Vampires are weird.
Somehow, watching one of these tortured, blood-sucking creatures kill their victims leans into sexy. Campy erotic. Count Dracula, of course, is the master.
Scary? Not scary?
Unless you want to die laughing, which is the point behind “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” Curio Theatre Company’s production reimagining of Bram Stoker’s gothic classic just in time for Halloween.
Previews begin today, Oct. 15, and the play closes Nov. 1, with performances at the Calvary Center for Culture and Community, a former church at 4740 Baltimore Ave. in Philadelphia.
“This version is a comedy. It’s a farce. The writing is so good,” said director Damien Figueras, describing the work by playwrights Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen. “It’s very much in the text, even if it feels like we’re laughing at a whole new joke.”
Figueras brings an unusual perspective to his work as a director. For most of his career, he’s been involved on the technical side, primarily sound design.
Even as he’s prepping “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” he is getting reports on how the sound design he created for Arden Theatre Company’s production of “Falsettos” is working out midway through its run. The musical closes Oct. 26. And Figueras, who is also the production director at Wolf Performing Arts Center in Bryn Mawr, is already in the middle of creating a sound design for Theatre Horizon’s upcoming world premiere musical production of “Wishing to Grow Brightly” in Norristown from Nov. 5 through 23.
At Curio, Figueras is teaming up with artistic director Paul Kuhn, whom Figueras describes as the master of reuse and staging trickery. It’s a must in this production, because every time the Count comes in for the count (blood count), he must emerge suddenly out of nowhere. Somehow, Figueras said, Kuhn devised a kind of revolving stage to make it happen.
Kuhn “knows how to milk and mine every piece of equipment,” which is important in “Comedy of Terrors,” Figueras said, because “comedy relies on creativity and ingenuity.”
Aside from the physical staging, there’s inherent comedy in the prospect of five actors taking on the roles of 25 characters. “They can change characters in the course of a single sentence,” Figueras said. The only actor with just one role is Matthew Carter, as Dracula.
At one point, Emmie Parker, the actor who plays Dr. Westfeldt (the father of Dracula’s “love” interest, Lucy) also plays Renfield (Dracula’s servant) in the same scene. They’re having a conversation.
“So, we have a series of hats and wigs,” Figueras said. “The big joke is that she’s jumping back and forth playing both parts and it’s hysterical.”
If it’s not enough to just laugh, and a deeper meaning is required, Figueras can supply it.
“It’s a comedy and it’s over the top, but at the heart of it, there’s a deep yearning for something beyond what Lucy has in her house. Dracula comes in and has all this money, and this charm. [He offers something] different from the life she’s living and that propels the story forward.
“Everyone sees Dracula as villain, but for her in that moment, the world could be different than she knows it to be,” he said. “Maybe the grass is greener on the other side.”
But, “from moment one, this is going to be a comedy the entire night and we’re never going to take it too seriously,” he said.
Curio is recommending this play for audiences older than 13 – not because it might be too scary, but because of some of the adult humor.
As for scary, Figueras said he’s a big fan of Halloween and horror, particularly horror.
“I love a good thrill,” he said. “To me, it’s a safe thrill. I don’t love roller coasters. I’m not a person who is going to be climbing mountains. But to get that thrill in the comfort of my own home is interesting.” Or better yet, in the basement black box theater of a former church on Baltimore Avenue.
It’s BYOB (Bring Your Own Blood).
FYI
“Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors,” Curio Theatre Co., Oct. 18 to Nov. 1, Calvary Center for Culture and Community, 4740 Baltimore Ave., Phila.
The post Curio Theatre Company’s latest plays Dracula for laughs appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY.
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