Dracula: Mina's Reckoning – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Dominic Corr

Oct 13

Written by Morna Pearson after Bram Stoker

Directed by Sally Cookson

Rating: 3 out of 5.

The sign of a remarkable Dracula is to ensure that even in their absence, their lingering presence slowly constricts the heart of those watching: fear growing, nerves tightening, breath quickening. And it's what Liz Kettle manages to accomplish in Morna Pearson and Sally Cookston's all-female and non-binary re-telling that treads the familiar wingbeats of Bram Stoker's tale, though the gusts of wind carry it north from Whitby to Aberdeen.

Now through the eyes of Mina Murray (similar to Imitating the Dog's 2021 production), the woman too often conceived as pining back in England as her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, voyages to the Count's home in Transylvania, Dracula: Mina's Reckoning seeks to empower these souls who have long since felt the sting and heel of patriarchy and condemn it to a similar fate of the Count. Expect many a Quine and use of Doric dialogue with Daniella Jam taking on the protagonist's role as Mina, a character of sheer will and determination, one which enables a sense of power and agency, both for Mina, but with those surrounding them in the Asylum and across the ports and seaside towns.

Terrifically blending Hammer Horror with contemporary insight into Dracula as a being of the unknown but of temptation and release. The sensationalist allure shifts in guise, while Pearson's Dracula remains beguiling and tempting in manners this is not a Dracula of seduction in the traditional sense. For as dangerous as they know this creature to be, the promise of liberation from their patriarchal shackles – maintained with contracts, marriages, finances and promise, Dracula offers an escape from the increasing darkness which shrouds the minds of these women, becoming physically and mentally ill from their prolonged exposure to patriarchal prisons.

Spindling, pointed and articulated in their control, the Nosferatu-fingered design for Dracula serves as Kenneth MacLeod's tour-de-force of the production alongside their ramshackle set of multiple layers and levels, casted iron interlocking with the very rock of the Aberdeen coastline. But the body inside this costume, Liz Kettle, turns into a hypnotically charismatic take on Dracula. They demonstrate Vicky Manderson's movement direction perfectly – appearing to often glide across the stage or navigate ladders without taking a step. It's hypnotic, simple and effective.

A ferociously angry script – an intelligent one which unfortunately stumbles on its own cape a touch often, but the resulting fire and passion long make up for these shortcomings. Come the more pivotal moments, the blood has already been sucked dry. The short run-time of the second act (just clocking forty minutes) is a fair indication that Cookson's pacing takes a dip, and certainly could manage an extra twenty minutes for an audience so clearly ravenous for more. The narrative tool to maintain the original use of letters, memoirs and journals makes for a clever spin from Pearson, who utilises the aphoristic nature to shift between the Aberdeen Asylum with terrific character-performances from Anne Lacy, to Jonathan Harker's exploits (played with a touching sympathy by Catriona Faint), and to Mina's time with Lucy, carried with aplomb by Ailsa Davidson.

Over in the asylum - surely the 'maddest' resident would be the one most sane? And in this cruel and marvellously performed Renfield, we find Ros Watt's performance goes beyond the expected unhinged and more peculiar of characterisations. Here, Renfield isn't the masochistic and placated servant of Dracula in the way many other interpretations would have it, here, Renfield is the victim of society – of Victorian standardised ideals of women. And to oppose this lands them in the Asylum. Under the stern eye of Maggie Bane's Dr Seward, the pair complement one another's roles luminously.

Pulsating with the rhythm of the heart, Benji Bower's provocative music trickles through various methods until its menacing nature grows in abundance (and volume) with intense high notes and strikes as readily as lighting to offer a few (cheap but effective) scares for the unprepared in the crowd. Plenty of care has also been taken in the production's lean into the cinematic, as Lewis's den Hertog's video design utilises MacLeod's grey-scaled set to conjure plenty of spectral words, apparitions, and shadows – all lifted with Aideen Malone's lighting. Malone's choices and dips in lighting allow the show to embrace the shadows, making for excellent transitions and entrances – though none receive as direct, audience-grabbing, and necessary break in dramatic than Natalie Arle-Toyne (last seen with more spooks in Visible Fictions Ghosthunter) as Van Helsing, who rivals Kettle's Dracula for the crowd-pleasing entrances.

Mina's Reckoning forges its own path while maintaining one foot on Stoker's novel and strikes an imposing presence – with a terrifically engaging cast whose teeth and ambitions are bared. Though at times, the audience feels a touch too safe for the horror aesthetic some may expect. Pearson's fangs are drawn at the politics and societal grievances, more so than the theatrical frights, and enables the past to take one last bite into the contemporary, in a hope to revitalise, to re-incarnate itself into a state of being which may finally vanquish the ancient villain worse than any vampire.

Teeth and Ambitions Bared

Dracula: Mina's Reckoning runs at the Festival Theatre until October 14th. Wednesday - Saturday at 19.30pm, Saturday matinee at 14.30pm.
Running time - Two hours and ten minutes with one interval
Photo credit - Mihaela Bodlovic