'Dracula' at Hedgerow Theatre

The strength of a vampire portrayal, however, is just the opposite: Can we accept an actor’s version, especially in this vampire-saturated age? We can in Hedgerow Theatre’s production of Bram Stoker’s seminal novel, adapted in 1924 by Hamilton Deane and revised in 1927 by John L. Balderston (and still today’s preferred script, though many others exist).

J Hernandez embodies the titular father of all vamps with unctuous charm and a physical precision that belies great power. He foregoes the customary Transylvania accent (presumably the powerful immortal creature has picked up some skills) and creates a dignified gentleman who doesn’t make the rest of the characters look ridiculous.

Playing it straight

Hodge’s tight production — three acts in barely two hours, with two intermissions — plays it straight. John Lopes’s stentorian Dr. Seward frets about daughter Lucy (Allison Bloechl), who suffers bad dreams and has two suspicious puncture wounds in her neck. Young Harker (Ned Pryce), her fiancé, can’t rest until she’s cured. Dr. Van Helsing — here played by a woman, the terrific Jennifer Summerfield in a brilliant and easy adjustment (just change the pronouns!) that adds a fresh sexual charge to the melodrama — shows up from Denmark and immediately suspects a bloodsucker.

Mark Swift is appropriately creepy as fly-eating mental patient Renfield, and Josh Portera and Meghan Winch are more than functionaries as the orderly and maid, respectively.

Hodge avoids camp and keeps the action flowing with low-tech special effects. Zoran Kovcic’s set allows for some surprise entrances and exits, Robin Stamey’s lighting adds to the spookiness, and Kayla Speedy’s costumes not only capture the period, but also give Van Helsing a ready-for-action explorer that’s still feminine.

No spoilers possible

Let’s face it, there’s no mystery for us about who or what Dracula is. Imagine watching the play in 1927, before Stoker’s novel achieved fame, before all the films, novels, television shows, parodies, and permutations that it spawned — that would be something!

Still, the play falters toward its conclusion. Not only is the ending predictable, but it also requires a new location that at Hedgerow feels thrown together. It would have been far more effective if they could have cleared the set’s walls entirely and used the theater’s eerie old stone walls instead of only using the stage’s apron. But I suspect the play’s brisk pace and narrative flow were more important to Hodge.

Nevertheless, the inevitable finale plays with all due urgency and grim violence, making it clear why vampires remain a powerful cultural phenomenon. Somewhere, Bram Stoker is smiling.