Review: COUNTESS DRACULA, Camden People's Theatre

Cindy Marcolina’s journal. (Not kept in shorthand.) 30 October. London. Left Warren Street Station at 6:42pm, arriving at Camden People’s Theatre at 6:47pm; should have arrived at 6:45, but the streets were busy. Countess Dracula was waiting. Joanna Holden and Jack Kelly team up for a brash look at ageing and menopause in the shape of a quirky adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. There’s a grotesque vaudeville aura to it, with the duo using meta-performance as the supporting framework for their jolly 45-minute show.

It’s a shame that there isn’t much introspection. Bouts of physical comedy hint at hot flushes, irritability, and insomnia, while more serious skits introduce awful male doctors who are unequipped to help and unwilling to listen. Kelly is a well-meaning partner who tries to be there for Holden: he calms her down and holds her, but he remains a man. A few symbolic happenings could have been exploited more, like Holden’s pouring out red sand when she’s distressed.

We could go into how damaging it is to refer to a menopausal woman as a monster without going into the intricacies of analysing the societal stigma associated with it, but the play’s supposed to be fun. And it is! Here and there! There are some truly clever bits (black gloves become ominous fluttering wings) and more heartfelt comic turns (she reaches out to her dead mother to talk about what’s happening to her).

Holden and Kelly have come up with an interesting concept, but they might need more than three quarters of an hour to properly develop it into a completed piece. “When the last blood disappeared, I disappeared”, she contemplates. We would love for her to go on and directly denounce the society that’s turned her into a villain, but she leaves shortly after and the show ends. It could be a plaintive tragicomedy, but it’s sitting too firmly on silly slapstick at the moment.

Countess Dracula runs at Camden People's Theatre until 1 November.