EdFringe Review: Dracula: Lucy’s Dream

French-Norwegian theatre company Plexus Polaire arrives in Edinburgh with a reputation for intense visual excellence. Their latest production, Dracula: Lucy’s Dream, delivers that in spades. Directed by Yngvild Aspeli, this adaptation reimagines Bram Stoker’s gothic horror through the eyes of its first, doomed heroine.

The company aims to deliver a hallucinatory fever dream. On a technical level, they deliver precisely that. If it is a visual, vibe-packed spectacle you are looking for at this year’s Fringe, there is nothing superior on offer this August.

The stage is alive with remarkable puppets, magical lighting, and striking optical illusions. A thumping original soundscape by composer Ane Marthe Sørlien Holen drives the action even harder. The ensemble—Dominique Cattani, Yejin Choi, Sebastian Moya, Marina Simonova, and Kyra Vandenenden—execute their roles with outstanding dramatic and technical competence. They understand exactly how to use light and shadow to create imposing scenes. The tableaux created leap from the stage with enormous vivacity. Human actors blur into unsettling puppet vampires, bats or a rather lovable hound. They move with a well-choreographed grace that shifts fluidly between physical theatre and dance. The integration of digital and practical special effects is simply flawless.

The promotional blurb promises an intoxicating descent into desire, fear, and female emancipation. They deliver the intoxication, at least to begin; stop drinking in those vibes, however, and sobriety brings with it a realisation…there’s very little story.

Style dominating substance

A nightmare requires at least a little grounding reality to induce true terror. Exploring ideas takes more than a few recorded, heavy-breathed statements of hunger to convey them.

“If it is a visual, vibe-packed spectacle you are looking for at this year’s Fringe, there is nothing superior on offer this August.“

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is already rich with erotic, emancipated ideas. They sit right there in the text, begging for exploration. The production clearly wants to illustrate something primal about Lucy’s psychology. It positions her as both victim and liberator as she wrestles a demon which flits between an internal demon and an external threat. Personally, as someone who dabbles in horror cinema, I didn’t find the show particularly terrifying — but I did hear younger patrons than I discussing plenty of fear-inducing moments. Maybe those of us brought up on Sesame Street are doomed to an amiable response to puppet Counts…

Unfortunately, this almost wordless hour never establishes a strong enough narrative line to do more than hint at a philosophy. We observe a series of thematically consistent, visually stunning events. You admire the superb stagecraft, and note the clever transitions, but it’s never clear precisely what we are watching, or why we should care beyond being impressed.

Which is a pity because the sheer power of the increasingly blood-soaked (through a very clever use of materials) visuals created could deliver an unforgettable date with the most famous of vampires and his first victim. The deft swapping of performer and puppet, whether Lucy or Dracula, is simply remarkable, as is the imagination and ambition of the ever-escalating hallucinatory show, which flies into a marvellous finale.

In the final analysis, Dracula: Lucy’s Dream offers a staggering demonstration of modern puppetry and physical theatre. It is a visually superlative piece of work, executed by a company with superb technical skill. The imagery will stay with you. But theatre requires more than striking pictures. It needs a pulse.