Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really.

Synopsis

"When your survival is at stake… will you be able to distinguish the monster from the man? Both terrifying and riotous, Kate Hamill’s imaginative, gender-bending “feminist revenge fantasy” is like no Dracula you’ve ever seen—exploring the nature of predators and reinventing the story as a smart, disquieting, darkly comic drama. Hamill’s signature style and postmodern wit upends this familiar tale of Victorian vampires—driving a stake through the heart of toxic masculinity."

Dramaturg Note

Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really. is unlike any other adaptations of Dracula. Kate Hamill flips the original story on its head and “stab[s] toxic masculinity in its ancient heart”, all done through the genre of feminist revenge. Feminist revenge as a genre is characterized by its strong female leads and their efforts to regain control over their lives and bodies. This play joins the company of other famous feminist revenge plays like 9 to 5, Thelma and Louise, Jennifer’s Body, and Kill Bill. As we see Bram Stoker's original characters take on new life, the women of the show come to the forefront, rectifying the misogynistic lens in which they were originally written. Inspired by the #MeToo movement and the Harvey Weinstein case, Hamill let her feelings be known about powerful men, and exactly where they can stick a stake.

The figure of Dracula has haunted media for 127 years, appearing in various forms under different names. While the novel was only written in 1897, it comes from a long history of vampiric stories. Vampires, or monsters of the like, have been part of folklore for more than 4 millennia, from the Mesopotamian Utukku, to the Babylonian and Hebrew Lilitu and Lilith, humanity has been fascinated by the concept of these life sucking beasts. During the 19th century, the perception of vampires shifted into something much more human and charming, with John Polidori’s Vampyr, written in the same summer and home in 1816 that Frankenstein was written. From there, vampirism took off. In 1922, a silent film version of the story, free of the copyrighted characters, was created, called Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, changing the landscape for monsters on screen. Only 9 years later, we got the most iconic version of Dracula performed by Bela Lugosi in the 1931 film Dracula. Bela Lugosi set what the ideal Dracula looked and sounded like. Into the modern era, Dracula and vampires still make themselves known in a more sexy and tragic state in media like Castlevania and Twilight. Kate Hamill takes on the massive task of taking the well-established character and doing them honor, as we get to see sides of the character never seen in the original novel.

Linn Eggett
Dramaturg