Dracula

Late-night theater has its cachet: It takes place during peak bar hours, so it’s got, it would seem, an inherent coolness. Add to that a title like Dracula, and a hand-rubbing anticipation might build for a Halloween-time romp of fake blood, bared fangs and fun.

None of those three elements is much on display in Collision’s show. Yet aside from that, the company never presents us a good-enough reason to attend its two-hour show at 11pm or, really, at any other time. Its Dracula has no bite. With Wellman’s tortured dialogue and laborious recounting of Bram Stoker’s novel, Peak makes some stabs at camp, but he overlooks the key ingredient that gives camp its kick: a sincerity of purpose underlining the irony. With funny voices and looks, the cast likewise mistakes low goof for a high time. Peak does set up some peculiar images with the three “vampyrettes” with their neon-colored bouffants, and Erica Peregrine makes for a striking Lucy, Dracula’s food of choice. Bizarrely, though, in Wellman’s convoluted script, Dracula himself is practically a nonentity.

Without a sense of the scary or the uncanny, or even basic entertainment value, Collision’s Dracula only raises the question, What’s the point of all this? Especially at 1am, that kind of question kills cool but fast.—Novid Parsi