#also before the show started the bgm they were playing was like. linkin park and evanescence lol?? target audience

[avianhaven]

I saw a flamenco performance of Dracula and it was really cool so this is just me logging the plot/my highlights from it/some silly stuff for my personal memory.

I included some pictures at the end of the playbills/what I managed to sneak. Also sorry to mobile people the pics keep showing up in a row even though I tried grouping them?? :(

Prologue

--- Introduction by Destino, it starts with her like. Under a pile of blankets/the really long flowing dress she's under and sort of pulsing/clawing her way to life. Also her blowing sand into the audience! And ugh OK I just love her great big coat she gets a 2nd one that has like roots/vines and dead red leaves that match the long trailing red hair she has. Cool design!!

--- Dracula who's an old hag in a baggy dress with like, ropes? That I think were also on the stage background and later look like the roots/dead leaves on the ends of Destino's 2nd dress (which FUCKED HARD I wish I got a picture of it)

Act 1

---Mina on stage and Jonathan joins and puts his scarf around her neck and I immediately tear up. And then Jonathan's medieval peasant assistant comes on stage and for real who is this guy.

--- Lucy!!! She's a big sweetie and her actress was very bombastic and lively. The entire party scene was sooo good! I loved the older ladies who introduced the scene by sitting on chairs and the younger women danced in front of them? And then they had part of a number as well it was very fun.

--- Lucy's suitor? Arthur? Was played by like a butch blond lady in a vest and fedora kinda look it was very like. Both suave and silly the way kinda like how Takarazuka has the very exaggerated body actions. Also Mina getting a letter from J during the party and being rly concerned and Lucy fucking just balls it up and chucks it off stage like "have fun girl!! don't worry about what you can't help!" LOL Lucy who is a party girl for life I love her.

--- OK the playbill says "Dracula seees a photo of Mina and feels it is his destiny to finder her." And honestly it might've been me not paying attention but I completely missed that bit. The entire scene kinda just plays out as Jonathan+co being harassed by Dracula- which was really well done!! Dracula biting Jonathan and standing back to the audience and taking off the old lady wig and becoming youthful while Jonathan is slumped over in the chair. Very cool.

--- Also Jonathan's assistant ditches him and then spends the next few scenes wandering around in the abyss with a lantern meanwhile when J finally escapes Destino guides him to the covent lol. Guy who is not plot relevant enough to be given directions. Seriously who is this guy like he's the one who find's Lucy's corpse but he's like. Super not relevant??

Also OK there was this!! Like when Jon+co are in Dracula's castle it's like. I think it's supposed to be reminiscent of the scene where he first meet's Drac's wives in that dusty room because it was a bunch of people wearing these sheer veils that are all different colors each person and they had these like. Lights in their mouths I tried taking a picture but security saw and told me to stop lol. But it was VERY cool beyond belief.

--- Boat scene was really fun. Everyone sitting in life jackets circling the cargo and then afterwards it goes to like a lively scene of the docks (there's also this. weird bit of a prostitue I think? Smoking and some actual monk guy passes her and tries to bless her or something and she laughs in his face it's very ??? something that is also here). And during the lively docks dracula awakens out of the cargo and is in this really cool all like. Black lace-print suit w/ a mask of the same pattern completely covering his face. And he takes off the mask midway and well hello MILF.

But yeah him combination terrorizing/hypnotizing the entire dock party and toying with Mina and attacking Lucy. And it fucked!!

Act 2

--- Lucy spends a bit of time like wandering around in a delirium before she dies and it's very tragic and also really well done her actress was great. Had that "hair down and wild" look with the very jerky / erratic movements. Also when Dracula hypnotizes Mina for reals they just leave Lucy's unconscious body on the stage like damn 😦 sad but them's the schticks.

--- Back with our boy J Harker he's like the plaything of Dracula's 4* weedsmoking girl friends and he's taken off his big coat and is just in like. A white dress shirt and bondage chains and it was very 💦 making me act unwise. 😭 Jonathan's actor was so pretty for real!! He had such emotion in his performance and very soulful expressive eyes and just. Was really good!!! Also there was a child behind me who after Jonathan like. Very easily gets out of the chains bc it is a costume and throws them laughs and whispered "Haha they didn't even do anything" lol cute kid they made a few other silly comments throughout.

--- The scene with the assistant guy finding Lucy and Van Helsing appears and at first I had completely no clue who she was lol. Because her outfit was very "goth lady" which p much all the ensemble BG dancers / implied Dracula girlfriends wore and then only via remembering the playbill + context clue of her having a silver ribbon in her hair was I like OH it's Van Helsing lol. The silver ribbon was very cool and a nice touch but like IDK I just think her costume needed something to add more visual distinction. Make her long overcoat red or something IDK!!

Also during this scene it's framed as Lucy's body+assistant on the far right (stage left), Jonathan comes in midway w/ his 2 nuns on the far right and just kind of stand there solemly holding rosaries or something and looking into the light. Jonathan has become Catholic. And meawhile yeah VH does a very cool solo dance center stage that I finally realized who she was mid-way through so I probably missed some of the nuance of. She was very striking though!! Very strong movements and body language and the music was intense.

--- OK there's like. this extended scene in the asylum that starts with Renfield in a straight jacket laughing ilke "My master's coming!!" and ends with like. a prison fight and it's completely irrelevant to everything else it's very ??? Like V Helsing is also there wearing a lab coat with a clipboard to show she's taken over Stewards role but it kind of does not advance the plot at all really.

--- There's a part where VH followed by J+assistant are like fake slow-mo marching to Dracula and I internally was like "haha slomo" and the older lady next to me whispering to her friend "Oh they're walking in slow-motion I wonder why" everyone with the same collective thought lol.

--- Scene of Dracula + ensemble girlfriends + Mina and Dracula takes Mina to bed and Dracula is wearing heels in bed and Mina is barefoot so I was like I see that someone is going to have a dance number lol. And the dance number is VH arriving and cockblocking Dracula and he does an angry dance about it. Oh OK but!! Super cool thing that happens is VH front center of stage and looking towards the audience and Dracula coming up behind her and looming over her and while she clutches the crucifix she's holding Dracula has his arms splayed around behind her in the same position and just barely misses her when he lunges because she starts moving again. Poor explanation of action from me but anyway it was very cool and fun I enjoyed it.

--- At the end Jonathan grabs and pulls Mina away from Dracula into an embrace and I'm like wow I am soft. And in the same moment Dracula gets stabbed by VH and the child behind me yelled "YES DESTRUCTION!!!" and lol I love it.

Also it ends with I think the some of the only spoken words in the production but it was that uh. "I have crossed oceans of time to see you" line that I know is from one of the 'Mina is Dracula's reincarnated love' versions but that is fully the extent of my knowledge LOL. It was unclear to me personally but it was me going to a production with no knowledge of flamenco as an art form and very minimal knowledge of Dracula. A very fun experience though I really enjoyed it!!

Pics of the summary and cast from the playbill + a few pics I managed to sneak in. The last image is from curtain call and it's Jonathan, Lucy, + Van Helsing (+Jonathan's assistant behind them)

Also includes Lucy+her suitor / that cool scene with the veils and mouth lights, I think it's Arthur since it's the only explicit one she has in the production? But wow butch I'm getting otokoyaku vibes lol.

I think it's really interesting how they specifically made Van Helsing a woman but kept he/him and "Count" for Dracula? Also making Renfield his previous solicitor adds an interesting layer to the character which I was looking forward to so I was kind of disappointed when the entire Renfield bit was just. Asylum(TM) and added kind of nothing.

Destino was also an interesting character that I don't quite know what to make of. I think I'm probably definitely missing some cultural context lol, but I do like the addition just from a like. Meta standpoint I guess? A fateweaver type that both is an isn't a character, that is capable of influencing but not necessarily controlling the plot and characters because they take on a dual author and audience spectatorial role. A pre-written narrative but the art of theater and dance gives it a life and movement it doesn't have when it's a novel but it is a fleeting life that only has prominence in the space of the stage itself. Is what I got but I am probably missing a lot LOL. There's a few parts in it where Destino guides Jonathan and Helsing but remains kind of unseen by the characters, while with Dracula there are moments where Dracula specifically looks at and acts at times cooperative and at times confrontational with her. Interesting dynamics IDK!!