Craving biting social commentary with your Halloween chills? Then Dracula at The Historic Mounds Theatre, produced by Night Fire Theater, is the perfect play to see this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. This intense, superbly acted and cast adaptation will satisfy any fan of gothic fantasy and horror.
The story begins with Jonathan Harker (Richard Nissen), a lawyer, traveling to Romania to assist Count Dracula (Mavrick M Miller) in purchasing property in England. He leaves his pregnant wife, Mina Harker (Cate Jackson), behind, who instead visits her friend Lucy Westenra (Mary Lofreddo) in the seaside town of Whitby. Dracula, a menacing and charismatic vampire, captures and infects Harker, setting off a chain of events that endangers Lucy and the town. Lucy falls gravely ill, prompting Dr. Van Helsing (Maggie Mae Sulentic), Dr. Seward (Derek Dirlam), and Mina to join forces to confront Renfield (Jennifer D’Lynn), Dracula, his vampire horde and wives, Marilla (Stephanie Johnson) and Drusilla (Lizzie Esposito), in a climactic battle of good versus evil. Shout out to members of Dracula’s Horde, who gave their snarling, crawling all to their roles (Carissa Eberhardt, Michael Hundevad, Sean Jones, Taylor Leone, Gabrielle Petrin, Jack Mai Verhagen, Krista Weiss, Kjer Whiting)
Hamill’s play upends the traditional gothic tropes of damsels in distress and heroic men, transforming the narrative into a feminist revenge fantasy. Mina evolves from a proper Victorian housewife into a confident, empowered vampire slayer, symbolizing the fight against patriarchal oppression. Vampirism is used metaphorically to critique toxic masculinity and organized religion.
Aisle Say Twin Cities’ own wickedly talented Director Erika Sasseville describes Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Dracula as taking “the most famous vampire of all time and spins it in a blender with: feminist rage against society, a dash of darkest humor, and a reminder that the patriarchy is a parasite sapping the life out of all of us. I like to think that my experience in comedy, my love of trash action films, and fear of horror movies has uniquely prepared me to direct this show. I’m psyched with the absolute bloodbath of talent that we assembled for this production. From top to bottom everyone involved with this show has been scarily invested with bringing the script screaming to life, it’s been the honor of my life to lead this coven of weirdos. I hope you have as much dark delight watching this show as we had creating it.”
Dracula: a feminist revenge fantasy really, story by Bram Stoker, adapted by Kate Hamill. Director Erika Sasseville, Assistant Director Dom Detwiler, Stage manager Aren Sondrol, Assistant Stage Manager Alex Johnson, Assistant Stage Manager Grace Watkins, Fight Director Maggie Sulentic, Movement Director Kelly Nelson, Set & Lighting Designer, Alita Robertson, Sound Design Laura Temme, Props Design Kyle Dekker, Costume Design Krista Weiss, Hair & Makeup Design Robin Gilmer, Hair & Makeup Assistant Shannon Walbran,, Producer Penelope Parsons-Lord, Graphic Design Christopher Goddard & Penelope Parsons-Lord, Marketing Penelope Parsons-Lord Christopher Goddard & Lizzie Esposito. Tickets & access www.nightfiretheatre.com, Pre-book via nightfiretheatre.com . Pay what you can at the door; free entry available. VIP cabaret seating ($35 suggested) with limited space; standard tickets from $15–$25. Cash payments available to avoid credit card fees. At The Historic Mounds Theatre, 1029 Hudson Road
St. Paul, (651) 772-2253
