing band together in a bloody battle against Dracula and his army of women vampires (Katrina Stelk and Mel Schaffer).
Kent, a Colorado theater mainstay, embraces Dracula with a calculated mix of menace and comedic flair. His dramatic cape flips and accentuated Transylvanian accent (dialect-coached by Jeffrey Parker) are worth the price of admission alone.
Barbour’s portrayal of Mina adds an emotional core to the production, embodying a woman who’s fiercely protective of her unborn child and unafraid to stand against Dracula’s oppressive grip. Antweiler is equally magnetic as Lucy — a prim society woman in one moment and a voracious, liberated vampire in the next. Her athletic aerial performance, in which she executes an intricate suspended silk sequence while taunting her prey, is a standout moment emphasizing her character’s ferocious transformation.
Though Hamill’s adaptation is mostly effective, the script occasionally falters. This is especially true in the first act, which drags as it establishes the plot through lengthy monologues and letters, a nod to Stoker’s epistolary novel format that doesn’t translate well to the stage. Renfield’s scenes, in particular, feel a bit overindulgent, and it’s hard not to wonder if Hamill’s fondness for the character (she played Renfield in the original production) kept her from trimming the fat.
Ultimately, this production reminds us that the real monsters aren’t supernatural creatures but rather the social forces they represent. Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy is a Halloween treat for audiences looking for a gory yet insightful spin on a classic, even if it may overstay its welcome
ON STAGE: Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really.
Through Nov. 3, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities,
6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada. $47-$63