Dr. Van Helsing (Faith Hargadon) confronts Dracula (Luke Belcher).
The WVU School of Theatre and Dance presents “Dracula, a feminist revenge fantasy, really.” at the Metropolitan Theatre Oct. 23-25 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 26 at 2 p.m.
Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” reconceptualizes the iconic vampire tale in a way that gives greater power and agency to the female characters: Dracula’s wives are given names and voices, Van Helsing is reimagined as a female vampire slayer and Mina Harker, the emotional center of Stoker’s novel, is given a more active role in the fight against evil incarnate.
“We know the story of Dracula,” said Radhica Ganapathy, an associate professor in the WVU School of Theatre and Dance and the director of “Dracula.” “We know this vampire is 400 years old, and he is on this quest to take control and power, but in Hamill’s version, the female characters have been empowered to fight back.”
Junior Acting major Katie Manning plays Mina Harker, who is quickly thrust into the world of vampires after her husband, Jonathon, unwittingly helps Dracula come to England.
“Mina,” Ganapathy said, “is a very strong female character who is of this late 1800s time period. She's very much a construct of that. But how she finds her agency and her voice is the interesting sort of evolution that Kate Hamill wrote.
“There's very big commentary about ‘who's going to come rescue us?’ And at the end of the day, we have to do our own rescuing.”
Faith Hargadon, a senior Musical Theatre major, plays Dr. Van Helsing and describes her character as the “vehicle for the feminist revenge fantasy.”
“It starts with the ‘Dracula’ that we all know and love, with a little bit of a more contemporary dialogue and comedic twist,” Hargadon said. “Then Van Helsing comes in as this strong woman who is successful and able to do things the other female characters never thought were a possibility for them, and from there the story becomes more of a commentary on how there are monsters out there.
“They say ‘the monsters look just like us’ in the play, and that's my favorite line of Van Helsing's because it was written during #Me, Too. That is the deep dark message under the surface.”
Jonnie Carpathios, a second-year graduate student in the MFA Acting program, said the way this classic tale is being reframed gives the actors and audience a sharp look into strong feminist commentary.
“I think the unexpected nature of how the small changes to the story we all think we know will leave you thinking more deeply about how things have been in regard to gender roles and power dynamics and how they can be flipped,” said Carpathios, who plays Jonathon Harker.
Hamill’s “Dracula” explores a range of female archetypes, from the girlboss (Van Helsing), to the mother figure (Mina), to the beautifully innocent (Lucy), to the animalistically sexualized (Dracula’s wives).
Junior Acting major Sophia Kefer plays Drusilla, one of Dracula’s wives. In both Stoker’s and Hamill’s versions, the wives are villains, but Hamill alludes to deeper stories that explain how they were recruited by Dracula.
“The role was fun to sink my teeth into. They're so fast. They're so strong. And yeah, that's so cool to look at as a woman,” Kefer said. “Then you learn that Dracula got them at vulnerable times in their lives and promised them freedom—this life of fulfillment and free of hunger. But they were never given that. It was just false hope.”
Luke Belcher, a senior Acting major, plays the titular villain, whom he describes as the “manifestation of toxic masculinity.”
“One of the biggest challenges,” Belcher said, “is trying to find that in myself for the moments I'm on stage and get into that character through the lens of the historical text, trying to implement both the retelling and the old school blood-sucking vampire.”
It can be hard to cope with playing the bad guy, Belcher said, but it helps that he can “tap out” and still laugh with the rest of the cast.
“Dracula: a feminist revenge fantasy, really.” explores themes of power and oppression, masculinity and femininity and the structure of power. Ganapathy hopes audiences leave with a better understanding of how power dynamics and gender stereotypes impact both women and men.
Tickets for “Dracula” are $20 and can be purchased online at
go.wvu.edu/dracula or in person at the Metropolitan Theatre before the
show.