DRACULA
2010 // Latest Music Bar, Brighton
"...So for Aine King to have created Dracula of such inventive power is a triumph." - Andrew Kay
A Thrilling Horror Story
In October 2010 Otherplace Productions and Áine King transformed the basement venue of The Latest Bar, Brighton into a Victorian lunatic asylum for Áine’s immersive production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Visiting lunatic asylums, and ‘poking-fun’ at the inmates was a popular pastime in the 1800s. Stoneyfields Asylum is a key location in the novel and Áine’s production placed all of the play there, with the inmates re-enacting the tale of the vampire count, overseen by two brutal attendants. In the novel the lunatic, Renfield, returned insane from a business trip to meet a mysterious Count in Transylvania, and spends his days incarcerated in the asylum, catching flies and spiders. In Áine’s adaptation Renfield has multiple personalities – one of them Dracula. The vampire escapes from Renfield’s subconscious, and all Hell breaks loose in the asylum. This was a dark, disturbing production, the audience surrounded by ‘lunatics’, at times unsure who were doctors and who were patients. The ensemble of inmates were joined by sinister musicians playing traditional tunes and music hall ballads. Aine won the Fringe Report Award for Best Auteur (adaptation, design, direction) for Dracula in 2011.
Witness The Tale:
Design Sketches:
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