By Zack Anchors

Staff Writer



Like Frankenstein and other great gothic tales of terror, the story of
Dracula can seem these days to belong more to the genre of comic than
horror. When the Count comes to mind he often brings with him such pop
cultural baggage as Sesame Street’s Count Von Count, those wax vampire
teeth seen every Halloween, and a range of B-movies from “Billy the Kid
vs. Dracula” to the classic “Blacula.”



But at the core of the story of Dracula, as first told by the Irish
novelist Bram Stoker in 1897, are some underlying themes that are
spine-tingling alone, even without all the blood-sucking gore that goes
along with them.

The Portland Players, in their production of a stage adaptation of the
novel called “The Passion of Dracula,” have not shied away from the
dark nature of the story. They have even given the tale an unusual
twist that brings to the forefront some of its more depraved elements.



Instead of casting Dracula as a Count they have created a Countess—a
female vampire played by Alexandra Christie. Instead of the story of an
evil and wicked old man preying on beautiful young women, seducing them
and ultimately violating them in the most extreme way by sucking blood
from their flesh, we have the opposite scenario. And it is fun to see
the major male figures of the play, who start off clearly in charge and
full of machismo, reduced to bystanders as the women fight a battle of
good and evil over the fate of William Murray (played by Shawn
Reardon), the attractive young man who has been chosen by Countess
Dracula as her eternal mate.



The play takes place in the English countryside, at the home of
Murray’s uncle Dr. Cedric Seward (played by Garvey MacLean), an old
doctor who presides over a mental institution. The play begins with
Murray in the midst of a mysterious illness and several local maidens
victim to gory and enigmatic deaths. Three wonderfully strong female
characters soon enter the scene in the Players version–a rare disease
doctor, a journalist, and a professor.



The journalist Joanna Harker (played by Alanah Lockwood), sent to
report on the suspicious events surrounding the sanitarium, wastes no
time in going after what she really seems interested in–seducing the
delirious Murray. But while Harker and Murray engage in a sophisticated
game of seduction, the Countess pursues her prey with more aggression.



One of the most interesting and disturbing aspects of the story is the
way that violence and sexual desire become intertwined in Dracula’s
demented world. This makes for some sexy scenes for the Players, with
Christie, as Dracula, seeming to hunt for flesh in more than one way.
Once infected with vampire blood, the same condition sets in for some
of the other less fortunate characters. In one of the most powerful
scenes, a female protagonist returns from the dead to seek out her
former lover. Whereas before they had a lovely and normal romance, now
she sees him as a body to be consumed, and she viscously latches on to
his neck like a wild beast.



The Portland Players are in their 76th season of theatre, and they have
built up some impressive resources for a community run operation. The
set, lighting, costumes all seem very professionally done, which goes a
long way for a play that’s meant to elicit fear from it’s audience.



As the lights dim, merging to a red tint, and the wolves begin to howl in the background, the stage is set for Dracula to enter.