DRACULA AND THE ECO WARRIOR
Dracula the Vampire is one of the most potent and terrifying modern myths, one of the few fictional characters to achieve almost universal recognition. However the myth has also been reduced to cliché' and stereotype by Hollywood and comic book treatments. So now is the time to reinvent the myth, to release the great Vampire on our own world, and to explore deeper meanings and current issues that affect us all in a popular and exciting piece of modern theatre. Our new Dracula sucks more than blood from the human body, he sucks the lifeblood of the planet: he sinks his teeth into the veins of the earth to extract oil, he fracks and cracks the very planet we live on. Against him are ranged the forces of ecology, at stake is not just his own dark heart but the future of us all.

The story follows closely on the original and includes the famous characters of the novel: the devilish Count, his terrified property agent Harker, Harker's wife Mina, Mina's friend Lucy who is converted to Vampirism and Van Helsing the scientist who will overthrow Dracula – or will he? Lucy and Mina are the true heroines of this battle, even if one falls. Our modern Vampire lives in an ecological nightmare land where pollution and environmental degradation has resulted in an urban desert. His castle is now a skyscraper with broken windows and empty offices populated by robots and surrounded by homeless beggars, choked in smog and roasted by a brutal sun. The Count will escape to Harker's home, a country and city blessed by nature, where the citizens live as one with nature, an eco-town. As in the original novel, Dracula will travel to this place and seek to destroy it, to suck the town's lifeblood and destroy those who stand in his way. He arrives by oil tanker which he crashes I into the harbour, jet skiing across the oil slick as it engulfs the fragile coast. He seeks to destroy the Eco-town not only with violence but by tempting citizens to follow their worst instincts, their greed, consumerism and selfishness. He fracks for oil under the properties Harker has sold him, he opens fast food chains, he rides the bicycle lanes with seductive motor bikes, he laughs at climate change and his laughter is infectious. Will he succeed? The powerful drama echoes the original novel in its battles for the not just the bodies but souls of all who stand in Count Dracula's terrifying path.

The production style follows one pioneered by director Paul Stebbings and composer John Kenny, combining music and theatre, comedy and tragedy, dynamic physical theatre and complex but accessible text. As with the company's successful FRANKENSTEIN, this will at times be a very funny play but always remain deeply serious. The production asks questions that only the audience can answer: what will all of us sacrifice to save our planet? Is there a relationship between what we eat and our survival? Is the Vampire inside us already, is it too late? Is it too late and the lifeblood of our planet drained away? Like poor Lucy, have we become the Monster we fear?