Dracula - Research

Bram Stoker’s Dracula – What was he trying to say with this book? Any information about his life or the novel may help here.

The novel was written in the Victorian era, a time where decent values and pride in the power of Great Britain were important things in every day life. It wasn't a coincidence that Dracula was set in Transylvania, but it was to highlight the upper hand that Great Britain wanted to have and had against other countries. Dracula himself wasn't even portrayed as powerful character, but the other English characters often were at the upper hand, but many adaptations have strengthened Dracula to make him more of a scary character. Many other Victorian values were also shown off in the book, like the difference between men and women, men being the dominant genre, and women simply working as wife and barers of children. The book shows Lucy, a more modern young woman who isn't afraid to show her sexuality, as someone who gets manipulated by Dracula easier because of her 'misguided values' and so is trying to show the audience of the novel, that straying from the righteous road will lead them to the Devil and hell in their after life. The book deals with a lot of the christian values being put up on a pedestal. This probably comes from Bram Stoker's background, he was Irish, and most Irish during that time were catholic.

Vampire Myths: Researched information on any aspects of the historical mythological origins and related data.

Vampire folklore can be found in many parts of the world, dating back to biblical times with Lilith(supposedly the first wife of Adam who, after being banished from the Garden of Eden, became the Queen of Demons and would feast on the blood of babies and mothers) and ancient Egypt. Of course then these creatures were not called Vampires, that is a name created during the 17th century when Vampires became popular in England and Germany and it comes from the Slavonic Magyar words “VAM” meaning blood and “PIR” meaning monster, “VAMPIR”= “BLOOD MONSTER”. The vampire like creatures in many cultures were defined as demons and evil spirits who would attack people and drain their life energy or drink their blood. Examples of these kind of creatures are the Chinese Jianshi, Warthful Deitis that appears in the 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' and several others from Mesopotamian, Hebrew, Ancient Greek and Roman cultures. Many of these vampire like creatures were depicted as women or sexual predators taking on the shape of a female Most of the vampire myth comes from the Middle ages in Europe. People looked into religion or superstition to explain the world around them. When commentators have been trying to explain, where these myths might have started, they said a good possibility could have been simply premature burial, rabies or early ignorance of the body's decomposition. Vampire became popular in England and Germany in the 17th century from reports of vampires in Eastern Europe, which would later on form the basis to our modern vampire legends.

Antonin Artaud – What is the Theatre of Cruelty? Any ideas about how this could help us?

Antonin Artaud was the creator of 'Theatre of Cruelty'. He lived a short life of drug abuse and spent a lot of in and out of hospital. For a brief two years he was part of the Surrealist movement, but was then kicked due his views being different and even further absurd. Theatre of Cruelty especially, which demands the actor to get in touch with their 'double', or inner core and subconscious thoughts and taboos. Artaud believed that society and our cultural structures have shaped us to the way we are, hiding our most inner wants and needs, which is the 'double'. By driving themselves to their physical and emotional breaking points, the actors could "lance the abscess" and release the constrictions the society has set upon us human. Using Artaud's methods in our play is extremely fitting, since Dracula is surrounded by themes like temptation, fear, lust and suppression of desire, which are all somehow connected to Artaud. Starting from our own acting and creation of the different scenes, we should be pushing ourselves to do our utter most during rehearsals, being cruel to ourselves as Artaud would have wanted. We could also think about how our characters fit in with Theatre of Cruelty and the idea of a double. What are our characters deepest wants? What are they hiding? Whta would happen if they released it? These are the kind of questions that will get us a more Artaudian view on our characters, get more in touch with their temptations.

Your character(s) in the play: Describe your character using information given in the script/ storyline. How would you describe your character? Provide a personal view about what you feel and think about your character.

I was assigned the role of Jonathan Harker, a young and quite naive man whose firm sends him to Transylvania to conclude a real estate transaction with Dracula. He is very much the image of Victorian values and the ideal Victorian Man, and that's about it. When reading the novel, I never really saw Jonathan as the most interesting character, but rather the things that happened around or to him were things that made him interesting. In the book, he is described as “quiet, business-like gentleman”, “uncommonly clever” and “full of energy”, which definitely are things I should be using when creating this character. He is a lawyer, so most of his life Jonathan has used reading books and studying, not making him the most interesting character of the bunch. Liz Lochhead has tried to put some more into the character in the play, making Jonathan somewhat stray from the paths of an ideal Victorian man by thinking about other women(in discussion between Jonathan Harker and Dr. Seward they discuss Jonathan's secretary), even when being engaged to Mina. He is also somewhat cheeky, since he freely kisses Mina, touched her breasts and suggest that they should have premarital sex. In the play, Jonathan isn't as perfect, but it doesn't make him much more interesting in my eyes. It is when he has been captured by Dracula and you can see how scared Jonathan is of this vampire that he gets more fascinating, but also when he has met with the Vampire Brides. During this scene he pretty much gives into temptation, trading the key that could set him free for a kiss. He is easiy persuaded to temptation, which shows weakness in his spirit, but after this mishap, he rises from his fear to become braver and escaping. In the rest of the play Jonathan is more hands on in action, even if he doesn't have the same kind of experience with physical power than some of the other men. In the play, I think that Jonathan very much represents the suppression of feelings, since even after he escapes Dracula, he doesn't admit to giving into temptation, but they have to use hypnosis to get him tell about his experiences.

Style of Production Watch the 2 films - Dracula (1931) – Nosferatu (1922) What can we learn and use in terms of: Lighting Staging, Set and Props Costume and Make-Up Acting Style

Since both of the movies are black and white, there isn't obviously a lot of we could pull on the lighting or colors for our performance. I personally still think there is a lot we can use. The strong contrasts could be easily managed, using harsh white light, getting that kind of 'colorless' or black and white feel to the performance, then using brighter colours, like red, to high light certain moments and characters. I like how the 1931 Dracula used lights to highlight the eyes of Dracula, since they are pointed out in the story quite often, so that could be an interesting challenge to adapt to the play. Perhaps using a harsh spotlight or cut light, with Dracula slowly walking into it, first only revealing its eyes, then the grin of a monster. Also, using hard, fast blackouts and strong contrasts in the lights will create that expressionistic feel to the performance. The costumes in the two movies differ quite drastically, since they are set in different time periods. Nosferatus certainly has a more late 1800's feel to it, like the time the book was written in, where as Dracula follows more the fashion of the time the movie was made. I personally like the costuming of Nosferatu more, since it made the whole story feel more intimidating, but in the 1931's Dracula the vampire brides definitely win the prize for the costumes. It was simple white dresses from the years gone by, making them feel eerier. For the costumes, we could use more as inspirations for different tokens for characters, rather than guidelines, as I would personally prefer simpler costume choices, since even having only one 'main role', everyone works as a chorus throughout the play and spend the whole time on stage, so having a simple base for everyone gives more freedom during the chorus bits, and leaves more space for our emotions and actions to show trough. Different characters could have one defining piece of clothing that identifies them, that could be put on by the actor when their part comes on. To amp-up the creepy factor for everyone, the make-up could be used to make us look tired, half-dead or insane. Keeping the focus around the eyes, since especially Draculas eyes are a big focus in the story, showing the true nature of this particular creature. I think with the set, we should go with more stylistic decisions, since the locations change quite often and the places are different- from gardens to asylums and castles. We could take inspiration from Expressionistic paintings, with everything being quite abstract, with hard edges and cartoon-like features. This way, we wouldn't have to worry about changing the sets between scenes, but focus on the acting and creating the different places with the chorus. Props should be something easy to carry or get from the sides of the stage, and so there probably shouldn't be too many props used and only when necessary or to add something to the scene or characters.