Nathan M. Ramsey and Elaine Elizabeth Clifford in Dracula (Don Ipock)
A new take on Dracula, currently onstage at KCRep, opens with a dramatic, sudden blackout and a thunderclap so loud it made me jump in my seat. From the very first moment of this play, it’s clear we are in for a spooky, dramatic treat.
This Dracula was written by KC favorite Vanessa Severo in collaboration with Joanie Schultz, and the two also direct. As exemplified by that opening moment, the piece leans heavily (and delightfully) into drama, amplified by masterful design elements. Trevor Bowen’s costumes are bold and darkly whimsical. Nicole Jaja’s lighting and Mark Exline’s arresting—and sometimes surprising—set play together to create a chilling backdrop for the action.
Severo’s Dracula generally follows the story Stoker laid out, but with a major shift in perspective. Here, the women are the central characters. The play focuses heavily on Mina (an endearing Dri Hernaez), whose fiancé, Jonathan Harker (Chaz Feuerstine), is away doing business with the vampire Count Dracula (Nathan M. Ramsey).
In Stoker’s Dracula, Mina is defined by her relationships with Harker and Dracula. She is a carer for her fiancé and an obsession/plaything for the vampire. Other men later use her connection with Dracula to bring him down. Readers (and viewers of other adaptations) may well find her to be a compelling character, but she’s presented only within the context of her male counterparts. Here, those relationships are still central to the story, but Mina is the character against whom the others are presented. Her fears and desires are fully realized, and she has more agency than we’ve historically seen her possess.
The play also gives hefty weight to Mina’s best friend Lucy (Elaine Elizabeth Clifford), who is becoming increasingly, terrifyingly ill as (unbeknownst to her) Dracula begins feeding on her.
Having always found Lucy’s journey to be the most captivating subplot in Dracula, I was thrilled by the focus on her story and the friendship between her and Mina. Clifford is phenomenal in the role. She’s exceptionally charming when playing up Lucy’s flirty, fun, adventurous side, and mesmerizing in her dramatic physicality as she suffers Dracula’s attacks and her illness overtakes her.
In this new take on Dracula, there’s a third female protagonist at the center of the story. Here, the vampire hunter Van Helsing is a woman, disguised as a man, presumably for professional success. She spends much of the play collaborating with Dr. Seward (Cameron Ferguson) to study the vampire’s bug-eating assistant Renfield, played by Harmon dot aut, who strikes a chilling balance of menace and playfulness. Concealing her gender produces an ever-present precariousness that influences all of Van Helsing’s interactions, from navigating professional niceties to facing off with an actual monster. It’s a compelling new layer of tension in a story where every character is already in various degrees of peril.
The change is a bold twist that requires audiences to remember that this is a wholly new take on the classic story. If viewers insist on viewing the choice through the lens of Stoker’s work, wondering how it serves that story, they might come up disappointed. But this is a new Dracula, and a new Van Helsing. Taken on its own merits and its own context, I found the added complexity—both in Van Helsing’s character and the larger shift in perspective in general—to infuse exciting new depth into the well-worn story.
“Dracula” runs at the Kansas City Repertory Theatre (Copaken Stage, 1 H&R Block Way) through November 2. For more information, visit kcrep.org.
