Geva Theater Center’s program for Dracula includes a credit for “Dental Prostheses,” an unfamiliar category we may be seeing increasingly with the current popularity of vampire stories. This co-production with Indiana Repertory Theater was assembled with Indiana Rep’s directorial and design staffs to play in Indianapolis immediately before coming to Geva. But Steven Dietz’s play, now 15 years old, originated in Arizona and is not necessarily the most faithful or exciting version of Bram Stoker’s novel, "Dracula." In fact -- like Dietz’s Sherlock Holmes: the Final Adventure, which Geva produced four years ago -- this stage version of a wildly melodramatic work of prose-fiction plays down the Grand Guignol horror and sensationalism of its source and that of other broad stagings to concentrate on the eerie mysteries, personal conflicts and haunting atmospheres of this central, mythic vampire story.
Those who saw the dazzling 1977 Broadway revival of John L. Balderston’s Dracula with weird and witty designs by Edward Gorey and young Frank Langella as an amazingly sexy Count Dracula, may find this, and most other revivals, less exciting. But Robert Mark Morgan’s sets – in suggestive, shifting, massive fragments, like the story’s structure – are memorably lit by Christine Binder’s ever-changing lighting to pull us into the stunningly mysterious yet real world of Gothic literature. Tracy Dorman’s mood-defining costumes range from the sexy but rotting-looking gowns of the female vampires to the upright but vulnerable dress of the vampires’ female victims, to Dracula’s wide-spreading cloak which becomes wings. I do wish his suit was glossy black, though, instead of mud-colored.
Wade McCollum’s Dracula is believably seductive but could use elevated shoes and attention-grabbing make-up and clothing to stand out more. The last words I’d use to describe his Dracula would be "commanding" or "frightening." Maybe that seductive likability is the intended effect, but I don’t think it works in this plot. The lack of very specific details in the plot resolution and attention to the questions of what Dracula is or represents can be ascribed to Dietz’s writing. But the resulting subtlety makes the play drag on.
The production has an accomplished cast. Dieterich Gray’s mad, creepy-critter-eating Renfield is at least as commanding as McCollum’s Dracula isn’t. Jason Bradley’s Jonathan Harker – who is enthusiastic and then terrified when visiting the Count in Transylvania, and later must evolve from wounded victim to avenging hunter -- almost steals the play, becoming the secondary male lead even more than Tom McElroy’s very strong Dr. Van Helsing. And Erik Hellman is an affecting male ingénue as Dr. Seward, hopelessly in love with the doomed Lucy; after Lucy’s death, he, too, believably contributes to Dracula’s destruction.
Jennifer Joan Thompson does what she can with the unpersuasively written role of Lucy, and certainly looks gorgeous doing so. And Lee Stark is actually quite affecting in the corny, earnest-scientist/love-interest/heroine role of Mina.
It’s fun to see a handsome, well-acted new production of Dracula, but this o
ne sets no new standards.
