Drama Society sharpens fangs for 'Dracula'
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from April 2004.
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CDS will open "Dracula - Lucy's Kiss" on Thursday 15 April and will run until 1 May.
According to producer Cathy Wight, the version of the Dracula story, which they will stage is based on the famous Bram Stoker novel "Dracula" with some important changes.
All the action takes place in the library of Dr. Quincy Seward's house in Purley, England (a few miles outside London). Dr. Seward is a woman who specializes in the insane and her lunatic asylum is in the grounds of her house. Her husband (also a doctor) has recently died and now alarmingly her sister, Dorothy Renfeld, has suddenly gone insane.
To make matters worse her daughter, Mina, has had her very close friend (Lucy Godalming) staying with them at her house and has died supposedly of anemia. Professor Van Helsing, a long friend of her late husband and world famous specialist on strange diseases has been contacted to investigate.
A strange count from Transylvania, Dracula, has taken residence in an old residence called Carfax which is close by to Dr. Seward's house. He has visited and both Mina and Quincy have found themselves attracted to him, especially Mina. Mina recounts her nightmares that recur every time she goes to sleep in which the deceased Lucy visits her. Is she really dead? What happens next is both terrifying and compelling with an ending that really does shock, Ms Wight concludes.
When this play, adapted by actor/playwright Hamilton Deane, was first staged in 1924, it broke all attendance records with swooning and terrified women, with nurses and doctors in attendance to hand out the smelling salts. It played continuously for 10 years and then was dropped in favour of the American adaptation written by journalist John Balderston that survives today. With only a few changes, the Cayman Drama Society presents the Hamilton Dean original version, not having been performed before for seventy years.
Colin Wilson will direct the play with Wight producing. The play will run Thursday, Friday and Saturday for three weeks commencing on 15 April. Saturday nights are dinner theatre. Opening night is a gala costume evening with a prize for the best costume.
