|
Summary
Dracula (Undressed). 6m, 3w, extras. Although the setting and characters are the same as the Balderston-Deane hit play of 1927, we sense that something has gone amiss. Dr Seward, an amiable physician, is tormented by the fact that although he runs an institution for rehabilitating alcoholics, he is forced to imbibe to excess, himself. Ruth The Maid is privy to this, but complains that Renfield, a dipsomaniac patient, is causing havoc by escaping from whatever fetters he is put in. Seward is futher worried that his daughter Lucy's life is endangered, after her friend Mina Yerna has so recently died of a mysterious illness. Mina's blood, it seems, turned into pure alcohol, and Lucy's blood is turning yellow.
Lucy's fiancé, Jonathan is summoned to help, in his own peculiar way, as is Professor Van Helsing, who has seen these symptoms before. The problem, it is discovered, stems from a new neighbor, Dracula, who brings riotous good times wherever he goes, heedless of what destruction follows. Van Helsing traps Dracula by serving him Jewish hors d'œuvres. A mysterious Bat arrives shortly thereafter, causing mayhem. Van Helsing swears he knows how to stop this evil menace. Harker is confused.
The gentlemen throw a party the next evening, but it's not the one which Lucy expected. They meticulously re-create Lucy's sixth birthday, trying to win her heart as well as distract her from Dracula's clutches. Harker is further confused by a visit from Mina, whom he learns was buried only a month before. Despite egg races, hot-potato tosses, and even scandalously improper calls on the telephone, Lucy is brought to a crisis only to conclude that her father never gave her the means to deal with life after her sixth birthday-so all this seems very natural to her. What with the problem of tying people up in beef rolls, administering caustic high-colonics in the hallways and dealing with shrieking cats in the alley, it is no wonder that the shattering conclusion to the play deals with the illusions upon which all adulthood is based. Although the most sophomoric of farces, its theme is deadly serious: if it feels good, admit it.
©1999 John Mucci. All rights reserved.
|
