Dracula
★★★★☆ Considered
The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 18 – Sat 23 Aug 2025
Review by Hugh Simpson
The Edinburgh Makars’ production of Dracula, at the Royal Scots Club for the last week of the Fringe, is an intelligent and atmospheric (if overlong) production, benefiting from some tremendous acting.
Liz Lochhead’s celebrated 1985 version of Bram Stoker’s novel for the Lyceum stays closer to the original novel (which surely needs no introduction) than many adaptations do. It does, however, foreground the female characters and lean heavily into the sexual repression and sexual politics. It is also a wonderfully poetic, darkly humorous piece in its own right, that is nevertheless a little longer than more recent adaptations tend to be.
Emma Swift (Florrie), Bunny Steven (Lucy Westerman), James Cameron (Arthur Seaward), Craig Gell (Jonathan Harker), Phillipa Roy (Mina), Liza Greenhalgh (Mrs Manners). Pic: Martin Burnell.
Bee Parkinson-Cameron’s direction brings out many of the themes of the play with great care, and is well served by some excellent acting.
Phillipa Roy’s outstanding Mina is a thoroughly convincing characterisation, demonstrating her frustrations clearly. Bunny Steven’s troubled Lucy is similarly well-judged, and there is an utter believability to their sibling relationship that gives the production a very solid grounding.
Lochhead’s adaptation started something of a trend for giving Dracula’s fly-guzzling acolyte Renfield such a prominent role – he features far more in the play than the Count himself, for example. James Gray does tend a little towards the more stagey, singsong, overly poetic depiction of serious mental health conditions at times – rather than the force of nature the role demands, but remains compelling.
bumptious hearties
Craig Gell, as Jonathan Harker, and James Cameron, who plays Arthur Seward, have a fine line to tread in this version. Far from being any kind of heroes, they are more like bumptious hearties holding up the patriarchy. Both acquit themselves well. Gell’s terror under hypnosis is extremely effective, while Cameron gives Seward’s belated redemption a real poignancy.
Chris Eyett’s Van Helsing is gratifyingly underplayed compared to the scenery-chewing displays the role often becomes. However, it tends to go too far the other way at times, leading to problems with audibility.
Sonido Koti Sewornu (Dracula), Craig Gell (Jonathan Harker), Bunny Steven, Emma Swift, Liza Greenhalgh (vampire brides). Pic: Martin Burnell.
No such problems with Sonido Kofi Sewornu’s Dracula, who sweeps on to the stage as if he owns it and delivers the most familiar of lines as if they were new.
One of the most noteworthy elements of Lochhead’s version is the way that female and working-class characters are given agency. Florrie the maid is in many ways the piece’s moral centre, and she is played with real authority and excellent timing by Emma Swift. Carol Davidson and Georgia Smith are very good as the contrasting nurses, with Davidson’s bewildered spite particularly fine.
Liza Greenhalgh’s Mrs Manners and Ben Carey’s hospital orderly Drinkwater, meanwhile, demonstrate that it is possible for a look to say as much as a hundred words.
outlier
Liam Mortell’s lighting and sound are atmospheric, while Lily Kennedy and Hope McCartney’s makeup and hair add character – although some of the makeup is a shade overdone.
A look at a list of the Makars’ recent productions does mark this out as something of an outlier, and – while this is undoubtedly astute, considered and suitably scary – it could benefit from just a smidgen of the breeziness of some of those Fringe farces.
Chris Eyett (Van Helsing), James Cameron (Arthur Seaward), Emma Swift (Florrie), Bunny Steven (Lucy Westerman). Pic: Martin Burnell.
It is already a long play, and the incessant breaks for resetting the stage become more than a little tiresome, despite the speed at which they are carried out. It takes the whole thing well over the three-hour mark despite a truncated interval.
With such a large and versatile acting area, it would surely be possible to leave some of the furniture in place a little longer. As it is, the constant interruptions, as well as trying the patience, dissipate any sense of horror that has been built up and make everything too stop-start.
Which is doubly frustrating when so much of the acting is so good, and so much of the production so thoughtful. And in the end the production more than overcomes such problems.
Running time: Three hours and 10 minutes (including one interval).
The Royal Scots Club (Hepburn Suite), 29-31 Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE. (Venue 241).
Monday 18 – Saturday 23 August 2025.
Daily: 7.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Makars website: www.edinburghmakars.com
Facebook: @edinburghmakars
Instagram: @edinburghmakars
James Gray (Renfield), Sonido Koti Sewornu (Dracula), Phillipa Roy (Mina). Pic: Martin Burnell.
ENDS
