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Remember that chill you got the first time you heard Bela Lugosi
say in that strange accent "No, thank you Mr. Harker, I don't drink . . . wine?" I do.
And though we more often giggle at its overdone qualities today, that film and the 1927 play it was
based on scared the daylights out of people then -- but vampires ain't what they used to
be!
Today they fuel romantic (or even outright sexual) fantasies in
works like Twilight and True Blood -- certainly not what Bram Stoker envisioned when he wrote
Dracula in 1897. Although himself a strong supporter of science, Stoker wrote a cautionary
tale of modernity abandoning religion, folk wisdom, and superstition -- precisely the three things
that help our heroes defeat Dracula.
Over the last one hundred fourteen years, Dracula has spawned
dozens of adaptations, hundreds of vampire rip-offs and thousands of stories on internet fiction
sites, giving several generations of readers/viewers an opportunity to be seduced (and frightened)
by the Un-dead blood suckers. Although he was a fairly successful writer during his lifetime,
Bram Stoker became immortal with Dracula -- which seems oddly fitting.
Steven Dietz's stage adaptation is more faithful to the novel than
most, but he has added a cinematic gloss that gives the play a momentum more suitable for modern
audiences. We at CCPA hope you find our Hallowe'en offering full of the tricks and treats you
came for!
"Ah! The children of the night, what beautiful music they make!"
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