Dracula 95

In the century since Bram Stoker wrote the novel Dracula, the tale of the tortured vampire has grown to monster proportions.

But imagine how the naive readers of 100 years ago must have reacted. They had not grown up hearing the Sesame Street Count reciting numbers. They had never heard Bela Lugosi say ''I vant to drink your blood.''

Drac was not a caricature, but something so horrifying that he touched a nerve in Western culture.

Jim Helsinger, artistic director of The Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival, has revived that original sense of innocent horror in his one-man play Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker, now on stage at the artsMall Theatre in Winter Park.

Helsinger's tour-de-force adaptation of the original novel is a deliciously dark tale. There is no blood, no gore, no dead bodies.

Just the actor, alone on a stage set to resemble a Victorian attic, with simple props, effective lighting, creepy music and a great ghost story to share.

The play begins as Harker enters his attic, looking for the journal and other mementos that record his encounter with Dracula seven years before. He is writing to Bram Stoker to offer him the records for a possible book.

The audience takes the role of Stoker, and Harker begins to read aloud, telling his tale with increasing passion.

Helsinger plays Harker, then switches to Dracula when Harker arrives at the creepy Transylvanian castle, then flips back and forth between the two as their conflict heightens, never missing a beat.

Lighting plays a dramatic role in the production, helping to differentiate between characters, in addition to setting the mood.

The intimate nature of the artsMall Theatre is perfect for this type of show. Helsinger is able to maintain eye contact with the audience throughout the performance. The audience was practically mesmerized on opening night, Friday.

Helsinger uses the stage masterfully, almost maniacally, climbing over and around and through the fabulous collection of items in the attic, sometimes even climbing the walls of the theater as he constructs his mental pictures for the audience. His weeks of imprisonment and eventual escape from Castle Dracula are as vivid as if they were on film.

In the second act, Helsinger adds several more characters, as Harker returns to England to have his final confrontation with Dracula there.

There is a simple truth that becomes more apparent around Halloween.

People adore being scared half to death by a good ghost story. Helsinger gives his audiences exactly what they adore.

Adaptation Tells Dark Ghost Story