The comparativist

I caught Nick Lane's Dracula in an Atkinson almost at capacity, yesterday. An outstanding effort in setting the stage to receive the iconic vampire was clearly made by the clever set design comprised of multiple platforms, and astute uses of props; the sound-scape is also commendable, heightened by the vocal prowesses of the cast and sustained by some smartly used vocal effects. Finally, the stage's illumination ties it all together by means a theatrical lighting that carries a lot of the action. It's a shame it's all wasted. The text attempts to do two things that are contradictory, and accomplishes neither: Lane's interpretation of Bram Stoker starts off as very faithful, perhaps to the extreme, as it succeeds in advancing the story by letters, newspaper articles, logs, diaries & journals, just like Stoker's– but then suddenly the dialogue turns into a critique of British colonialism that diverts greatly from the source-material; so which is it? Does the ...