Kicking off the fall semester, UWL’s Department of Theatre & Dance presents its first play of the new school year, “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really.”
This adaptation by Kate Hamill reimagines Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” through a feminist lens, exploring what happens when women take control of a story that has long been dominated by male perspectives.
“This adaption focuses on what happens when you center women in the story of Dracula,” said director of the play, Mary Trotter.
For students who don’t normally frequent UWL theatre productions, this show serves as the perfect introduction to the world of live performance. It blends humor, dark themes, and fast-paced dialogue. The storytelling style breaks away from a traditional play format, resulting in a quickly evolving plot. This mix of production is what makes this show entertaining for both newcomers and theater fanatics.
“This version is pretty fast paced, for someone who isn’t a theatergoer, this won’t be boring,” said Trotter.
The theatre department chose this adaptation because it has been gaining significant attention in recent years for the themes it tackles and the fresh perspective it brings to a classic story. The play tackles toxic masculinity, as well as subtly and not so subtly pulling out the inequalities that women still experience today.
“We hear a lot of things echoed in this play that we hear echoed in society today about women,” said Trotter.
At the theater, one can expect to get the classic story of ‘Dracula’ with a few twists, feminist takes, and modern dialogue—as well as plenty of action and spectacle of course.
“You don’t have to know the ins and outs of the historical story to enjoy this performance…you can also expect a lot of fun stage combat, and blood effects, plus some more modern humor,” said Trotter.
The mix of dark, gothic elements and sharp, comedic twists keeps the tone of this show lively and unpredictable. The production team even brought in a special guest, head of props, from the Yale School of Drama to help perfect the blood effects.
“The technical effects are darker than I usually get to play with, so I’m really enjoying that,” said Trotter.
Opening night is this Friday, Oct. 10, and runs through this weekend and the next at UWL’s Toland Theater, in the Truman Lowe Center for the Arts.
Performance Dates:
Oct. 10-11 & 16-18 at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 12 & 19 at 2:00 p.m.
