Dracula 12

What did we do today?

Diagram of the stage layout for Bedlam.

Today we worked on the second scene, in Bedlam, where Renfield's character is introduced. First we started with the transition from the previous scene, where everyone goes from the line to 4 groups of mad people in the four corners of the stage with the front two groups having guards stood behind them. There are also two guards holding Renfield  with Seward stood in front of him. There are 5-10 seconds of chaotic insanity, with everyone acting as the mad people of the asylum (note - this is not our idea or perception of mad people, it is intentionally set to be Victorian ideas of madness) and then Max gives the sign to stop by screaming "SHUT UP!" 

We intentionally put in some chorus work to do with Renfield, like giving the chorus some of his lines so that we can represent how each mad person in the asylum is sort of like a side of Renfield. When Sophie (Renfield) starts screaming "Bedlam" the rest of the cast chorus it too, screaming the words three times before the guards raise their hands as if to strike and we flinch away and fall silent. When Sophie says "Screw Lucy" we start whispering and muttering "Lucy, Lucy, Lucy". When Renfield sees the fly, the entire cast starts to buzz and make the noise of the fly, slowly building the noise and matching her movements. 

We showed Andy and he gave us some constructive criticism and changed a few things. Firstly, he pointed out a bit where Renfield is singing the song about the lady who swallowed a fly:

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she swallowed a fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die.

There was an old woman who swallowed a bird,
How absurd! to swallow a bird,
She swallowed the bird to catch the spider,
That wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly
Perhaps she'll die.

Andy wanted everyone to sing that song when Renfield does - as mad people - and he also added in a bit when Renfield is screaming "MY MASTER WHO I WORSHIP IS COMING IN HIS WARSHIP!" The entire chorus screams that with her. Her final line is "I don't want to want to let him in!" And when she's said that, the entire cast repeats it in a deadly whisper. We then start to laugh manically and transition to the next scene.

Scene three was fairly simple. Since it was just between Jonathan Harker and Seward we decided to go from the laughing transition to standing in three lines, creating three walls around the scene facing the two and when they shake hands and greet each other we all turn and face away. This makes a nice set, it seems to block the two off from the madness and chaos of Bedlam outside the walls of Seward's office, but we decided to keep in character ever so slightly, but stood in neutral. There are three points in the conversation when everyone turns and looks at the two talking, those are when they mention Mina for the first time, when Seward says "All a bit Gothic for my tastes" and when they mention Count Dracula. We finally turn when Jonathan says "Yield not to temptation", signifying one of the major themes of the play, and as they continue off we raise the volume until we're in full scale madness again.

Electric Shock Therapy/Electroconvulsive Therapy/Medical Science

In scene two we reference and also show use of Electroconvulsive therapy, more commonly known as Electric Shock Therapy. EST is usually used to treat depression, mania, schizophrenia and catatonia. It's use in the play is anachronistic, the play is set in the 1890's and EST was not introduced into medicine until the 1930's. I think that the play has hugely medicalised the Dracula legend, I think this is important in three ways:

1. It plays on the whole science vs. religion. Dracula/vampire lore in general ties in hugely with religion (crucifixes, holy water etc being used to repel vampires)and Bram Stoker was a Protestant himself, however Liz Lochhead's play is a far more modern interpretation of the tale so it's an interesting debate to throw in
2. Science being a modern this, this really shows the battle in the play between the modern and the ancient. This leads on to...
3. Medicine becoming a power in it's own rite. The electroshock therapy, the blood transfusions for Lucy, the opiates to sedate Renfield they are all used essentially to battle Dracula and so become a power themselves. Interestingly enough it's a matter the doctors and scientists, Seward and Van Helsing, trying to take hold control and the madmen and the women who often seem to be the ones in control, sometimes leaving the doctors powerless.

Dracula 11

Scene 1

Lucy is flirtatious, she jokes about letting Jonathan catch her in her underwear, however I think she actually wants to be! I think there's that little dark desire to be bad and be caught in that position, she has that little opening which allows her to be susceptible to Dracula. We discovered that the girls' mother is dead, this would mean that Mina would have very much taken on the role of being Lucy's mother. I think they both lost a part of their childhood, Mina having to give up hers to look after and dote on Lucy, whilst I imagine Lucy will have since then been permanently stuck in childhood. Also, Lucy loves her penny-dreadfuls. These were like magazines, cheap little booklets giving gruesome, dramatic stories about all of the murders and nasty happenings and Lucy gets them in full colour. Even though it's below her class, she loves the gore, the murder, I think she's fascinated by the death - another fascination that seems to grip every human, this draw and intrigue towards death and destruction - which once again opens her up to Dracula's power. 

Satire

The play is very much a satire of the upper class, showing the characters as silly and idiotic, this is especially highlighted when you see how blissful and privileged Lucy and Mina's world is in such stark contrast to the scenes immediately after it in Bedlam.

Suppression of Desire

Another thing that's contrasted between the first two scenes - Hartwood House and Bedlam - is the suppression of desire. Mina and Lucy's entire world is symbolic of this, the Victorian values and life led by the rules of society, governed by morality. You see this completely when it's placed in direct contrast with Bedlam, full of mad people who are completely free of these rules. Whilst Bedlam is terrifying and grotesque, it does has a sort of beauty in the freedom of humanity in it, people completely void of society's and their own constraints.

What we did with this scene

In this scene we decided to have everyone who wasn't directly acting to be sat along the back in a line, in quiet mad character mode. There are a few times when we burst out in reaction. Firstly, when Lucy mentions being caught in her drawers we let out one short burst of laughter. Then at her teasing line to Mina: "What are you going to give him before he goes away?" (Implying something sexual), there's a second burst, slightly bigger than the first. Then finally, when Lucy teases that maybe Mina will give Jonathan her virginity before he goes away there's a real big, proper reaction. The laughs aren't just giggling because they're talking about sex, it's also a bit perverted. This is something that the mad creatures get off on, they are the symbols of succumbing to temptation and your darkest desires that is all that Dracula as a character represents.

There is also another bit that we put in, which is the part at the very beginning of the scene where Lucy comes skipping in and singing. The stage directions say that she sings to her reflection in a mirror and kisses it, however due to the fact that we are trying to keep props to a minimum (since there'll be no opportunity to remove them as no one ever actually leaves the stage, and in any case it's better not to rely on props). We were throwing ideas around and then Yunusa came up with the idea of having someone come on stage and mirror Izzy themselves, so it could simply represent the mirror. Andy decided to have me, the other Lucy in the play, be the mirror, and it looks really good. Having done that I then simply go back and join the line along the back of the stage.