If “Dracula, A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” is what the title claims it to be, we women are in trouble. Surely our fantasies are more complex, more sophisticated than what playwright Kate Hamill imagines in her overlong mishmash of a play. Nor does the “Really” at the end of the title instill confidence.
Based on Bram Stoker’s 1897 horror novel in which hapless English businessman Jonathan Harker pays a visit to a certain Count Dracula in Transylvania, the plot follows Harker’s horrifying encounter with what turns out to be a vampire. Ultimately Dracula goes to spread his evil influence (and satisfy his desires) in England, where a group of vampire-fighters, led by Dr. Van Helsing, ultimately vanquish him using the old stake-in-the-heart ploy.
In Hamill’s version at San Francisco Playhouse, Van Helsing is a woman (Susi Damilano) who, presumably for giggles, is a cowboy — or girl — out of the Old West, with poisoned stakes in her holster instead of guns. In her plot to capture and kill Dracula, she’s aided by Harker’s wife, Mina (Sharon Shao) and a (male) doctor whose fiancée . . . well, never mind.
The main idea is that the hero, Van Helsing, is in this rendition a heroine.
And the insect-eating lunatic Renfield, held captive in the doctor’s asylum, is a woman with a father fixation, not a man. Stacy Ross plays the character, one of the production’s most creative and interesting portrayals, along with Johnny Moreno’s smooth and seductive Dracula.
Under Bill English’s direction, the play strives to be funny as well as horrifying. There’s plenty of blood and a creepy score and dramatic lighting. But the humor is forced, mainly relying on goofy facial expressions (double takes, wide-eyed glances at the audience) and stylized movement. The combination of comedy and horror, theoretically do-able, simply doesn’t mesh here.
A highlight, though, is scenic designer Jacqueline Scott’s set, a mash-up of location scenes projected onto an upstage panel designed by Carl Erez and a series of moveable arches. The Playhouse’s de rigueur rotating platform is put to good use, too.
But when Mina says, “[Men] make all the rules,” the only response can be, “Well, duh.” And after more than two hours of dialogue such as Van Helsing’s “People are dying! We must stop the infection from spreading!” it’s hard to understand what this “feminist revenge fantasy” has to offer. Really.
“Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really” continues through June 27 at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St., San Francisco. Tickets are $52-$145 at Sfplayhouse.org.
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