'Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy' slays gender roles with twist of Stoker classic

In “Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy,” there are no sparkling vampires, but there is a twist on the Bram Stoker classic.

Breshaun Joyner, who plays Dr. Van Helsing, said that in the play, Van Helsing is the hunter and Dracula is the hunted, and gender-bending amplifies this idea.

“Dracula being this big, monolithic super creature, superhero deep in his villain era … provides an excellent foil against this female character who does not see patriarchy as something that is palatable anymore, and seeks to slay that,” Joyner said.

Joyner said the play explores the ideas of toxic masculinity and the overall themes of power, control, vulnerability and the nature of predators.

“Throughout the play, there is this constant questioning or assumptions from male characters in terms of what power women have and don’t have,” Joyner said. “What power men have over women, and looking at that power as either this is the way that society is or this is the way that you were made to be.”

The name “A Feminist Revenge Fantasy,” Joyner said, shows how the play takes a no-holds-barred and unapologetic look at the supposed hierarchy of gender and slays it.

“The iconography of female throughout the show, through some set design props and whatnot, really shows that the females are taking the agency back in this piece,” Joyner said. “And at the same time, there are different female stories layered in this play.”

She said it explores imprisonment, physical or mental, and the idea of marriage.

“It also does it within this very, very, horror kind of framework and funny at the same time,” Joyner said. “With these serious themes, and lots and lots and lots of blood, you have to have some kind of comedic relief.”

The show, which opens at the Santa Fe Playhouse on Saturday, Oct. 18, is a horror production, Joyner said, and features physical fight scenes.

“I say fighting in like badass physical taking punches, choking out stakes and whatnot, which shows a physical strength,” Joyner said.

“If anything, this play shows the depth and variety of strength in females.”