Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really

Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really is a well-crafted take on Bram Stoker’s classic story by the Fresno Theatre. While the acting was great and the story was fun to follow, the scenery, costumes and effects did a lot heavy lifting for what was probably done on a small budget.

The first noticeable thing about the play is the scenic design by René Nielson; the set itself is very small and had a vague gothic theme. Such a small set with seemingly no way to change locale at first glance makes the play seem very unassuming. It had a gate, two “doors”, four stone slabs, and two small stone “chairs.” The audience is just expected to think that it’s both London, England & Transylvania and different buildings within that like Dracula’s Castle, the Harker’s home, and the asylum. There were at least two instances where they just put a blanket on the slab and then we just had to assume that a character such as Lucy was now in a bedroom. At the very least, the vague gothic theme gets the job done and the actors & script do a lot of heavy lifting to convince the audience of any locale changes.

What really helps bring the scenery to life and make the play feel more animated are some of the effects such as the lighting and the fog. When Renfield gives her monologue at the beginning, a spotlight is put on her and the fog machine works to make her bit feel more focused and eerie. There are plenty of times throughout the play where lighting is given a red tint and sometimes violet to make the plot feel more intense or supernatural. To help sell scenery changes further, projections such as clouds, a blood red moon, or stained glass are put in the background. The lighting and fog effects are all so simple, but it goes a long way when all the characters can do is announce they are somewhere else on a set no bigger than the average living room after walking through a fake door.

The costumes – which were designed by Maggie Walker – look great and seem to be in line of what most would consider to be stereotypical of the 1800s, but of varying levels of cleanliness and class. Among the various outfits, Jonathan Harker had business outfit that one would wear during the 1800s. Dracula had two black and red outfits that had their own degree of regal or aristocrat. Van Helsing’s is the most anachronistic since it resembles a cowboy getup with a corset, but that shows tongue-in-cheek humor of the play. Renfield has raggedy, dirty but distinctly feminine white dress that appears to be some sort of straight jacket of the period. It drapes around her body and arms, and it is full of wrinkles with some belts or restraints around the waist & chest to sell the that she is an asylum patient. I think the costumes that really sell how the worsening state of events belong to Dracula’s “brides.” The brides Marilla and Drusilla were scantily clad with corsets and fishnets to tempt Jonathan Harker (and perhaps the audience.) The brides move onto wearing night gowns for the rest of the plot, but as it goes on, the gowns become dirtier, more ragged, and covered in more and more blood as they become more unhinged.

The most spectacular moment comes during the climax of the play with the final confrontation between the duo of Van Helsing and Mina Harker going up against Count Dracula himself. Every time Dracula and Van Helsing struck each other, there was a flash of seizure inducing light with sounds of deafening thunder accompanying it. That moment reaches its crescendo when Van Helsing drives the stake into Dracula’s heart and then he pulls out stake out himself with a mess of blood gushes everywhere. That was the single coolest moment of the play, and it made audience cheer. Anything involving people getting stabbed or cut and them bleeding to death had a morbid charm like when the nurse got stabbed or when Dracula slits Dr. Seward’s throat.  

Overall, Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really was top notch despite the obviously small budget. The production had great costumes, nice lighting, and a climactic battle that makes the whole play worth attending.