“Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy,” like many in Kate Hamill’s extensive body of work, is adapted from a classic novel – in this case Bram Stoker’s blood-thirsty saga. But, as the most-produced American playwright in the 2024-25 season, her portfolio is dominated by other familiar titles, ranging from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Scarlet Letter and The Odyssey. More along the lines of her radical take on Dracula is Hamill’s much-in-demand regional hit, Ms. Holmes and Ms. Watson, her stage adaptation of a 2020 film of the same title.
In Dracula, feminist vengeance is first characterized by Liv Litteral as Mrs. Renfield, an asylum inmate who rambles so incoherently that no one but her doctor pays her any mind – until much later when she lucidly declares: “So long as men have power over us, they will use it.” Barely clad in what amounts to a loose-fitting hospital gown, she struggles to jot down in chalk (even before the play starts) warnings about, we suppose, deadly consequences of Count Dracula’s toxic, hard-bitten masculinity. Perhaps only in Mrs. Renfield’s lost mind, the action flashes back to Transylvania, where the Count, portrayed as a menacingly loud yet suave night owl by N.F. Thompson, sics his vampirical “brides” Megan Bradley and Katelyn Masden on a self-absorbed London barrister, an uptight wimp as played by Max Brennan (even though Brennan doubles as fight captain).
Back home in England, the lawyer’s wife Mina (Shae Reid), a vulnerably dependent pregnant woman who catches on quickly, is entertained by her once-confident close friend Lucy (Cavin Moore), unwillingly falling under the sway of her domineering fiancé, Dr. George Seward, who runs the asylum harboring Mrs. Renfield. Next, we’re introduced to the most colorfully imposing figure – rivaling even the Count – vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, played by Lily Sanford like a stylishly well-armed cowboy (female) who is sworn to preserve Englishmen and women medical access to blood of all types. (Costumes by Jeri Alexander.)
Directed with an antic sense of humor and mock horror by Iz Clemens (Factory Project’s 2024 production of A Streetcar Named Desire is among her previous credits), Dracula is embellished by eerie lighting and sound design by Joe Fox and Ray Nissen, respectively. There is next to no set design, other than a chalk-inscribed alternate version of the Lord’s Prayer on the front edge of the platform upon which most of the action takes place. Scenes shift back and forth from one end of Europe to the other – England and Transylvania – with no hint of locale. Just a series of boxes moved on and off the darkened stage with a pillow and sheet for a bed.
But aside from the play’s attention-grabbing relevance to current social issues, one of this farcical horror’s better Halloween lines is incisively delivered by a blustery Zack Schlag’s Dr. Seward: “You can say this phenomenon is caused by poltergeists or hobgoblins or tiny glowing worms from Planet Bellybutton . . .” Meanwhile, the feminist vengeance-seekers may or may not have achieved their #MeToo moment. Any such reveal would be a bloody spoiler, as British villains or heroines would likely put it.
‘DRACULA: A FEMINIST REVENGE FANTASY’ opened on Thursday night and continues at 7 on Halloween night, Friday, Oct. 31, and Saturday, Nov. 1, at the Avalon Theater, 40 E. Dover St., Easton. avalonfoundation.org
Steve Parks is a retired New York theater critic now living in Easton.
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