Whether we’re talking movie, play, or book, one of the most interesting pieces of fiction that arguably gets better every time it’s adapted is Bram Stoker’s classic Gothic horror Dracula. And on February 26 Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre artistic director Brian Richmond will debut his new play adaptation of Stoker’s Dracula.
Richmond describes his version of Dracula as an attempt to create an epic piece of theatre that is more faithful to the novel than previous attempts at adapting the novel for the stage.
“I’ve directed over 150 productions around Canada, the US, Europe, and Mexico. And I’ve done Dracula three times,” he says. “But I’ve never felt that the adaptations of it I did, although they were very well received, ever really captured what I think is so beautiful about Bram Stoker’s original novel, which is this type of Gothic prose that he is so wonderful at weaving.”
Richmond’s plans for the play are elaborate, involving a six-to-seven-hour runtime, splitting the play into five sections (Dracula in Black, White, Blue, Red, and Ombre; this time around they will be performing Black, White and Blue, with Red and Ombre being added in the fall), and giving the story a bit of a new focus.
“What I am mainly attempting to do is to capture what I am referring to as the beauty of the Gothic prose of Bram Stoker,” he says, “and to recenter the story around Mina as the central character.”
Richmond says his use of the story theatre format helped him expand on the scope of the world that Stoker so vividly created in his novel.
“I am telling this in a story theatre format—which is a phrase that does not mean much to a lot of people, but actually in the novel Dracula there are probably three or four hundred characters and very often when an adaptation is brought to the screen or brought to the stage, the scope of that world is narrowed considerably,” he says. “So what I have been able to do, because I am doing it in a story theatre format, is I am able to introduce all of those characters.”
Richmond says that what he loves about theatre in general is the idea that it’s a format that disappears on a night-by-night basis.
“The thing that draws me to theatre is that it’s a form that is constantly disappearing,” says Richmond. “What I mean is if you write films or novels or paint paintings, there is always something about them that endures but, in the theatre, it’s a form that disappears on a night-by-night basis, and I always found that absolutely intriguing about working in theatre.”
Richmond says that one of the things he hopes his audience takes away from the play is a new appreciation for Stoker’s work.
“I really want my audiences to appreciate just exactly what a high level of accomplishment Bram Stoker’s writing is,” says Richmond. “The issue with Dracula is it’s been kind of vulgarized by Hollywood and so the novel is not as appreciated as it once was. So I want my audience to leave the theatre with a newfound appreciation for Stoker’s amazing ability with Gothic language.”
Dracula
5 pm Saturday, February 26
The Roxy Theatre
bluebridgetheatre.ca