Dracula gets a glam-rock makeover for A Comedy of Terrors

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Before taking on Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors, director Josh Epstein tackled another high-energy farce, The Play That Goes Wrong. Besides their broad humour and physical comedy, the two productions have something else in common.

“It’s the theatricality,” Epstein said. “You can see the seams of the productions, which are left visible on purpose. I think that’s what audiences love and connect with. That’s the difference between coming to the theatre and watching something polished on screen. We’re showing the cracks a little bit in these stories.”

The Arts Club’s production of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors casts a woman, Synthia Yusuf, in the title role. Yusuf’s previous credits include last year’s Arts Club production of Frozen and, earlier this year, Gateway Theatre’s Wildwoman.

“It’s not a bit. We’re not playing it as a joke. It’s a serious artistic choice. Synthia auditioned for the role against hundreds of other people and won it.”

In this production, which the director calls a “high-style Victorian Gothic fever dream,” Dracula has “a masculine-feminine quality, a feminine masculinity, that’s in the glam-rock tradition,” he said. “It’s a little bit Bowie-esque. Dracula is a bit of a rock star, and we found the right person to play the role.”

Written by American playwrights Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, whose previous collaborations include Crime and Punishment, a Comedy, the play combines Mel Brooks-style parody with Monty Python-inspired absurdity and physical comedy.

The adaptation turns Stoker’s Gothic classic on its head, transforming the sinister count into a seductive heartthrob, the traditional hero into a coward and the damsel in distress into a woman eager for adventure. Five actors portray 16 characters, with rapid-fire costume changes, gender-bending performances and deliberately exposed theatrical trickery. Along with Yusuf, Kate Besworth, Steffanie Davis, Jeff Meadows and Vincent Tong star.

Epstein, who recently added executive director of the Whistler Film Festival to his resumé, says Vancouver actors are hungry for comedy.

“There aren’t many opportunities to do big comedy, and the amount of high-end talent being submitted for these projects was overwhelming.

“I could have cast these shows five times over with the talent pool in Vancouver.”

Originally commissioned by Florida’s Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors opened off-Broadway at New York’s New World Stages in September 2023, running for four months before closing in January 2024.

For Epstein, the relative newness of Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors offers an opportunity to develop something new rather than reproduce someone else’s production.

“You can look on YouTube and see productions that have essentially copied other productions. You can feel the staleness of that. I try to create a canvas where the actors and designers feel they can be creative, where we’re making choices together and inventing things in the rehearsal room.

“The Arts Club is amazing that way. We can come to them and say, ‘We’ve invented a prop today. This is what we need, and this is how it has to work.’ And they’ll say, ‘OK, we’re going to try to figure that out.’”

Asked about his favourite moments in the show, Epstein points to the love triangle involving Dracula, Jonathan and his fiancée, Lucy (Mina in Bram Stoker’s novel), with the vampire reduced to third wheel.

“Those scenes are electric. There’s a ton of incredible comedy in the show, but I think that love-triangle dynamic is particularly interesting.

“You could compare it to Twilight or Y tu mamá también, or any of those great stories about relationships where a supernatural being comes in and awakens something in the characters.

“Dracula awakens the sexuality of both Jonathan and Lucy. We’re really enjoying that part of the story, and I think we’re exploring it in a fresh way.”

When: Oct. 22-Nov. 15
Where: Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island, 1585 Johnston St., Vancouver
Tickets: From $29 at artsclub.com and 604-687-1644