It’s the time of year the undead walk, and they will be walking and blood sucking at the Hilberry Theatre from October 21 through November 6.
That’s when Wayne State University’s Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance will breathe new life into Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
You remember the story. The world’s best-known Transylvanian vampire stalks the street of Victorian London at night looking to drink the blood of new prey while a young lawyer, Jonathan Harker, and his fiancée, Mina Murray, fight to destroy this dark and evil creature.
As Harker says in the novel, “No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be.”
The sharp-toothed Dracula has been undead for several hundred years and embodies true evil and darkness. A great plot for a story, but as with so many plays and books there is an underlying theme. Many say it was a rebuke and reflection of the conservative Victorian society Stoker lived in and when his victims are turned into vampires it suggests they are losing their conservative nature and inhibitions.
The play was adapted by playwright Charles Morey, who is also the production’s director. He has more than 45 years of experience in professional theatre and extensive credits from coast to coast.
“My intent in writing this adaptation was to translate Stoker’s extraordinary novel to the stage in a manner that was as faithful as possible to the plot structure, characters, thematic concerns, tone and sensibility of the original,” he says. “It tries to balance the explicit allegorical framework of the struggle between good and evil with the unalloyed melodrama of the Gothic thriller. I first read Dracula when I was 13 or 14. It scared the pants off me. It still disturbs my dreams from time to time today when I work on productions of the play and dip back into Stoker’s tale.”
Tickets for Dracula range from $25-$30. Student rush tickets are $10 with valid student ID the night of the performance. Call the Hilberry Theatre Box Office at (313) 577-2972, go online at Hilberry.com, or stop by the box office at 4743 Cass Avenue at the corner of Hancock Street to get your seat.
