Theater review by Elizabeth Warnimont
Special to The Herald

The season of witches, ghosts and goblins may be officially behind us, but don’t let that keep you from checking out Center Repertory Company’s spectacular production of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” adapted for the stage by John Balderston and Hamilton Deane, at the Lesher Performing Arts Center in Walnut Creek through Nov. 20.

Center Rep has put together an extraordinary show, complete with artful set elements, top-notch acting and costuming, and all the surprise, tenderness and passion a great drama can offer. The show may be too scary for young children, but not in any haunted-house, leap-out-at-you kind of way. This “Dracula” is sophisticated, complex and thought-provoking, much as the 19th-century novelist likely intended.

The first scene opens on an intriguing set, designed by award-winning scenic designer Kim A. Tolman. Asymmetrical walls appear leaning to one side, some even tilted slightly backward, all converging on a sloping walkway leading up to a castle door and a comparatively small platform beneath a pair of oversized windows. Between the skewed perspective of the walls and the subtle shadings of their color, the mood is distinctly eerie.

Further enhancing that not-of-this-world feel, the first character to appear onstage comes creeping down from the top of one wall like a giant reptile, head first, with slow, deliberate steps, before disappearing into the darkness.

Eugene Brancoveanu, a Romanian-born actor and operatic baritone, makes his Center Rep debut in the title role. Brancoveanu brings a fantastic power to the part of the mysterious count, making good use of his highly trained voice, refined acting ability and strong physical presence. Director Michael Butler envisioned a Dracula who was “charismatic, sexy and romantic at first, and then (to) become scary.” Brancoveanu fills that bill, almost unrecognizable as he transforms from the ghostly, eccentric “Vlad Tepes” of Transylvania (a nod to the historical figure on whom the character of Dracula was originally based, according to Butler) to the youthful and vibrant Count Dracula taking in the life, so to speak, on the streets of London.

All of the key roles in the production are well performed. Thomas Gorrebeeck is Jonathan, a young and newly betrothed English lawyer who is called upon to provide legal services to a solitary landholder in a remote area of Transylvania. Gorrebeeck is the picture of the eager young professional, excited about the marriage and career ahead of him and willing to pursue this bizarre assignment, even after an unsettling carriage ride on his first night. He writes to his beloved of the strange howlings he heard along the way, what seemed like “hundreds of red eyes” in the darkness, and how the carriage driver pressed his “coal-black horses” on through the darkness with a fierce intensity, offering for explanation only that “the dead travel fast.”

Jonathan’s fiancée Mina, played by Kendra Lee Oberhauser, is doubly concerned when Jonathan’s letter arrives on a particularly ominous date:

“It is the eve of St. George’s Day. Do you not know that tonight, when the clock strikes midnight, all the evil things in the world will have full sway?”

Of course, Mina has plenty of cause for concern, as her fiancé faces nightly grilling by his creepy host, an encounter with some strange and seductive vixens (Emma Goldin, Taylor Jones and Kate Jopson), and lonely days not seeing or hearing a single human soul.

Actors Equity Association member Michael Wiles plays Dr. Seward, director of a London sanitarium and suitor to Mina’s close friend Lucy (Madeline H.D. Brown). Wiles aptly portrays the unassuming gentleman, capable in his profession but utterly clueless and meek when it comes to courting the flirtatious Lucy. The doctor finds himself equally ill-equipped to tackle the challenge of the strange illness that befalls his love soon after Count Dracula’s arrival in the city.

As Lucy’s condition becomes more worrisome, Seward enlists the help of a more experienced and worldly associate, Professor Van Helsing (Equity actor Robert Sicular). Sicular is a confident Van Helsing, solid and commanding, with the even temperament of a doctor-hero who will ultimately save the day. Recognizing the patient’s syndrome, the professor immediately suspects the awful truth, but hesitates to share his knowledge for fear that he will not be taken seriously.

Brown is a delightful Lucy, playfully teasing her friend in the early part of the story, but she is truly at her dramatic best later on, when the innocent young girl is transformed by otherworldly forces into a tantalizing creature of the night.

There is another essential character in the play who is introduced almost as an aside. Renfield, played by Equity actor Michael Barrett Austin, initially appears as a patient in Dr. Seward’s asylum exhibiting overtly insane behavior, so odd as to provide almost comic relief. As the plot thickens, however, the crazed rantings of this lunatic begin to take on much more sober meaning. Austin masters the role of the defeated prisoner who is forced to recall his previous terror as the events of his past begin repeating themselves all around him.

Artful use of props, lighting and special effects only add to the allure of this stellar production. It is indeed unique — “not the 55th version of Dracula,” as Brancoveanu describes it. It is a fresh and imaginative treat for the senses.

If You Go
“Dracula” continues at the Lesher Arts Center in Walnut Creek through Nov. 20. Tickets are available by calling 925-943-7469 or online at www.lesherartscenter.org. A video interview with director Michael Butler and lead actor Eugene Brancoveanu may be viewed on the Center Rep web site at www.centerrep.org/season1011/dracula.php.