By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Don’t tell the Bowling Green High School Drama Club that Halloween is over.
They’re still up for bringing that seasonal favorite Dracula to life on the stage and adding plenty of humorous tweaks.
As Jennie Watson (Elle Mitsch) breathlessly informs us at the beginning, she and her fellows are on a mission to keep the Transylvanian Count of ill-repute from turning Londoners into “Happy Meals.”
In “Dracula! A Comic Thriller starring Shirley Holmes and Jennie Watson,” the troupe is also intent on turning the classic horror tale into a laugh feast.
“Dracula!” is on stage at the BG Performing Arts Center, tonight (Thursday, Nov. 3), Friday, Nov. 4, and Saturday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 and $6 for students.
The play has sugar rush pacing, juicing up the script with pop references and teen sass. The show’s Foley team – Dylan Haught, Maggie Titus, and Rose Walters – provide sound effects and serve as instigators. They interact with the cast, who give feedback on the quality of their work. Titus even uses her impressive vocal talents to comic effect.
All this is set up by a letter from legendary vampire hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Drew Thomas). Dracula, suitably hammed up by Isaac Sands, is planning to move to London, in search literally of new blood. But Van Helsing has pneumonia, and is not up to the adventure, so he has assigned his daughter Sabrina (Slayer Porter) and her friends Mina Murray (Sophia Mercer) and Jonathan Harker (Zack Mangan) to stop Dracula.
Van Helsing is concerned these young people aren’t up to the job, so he sends them to Sherlock Holmes for help.
But Sherlock and Dr. Watson are off to East Africa for an extended stay, leaving behind their nieces Shirley Holmes (Carly Lake) and Jennie Watson. They are supposed to be preparing for their exams under the watchful eye of Holmes’ housekeeper Lucetia Dobrinski (Whitney Bechstein). They band together including “Mrs. D,” who has encountered the ghoul before, to combat Dracula. His most vulnerable victim is Lucy (Eva Wiseman-Esparza). If she’s bitten by Dracula a third time, she will be … well, whatever happens to someone who’s bitten by Dracula a third time. We know it won’t be good though.
Maybe she’ll turn into one of the Draculettes (Ramona Foreman, Cheyenne, Adelina Villareal), the girl group sans singing, who sweep along with Dracula, adding cheesy flourish.
As to the plot, well, there is one, but not so much of one as to get in the way of the high jinks. There’s a race from Transylvania to England between Jonathan and Dracula. There’s an inmate from the insane asylum, Renfield played with creepy charm by Simon Baney, who assists Dr. Seward (Rory Mott). There’s a failed effort to protect poor Lucy as she sleeps. There are monks, and a clarinetist, and detectives, who all get their comic bits. There’s a final battle to the death, or something like that.
Most importantly there are laughs. Like those gangs of trick or treaters that haunted our neighborhoods on Monday evening, there’s the hint of something scary, but there’s more laughs and clever costumes, and an appreciation for how much fun everyone, in costume or not, is having.
