Dracula: Finding of a Shadow (eBook)

Act 1.

Scene 1.

Overture.

The throne room of the Bran Castle in Transylvania, Romania.

There is a throne standing by one of the largest gothic windows; a huge portrait of Count Dracula can be seen on the central wall of the room.

A closed coffin is placed stage right.

Enter ARMAND, holding a wooden box, with a pile of drapery over his shoulder.

Three VAMPIRESSES, DÉSIRÉE, RUBY, and AMARANTHA, are dragging in two soffits.

RUBY keeps stepping on the decorative cobwebs, which are sticking from under her arm, as she carries them. She trips and complains.

Ruby: I hate this! One could fall and break all bones… What a mess! Look, I’ve ruined my dress! (examines the hem of her skirt) What do I do now?

Désirée: Stop staring at your rags and better help us with these soffits… (she figures that Ruby doesn’t know what the word means) with the lights, the lights!

Ruby (surprised): Why do we need the light here? We will get sick from it...

Amarantha: I lose my appetite from the light.

Ruby (playfully): What a sniffy snuffy word…. Sofffffit!

Armand: Alas, ladies, tonight we cannot get by without light. Our count will be giving an interview. I am responsible for all preparations for such an, uuuh… exclusive event.

Ruby: Uuuuuuh…?

Désirée (squats): Inter-uuuuuh? Inter-what?

Armand: Interview, stupid!

ARMAND exits.

Désirée (singing): Intervie-e-e-ew…

Ruby: Such a howling word… Intervieeeeeeew…

Désirée: What’s that?

Amarantha: It is when you speak and I write your words down. (mimics taking notes)

Désirée (contemptuously): Duh, I speak all the time when I’m not sleeping. But you never write down what I have to say.

Amarantha (patiently explains): Someone is asking questions, and you answer; do you understand?

Désirée: Who is asking questions?

Ruby (starts rolling her R’s): You are both nitwits! A reporrrrrterrrr is asking questions. The one that’s been loafing about the castle for two weeks already. He keeps to himself; he’s coming up with questions no doubt.

Désirée: About us?

Ruby: Reporrrrterrrr… What a growly, snarly word, isn’t it? Rrrrr…reporrrrterrr!

Amarantha (mimicking Ruby): Reporrrterrr will be interviewing Dracula. And I don’t think he’ll be asking the count questions about us…

Désirée (caressing herself, from her breasts down): Why not? We are the most beautiful things that exist in this castle. Count says so when he loves us.

ARMAND runs in.

Armand: Why aren’t you working? I said — work! Why are you standing in one spot as if you are dead? You’re undead! Take out all this garbage and lumber…. It’s so filthy in here. Quickly! Do not mess up the drapery, Amarantha!

VAMPIRESSES, grumbling and groaning, remove the mess from the stage. Exit.

ALUCARD enters, stopping on the left side of the stage by the pillar.

Armand (to Alucard): I need to rehearse. And you will be — the reporter.

ALUCARD slowly approaches ARMAND.

Alucard: What questions shall I ask?

Armand: Just sit. I will ask the questions myself… (readies himself, fixes his hair etc.)

ALUCARD sits at the table, opposite ARMAND.

Armand (speaking in reporter’s voice): Mister Armand, I am so pleased to meet you. Please tell me about your master — Count Dracula? (answering in his own voice) I’m so glad you’ve reached us. I believe your article will shed light on…. (looks at the soffits) We must remember to switch on the lights when he comes. Alucard, you shall be held responsible for the lights; this will be your assignment! (continues) …Light on the awful rumors, which surround our castle. Trust me, those are the doings of the local villagers — they think out terrible nonsense. Count Dracula is an elderly man; he has long since retired from the world. His seclusion, I believe, generates rumors, one worse than the other. And there shall be no end to these telltales and fables until the innkeeper runs out of alcohol. Ha-ha…

ARMAND gets up and flirts with ALUCARD, who eagerly responds to his caresses.

The VAMPIRESSES enter. They cross the stage, laughing loudly and fighting over a bottle of boozy blood….

Armand: Eavesdropping again, girls? This better not be my cognac!

Ruby: Come and get it! (laughs, taunting him)

VAMPIRESSES exit.

Armand (speaking in reporter’s voice): Please tell me about Dracula? (responds in his own voice) In 1896 the Irish writer Bram Stoker published his famous novel Dracula. Bram was crazy about vampirism: he published articles, made reports at various scientific conferences on the topic. His inextinguishable interest and passion led him to Romania, where he visited the castle of the bloodthirsty voivode — the tyrant of the 15th century — Vlad Tepes Dracula, also known as the count who preferred to impale his enemies on stakes…as well as his evil wishers and people in general — Vlad the Impaler.

The light dims over ARMAND.

Enter BRAM STOKER and ensemble. They set up a tiny tavern on the side. Pantomime: locals are drinking and telling jokes and telltales to Bram, who is enjoying this tremendously and writing down some ideas for his novel. We hear certain parts of the conversation: “He impaled his victims and drank their blood!”/ “Vampires — they come out at night!”/ “Blood is their life!”/ “Vlad!”/ “In the castle nearby,” etc. Blackout.

Lights back on ARMAND.

Armand (continues): In such manner, Bram spent his evenings in local taverns, drinking Slivovitsa with the villagers and listening to their stories, prejudices, and legends about the “vampire” who destroyed the Turks. And at night Bram was busy scribbling his novel about the mysterious Vlad and his beloved….

ARMAND and ALUCARD freeze. They are placed in semi-darkness.

VAMPIRESSES run in, switch on the lights, illuminating the proscenium.

BRAM STOKER is walking across the stage with his big black dog. A REPORTER, RENFIELD, is chasing after him, bombarding him with questions.

Reporter: Mr. Stoker, Mr. Stoker!

BRAM STOKER keeps walking away.

Reporter: Mr. Stoker, you have such a noble dog! What’s his name?

Stoker: Voordie Dark.

Reporter: Mr. Stoker, please tell us more about the novel. Any juicy details? Who was Mina’s real-life prototype? Your travels, what did you discover visiting the country of Romania?

STOKER stops and unwillingly responds.

Stoker: In Transylvania, the memory of Dracula lives till today. There are many legends about him that are being passed on from generation to generation by the local villagers; each year he becomes more and more of a bloody atheist who turned into a vampire, renounced God, couldn’t resist the Devil, and was doomed to eternal life. But that’s not who I think he was. You want to know more — go buy my novel and read it! (shows the yellow cover of the first published edition of Dracula to the audience)

Reporter: Did Mina become Dracula’s wife? Did they produce any descendants?

Stoker: You may find answers to some of your questions in my book, and there are some things that you’ll have to guess….

Reporter: And one final question — is there a sequel planned? Will there be “Dracula. Continued…?”

Stoker: Yes, I want to recount the full story of Dracula and finish the piece. I have gathered many materials, and I am looking forward to gladdening my readers with an adequate continuation.... Top of the day to you, sir! (tips his hat, exits)

REPORTER exits.

Lights up on ARMAND and ALUCARD. They unfreeze.

Armand: Almost 112 years later, give or take a few, the world will witness the sequel to the novel…. And the author of that piece would be not Bram Stoker but his great-grandnephew Dacre Stoker, who happened to find his notes and publish them. Argh, this bright light is so annoying! Girls, move it — switch off the soffits! (the lights switch off) Vive the proper natural habitat! Alucard, go find Jonathan!

VAMPIRESSES carry the lights away. ALUCARD exits.