Civic Theatre, Auckland
Review: Bernadette Rae
It is scary! It is sexy, oh yes! It could be awfully silly - but it isn't. And it will definitely make vegetarians in the audience feel slightly sick.
But choreographer Michael Pink, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the Auckland Philharmonia brought Bram Stoker's classic story to life last night with such drama, musicality and integrity that it has to be termed a triumph.
Pink's Dracula opens with a nightmare, and that nightmarish quality genuinely persists through three full acts.
The ghastly seduction of poor Jonathan Harker in the opening scene, first by three sinuous vampires and then by Count Dracula himself, sets the heart racing. And the urgent, amplified throb of a heartbeat seems to set the pace for the action that follows.
That action is always riveting, from the early scene in Transylvania, Dracula's home, with peasants in a frenzy of terror at their winter solstice ritual, to the triple climax at show's end.
The first of those climactic moments is when Dracula finally lays his hands on the lovely Mina, sparing her his fangs but suckling her on his lifeblood instead.
The second - and the most awful - is the bloody celebration of his union with Mina, in the company of the ghoulish Nosferatu, the "undead."
Finally, good triumphs in a burst of light, and Dracula gets the stake through his heart.
But the best thing about this equally well-danced and acted version of the familiar story is the beauty that underlines its more obvious charms.
The costumes are quietly beautiful, the music is magical, the staging evocative and clever - and it all comes together in an immensely satisfying whole.
Ou Lu was a magnificent Dracula, setting a spell over the audience as well as his victims. Larissa Wright handled the difficult drama of her role as Mina Harker and danced splendidly.
Pieter Symonds was a scintillating Lucy and Stephen Wellington a suitably stoical Jonathan.
Definitely 10 out 10 for Gothic gore - and more!
<i>Performance:</i> Dracula
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