Program - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

Scene BreakdownTime:Turn of the twentieth centuryDramaturg’s noteApproaching a New Century, Reviving Old MonstersPlace:Act IHeartwood House, Whitby, EnglandStoneyfields Asylum, LondonDracula’s Castle20-minute intermissionAct IIThis production includes haze effects.Produced by arrangement with Nick Hern Books.Liz Lochhead’s Dracula is one of many adaptationsof Bram Stoker’s gothic novel that captured theconcerns of fin de siècle England. Stoker was wellacquainted with the major trends and anxieties of histime and adapted his text for the stage soon after itwas published in 1897. There is something incrediblytheatrical about this story of an old vampire travelingto England to terrorize the modern world. It isboth thrilling and challenging to see Victorian menand women fight against an old terror like Draculadespite their modern, scientific mind-sets. In heradaptation from 1985, Liz Lochhead moves beyondthe kitsch that many recent interpretations embraceto revive the transgressive potential of Stoker’soriginal story. She exposes the sexual tension andclass conflict that remain just under the surface of theoriginal text.Liz Lochhead emerged as a rare female presenceamong the talented Scottish writers of the early1970s. Her work often addresses questions ofScottish national identity and challenges traditionalgender expectations. She wants to make space forwomen to tell stories, a role often reserved for menin Scotland. In Dracula, Lochhead places women andother seemingly powerless and displaced charactersat the center of the narrative, giving them voicesand agency in this story. For example, Mina and Lucyeach display great potential for love and power, butthis potential is violently suppressed by Victoriansocial expectations. Dracula reveals the dangerinherent in this suppression and pushes his victims toembrace their potential for good and bad.However, Mina and Lucy are not just victims. Theyalso are instigators. Lochhead has said that she wasdrawn to the vampire tale by Rule One for becomingDracula’s victim: “First of all, you have to invite himin.” These women desire the sexual freedom andpower Dracula offers. They are complicit in theexchange. Lucy desires an adult sexual relationshipand takes dangerous steps to fulfill her desire. Minadesires a relationship of equals with men, but sheis denied this by traditional social expectations.Dracula’s presence pushes these women to followtheir desires, which initiates powerful changes in thesocial hierarchy that Dracula may not fully appreciate.Lochhead explores class as well as gender throughthe maid, Florrie, who is limited by both her genderand her social position. While Mina expresses adesire to treat Florrie as an equal—by asking her tosimply call her “Mina” not “miss”—Florrie recognizesthat some social divides remain despite the rhetoricMina uses. Mina still gives the orders. In this society,Lochhead demonstrates that social mobility isprimarily open to men. Arthur Seward gained statusthrough hard work in school to become a doctor.Mina and Lucy’s father gained status as a wealthybusiness owner.Lower in status even than the women in this Victorianworld is the psychiatric patient, Renfield. He hasless potential for mobility than anyone else in thisplay. Lochhead captures Stoker’s exploration ofninteenth-century mental health facilities—places inwhich science greatly outweighed humanity. Renfieldis barely regarded as a human being. Nurses in theasylum treat him like an animal, so Renfield respondsby acting like one. Seward dismisses Renfield’swarnings and pleas for help, considering him nomore than a scientific experiment. His potentialfor good is ignored, and Dracula exploits onlyRenfield’s negative qualities. There remain seeminglyimpassable divides in this society despite the promiseof a new age of science, exploration, and equality.8 9