Dracula: The Vampire Play

by Tim Kelly

This version is designed for easy and economical staging, yet it retains the chilling atmosphere and the familiar characters that have made Dracula a favorite with producers, actors and audiences everywhere. When Dr. Van Helsing, a specialist in obscure maladies, discovers that beautiful Lucy Westenra is the victim of a vampire, suspicion falls on a mysterious neighbor, Count Dracula, and his frighteningly beautiful wives, who receive special emphasis. The large cast contains many fine acting parts, from the haunting vampire wives to the ever-popular Renfield, who fancies a diet of flies and spiders. There are young lovers, comic staff members, sanatorium guests and Jonathan Harker, first to fall victim to the vampire's thirst. The story of his journey to Dracula's fortress will have your audiences on the edge of their seats. Intermingled with the drama is a fine thread of comedy that helps relieve mounting tension and chills. Tim Kelly has developed a classic masterwork that always te

Paperback

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

Mr. Kelly, who was born in 1931, wrote more than 300 comedies, dramas, one-acts, mysteries, melodramas, children's shows and musicals, making his living writing for the stock, amateur and educational markets.

He wrote under his own name, and also at least four pseudonyms (Vera Morris, J. Moriarty, Robert Swift, Keith Jackson), for publishers such as Samuel French, Pioneer Drama Service and Contemporary Drama Service, among others.

Pioneer alone has 130 scripts by Kelly, according to Pioneer publisher Steven Fendrich. "It covers the gamut," Fendrich told Playbill On-Line Dec. 10. Mr. Kelly was the first playwright to sign up with the Colorado-based Pioneer when it was founded in 1967 by Fendrich's father.

Reviews

[Adelaide ⟢ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had to dance to Billie Eilish in a flapper dress in a production of this and it could have been gayer so for those reasons and the fact that it’s sooooooo boring 1 star.

[Mara Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tim Kelly describes this adaptation of Dracula as a "fast-moving, easy-to-produce, electrifying stage version, faithful to the Bram Stoker original." I think it succeeds at the first three, though it is not especially faithful to the book. By confining the action to a sitting-room and cutting the plot in half to feature a single female victim, it is more similar to the famous Balderston/Deane adaptation, or the more adult script by Warren Graves (my favourite pick of the three).

Kelly caters to schools by adding many new (and often humorous, if unnecessary) supporting characters, which would give a larger cast the chance to shine. I'm biased toward adaptations that do the character of Mina justice- so intrepid in the novel, she has nearly nothing to do here, her section of the story having been left out in favour of Lucy's. However, this version does include Dracula's three vampire brides, and they have plenty of enjoyably eerie moments.

Kelly calls for the action to take place in "the present," which would have been the 1970's at the time of writing, but the dialogue is timeless enough that I would prefer to produce it as an earlier period piece. At one point, it's implied that cars or "automobiles" are the most common form of travel, but this still leaves lots of options for historical settings with prettier costumes.

Overall, this streamlined adaptation would be ideal for schools, though slightly less satisfying for dedicated fans of the novel.

[Elise Hedlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

live laugh love student theatre

[Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to find a good vampire play.