Art serving Art

In describing Dracula's ship careening towards the shore (though she did not know who was aboard), Mina describes the sight as this: 

"As idle as a painted ship on a painted ocean" 

What she saw was a ship headed, still a ways from shore, directly for a collision with the rocks and certain demise, but making no effort to trim its sales or change direction, with no crew visible on deck.

The quote is from the poem "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Bram Stoker makes good use of someone else's art to enhance is own. 

He also leave us a clue into his mind when he wrote Dracula. Reading the poem in its entirety, a stanza exists that describes what Lucy transforms into:

Her lips were red, her looks were free,

Her locks were yellow as gold:

Her skin was as white as leprosy,

The Nightmare Life-in-Death was she,

Who thicks man's blood with cold.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was not writing about vampires and had no idea that someone else would reference his work in their own. But that is what happens sometimes. When done properly, it can greatly enhance and enrich the experience not only for the artist, but also for those of us who rediscover these hidden gems.

Directors do the same thing when preparing for a production. We read other pieces of literature, listen to music, look at other art, etc.

Even if we find and use things that were not intended, it can still serve to enhance our own art, and give our audiences layers and depths to our work to discover for themselves.

Vampires in Our Midst

In folklore, vampires were creatures to be feared and avoided at all costs. They hid in the dark places of the world, where “good” men and women would not venture, at the peril of their souls. Vampires did not hide among us; they hid in the places we dare not tread.

That allowed us to have some separation from our fear. Combined with the belief that such a creature need be invited in order to enter, we could simply stay home and be protected.

Certainly we could tell such a creature apart from those who could be trusted?

But what if he was one of us?

The vampire as gentleman and aristocrat first appeared in John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” (1819). Dr. Polidori developed the idea during a summer spent with Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron – a summer explored by Idle Muse in its 2008 production of Bloody Poetry by Howard Brenton.

While Mary Shelley went on to write Frankenstein based in part on the conversations of that summer, the lesser known “Vampyre” does one important thing. It introduces vampires as gentlemen, creatures that can enter society unbeknownst to those around them.

In Anne Rice’s vampire novels, all manner of these creatures hide in plain sight. In Paris, they even have a theater, where they feed in front of an audience – and no one is the wiser.

In Dracula, one can see this when Dracula attempts to enter London under the guise of the left-for-dead Jonathan Harker.

Vampires have entered our midst. We cannot see them for what they are and we are at their mercy.

Now what do we do to protect ourselves?

Welcome!

Dracula. Without writing another word, images have already conjured themselves in your mind. While many are dark, sinister, and terrifying, some are comical. An entire industry of books, movies, costumes, etc., have arisen from these images.

Such is our shared history with Dracula in literature, film, and the stage. I am fairly certain Bram Stoker did not forsee the many facets his work would take on over the years.

For this production, and much of this blog, I hope to strip back the layers that the years have piled on to this story and legend. I will be aided, certainly, by Steven Dietz's script, adapted from the Bram Stoker original. It is a familiar tale, but laid bare, with all the fright and struggle placed front and center, a fitting tale to tell in the intimate confines of the Side Project Theatre.

Idle Muse is dedicated to the redefinition of classical ideals for a modern audience. Sometimes, choosing to tell a classic story is the place to start.