‘Dracula’ ready to strike at Vortex Theatre

That ultimate creature of the night lurks at the Vortex Theatre.

Playwright Mac Wellman’s adaptation of “Dracula” opens on Friday, Sept. 29, running on weekends through Oct. 15.

Wellman captures text from Bram Stoker’s original novel, weaving in his own postmodernist language.

“He takes a lot of Bram Stoker’s text and moves it in different directions,” said director Chad Brummett. “As bizarre as the script is, it’s a pretty true interpretation of the vibe and the feel of the book. It doesn’t follow chronologically; it jumps around.”

For those unfamiliar with the book and its many (more than 30) cinematic iterations, it opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker escapes the castle after discovering that Dracula is a vampire.

In the play, Brummett combines some characters and adds new ones.

“Jonathan Harker and Renfield (Dracula’s loyal servant) are combined,” Brummett said.

“It sort of explores the problem of the patriarchal structure of the 19th century and the idea that science and reason could understand everything.

“The natural order of things can still be very mysterious to us.”

As the Industrial Revolution churned across the globe, no one thought about the consequences of fossil fuels, Brummett explained. In the 1940s, no one worried about the long-term results of radioactivity. Today, it’s artificial intelligence.

“We don’t really think about the long-term ramifications of it,” he said.

The play also explores the concept of sexual liberation through the female characters of Mina and Lucy, incorporating both the pros and the cons of following a passion.

“There can be a liberation, but that can also be a trap,” Brummett said.

“Dracula” is Brummett’s favorite novel.

“I’ve always gravitated toward the monster movies and Gothic literature,” he said.

In his exploration of good and evil, Stoker shows that sometimes what we think is for the best has nefarious implications, he added.

“I would argue in ‘Frankenstein’ it’s not the creature that’s the monster, it’s Victor Frankenstein,” Brummett said.

Unlike most novelists of the time period, Stoker told his story through letters and diaries.

Stoker penned the book in 1897.

“It really is peering into the inner lives of people,” Brummett said. “I’ve always thought it was such as progressive way of thinking and telling a story, especially in the 1890s. It’s a beautifully written piece.”

“Dracula” stars Quinn Mander as Van Helsing, Jeff Dolecek as the Count and Abby Van Gerpen as Lucy.