THEATER REVIEW : Cold-Blooded ‘Dracula’ Is All in the Head

COSTA MESA — For a fellow who made a long living (so to speak) out of using and abusing others, Count Vlad Dracula has been used again and again by novelists, playwrights and filmmakers with their own agendas. Dracula, it has been said, is Western civilization’s blank slate for the Id, which is why you seldom see the same Dracula twice.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a tragic man in exile. George Hamilton’s Dracula is a pretty funny date. Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula is a special-effects explosion on two legs.

Crane Johnson’s Dracula, though, is a lot more mysterious. Johnson’s play, loosely adapted from Stoker’s novel, is as cerebral as director Mario Lescot’s staging at the Theatre District (where it will be presented on Halloween night before continuing weekends through Nov. 12). Of course, any adaptation of Stoker has to be “loose” to some extent; the novel’s complex format of diary entries and multiple voices resists anything faithful. It’s just that Johnson’s version is all in the head, and definitely not in the blood.

Which isn’t a bad thing. It’s a case of looking at Dracula as a topic of philosophical debate. Usually, “Dracula” on stage is a hunt led by professional vampire sleuth Dr. Van Helsing, aided by Jonathan Harker. Here, Van Helsing is an urbane woman (Susan E. Taylor) called upon by Dr. Seward (P. J. Agnew) whose fiancee, Lucy, has fallen under the vampire’s spell. Harker has become the frightened Mrs. Harker (Nancy Petersen), and the strange Renfield is no longer a kooky hunched-over lunatic but a very disturbed young man (Jeff Kriese).

Though Johnson takes far too long to get to his purposes, the play’s heart is in the engagement ( argument isn’t quite the word) between metaphysical philosopher Van Helsing and man of science Seward.

We know who will win this one, but Taylor sells it with the kind of entertainingly elegant and consciously stagy performance that suggests another era of theatrical acting. From her wide eyes to her aristocratic profile, Taylor’s Van Helsing convinces you that any doubts about dimensions beyond the five senses are simply silly. Agnew, who has displayed his chops at the Theatre District before, seems uncomfortable in the 19th Century and offers no real match for Taylor’s bravura.

Thus, the debate is unbalanced, along with the play’s dynamic. But it doesn’t cloud this version’s willful eccentricity on relegating Dracula (Victor Santana) to a distinctly supporting role. The vampire serves more to prove Van Helsing’s point than as a vehicle for chills and thrills, even though Lescot pumps up the “Carmina Burana” and stage fog when the red-caped Dracula appears. But otherwise, this is a subdued, belle epoque drama in a drawing room.

In fact, Santana’s Dracula uses most of his palpable energy for an extended speech on his Transylvanian origins and the bloody battles he led defending his homeland against the invading Bulgars and Turks. He becomes less a freak of nature than a tragic, flawed man without a country, which is how the historical Vlad still is viewed by many in Romania today.

Though the cast isn’t always up to the task of expressing it, nearly everyone in this “Dracula” is a kind of victim, including Renfield, who is played by Kriese as an oversized kid taking the concept of the food chain a little too seriously. Shannon Hunt has fun playing the house maid, but Petersen and Michelle Brooks (as Lucy) are stuck with weepy, willowy females.

The stage at the Theatre District is quite a time machine; Joan Lescot’s gorgeous, autumnal costumes are color-coordinated with an English manor drawing room deliciously stuffed with antiques (the set was designed by Two Blue Chairs Inc., a pseudonym for the Lescots and producer Bonnie Vise). The mood is that of a place for the living, not the “undead,” which underlines the anti-horror thrust of Johnson’s play. This isn’t a Halloween thrill ride, nor was it intended to be.

* “Dracula,” the Theatre District, 2930 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7 p.m.; Halloween performance Tuesday, 9 p.m. Ends Nov. 12. $15. (714) 435-4043. Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes.

Susan E. Taylor: Prof. Van Helsing

P. J. Agnew: Dr. Seward

Jeff Kriese: Renfield

Nancy Petersen: Mrs. Harker

Victor Santana: Dracula

Shannon Hunt: Abigail

Michelle Brooks: Lucy

A Theatre District production of a play by Crane Johnson, directed by Mario Lescot. Set: Two Blue Chairs Inc. Lights: David Jacobi.