Dracula: The Bloody Truth ★★★★★

Given that the origins of his iconic character began with Bram Stoker on holiday a mere stake’s throw away in Whitby, it feels right that Dracula: The Bloody Truth should come ashore at Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre.

Created and first performed in 2017 by Devon-based theatre company, Le Navet Bete, the show is set in 1899, two years after Stoker published his bestselling novel. Professor Abraham Van Helsing, enraged at Irish writer’s fictionalising the story, decides to restage the fateful events from Transylvania to Whitby. With the aid of three “versatile” (read: bumbling) actors, he’s determined to tell the truth of what transpired.

Watching Dracula: The Bloody Truth on Election Night, while elsewhere another count was about to drive a stake through the heart of Rishi Sunak’s government, it’s striking how this good-natured and unremittingly silly show is a timely and welcome distraction from the world’s prevailing doom and gloom. While many comedy shows finely hone their humour, this production delights in being wildly scattershot.

Sound cues arriving at exactly the most inopportune moment and collapsing sets recall The Play That Goes Wrong. Perfectly-executed slapstick and chaotic rushings on and off bring to mind top-ranking farce like Noises Off. The scattiness of Lucy Westenra’s dotty mother and the miming of missing props will delight fans of Victoria Wood’s Acorn Antiques. The show even purloins the classic Mastermind sketch of The Two Ronnies where a character gives the answer to the subsequent question before it’s asked. If you are going to borrow, then wisely borrow from the very best!

A frighteningly-accomplished cast of four play a myriad of characters in dizzying succession. It takes a high-calibre ensemble to deliver the endless gags with such exquisite timing that the pace never flags, but neither does it become exhausting. And each of the cast of four gets their moment to shine.

Chris Hannon imbues Van Helsing with a demented eccentricity. “I hate theatre” he declares with a knowing zeal, standing under the Vaudevillian proscenium arch set. Making Eddie Redmayne’s Cabaret cadences seem positively naturalistic, Van Helsing has a Dutch accent riper than aged Edam.

Annie Kirkman is camp and charismatic in equal measure as Dracula. Her decidedly low-tech attempts at transforming into a bat bring the house down…literally.

Alyce Liburd‘s Mina slyly draws attention to Stoker’s now-outdated views towards his heroines. A debate about her mid-afternoon cocktail with a stranger ends on a fevered, screamed “YOU’RE OVERACTING!” needs ‘correcting’ to “You’re over-reacting”.

Dracula: The Blood Truth takes aim at the original novel’s throb of repressed Victorian sexual metaphors. Jonathan Harker (Killian Macardle) doesn’t quite put up too convincing resistance to the “fearful creatures” in the Transylvanian castle who try to seduce him – twerking to Pussycat Dolls’ Don’t Cha naturally.

But it’s as a fully-bearded, seductive Lucy Westenra that Macardle comes close to stealing the show. A scene where three suitors come to propose to this beauty is a feat of quick changes. Lucy’s eventual demise is as macabre as it is hilarious – and indeed interactive!

The abiding feeling of this production is one of giddy exuberance. From local references to battered sausages and punching seagulls in the beak, to effortless ad-libs (Van Helsing chiding the audience for “clapping wind”), Dracula: The Bloody Truth is a batty, full-blooded crowd pleaser that piles up the belly laughs and delivers a fang-tastic night of entertainment!