CONWAY — The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s summer vampire is no cute teen Twilight boyfriend.
Playwright-director Todd Olson’s Dracula, which opened Thursday night at the University of Central Arkansas’ Reynolds Performance Hall, hews closely to Bram Stoker’s gothic chiller.
Aided immeasurably by Nathan Hosner’s superb performance, it gives us the vampire as elemental, incalculably old, incredibly powerful, irresistibly seductive.
Hosner maintains his enveloping dark dominance through the vampire’s literal last gasp, though Olson’s final 20 minutes or so otherwise devolve into a choppy, sloppy, slapdash mess that’s too reliant on gimmicks.
Greyson Lewis matches Hosner as the effervescently half-mad Renfield. Bruce Cohen does a fine job as fearless vampire killer Abraham Van Helsing - when the script permits.
Paul Saylor sometimes goes over the top as Jonathan Harker, solicitor swain of pure Mina Murray (Tracie Thomason); Brian Hamlin sometimes struggles as Dr. James Seward, who would be the beloved of lusty Lucy Westenra (Georgina McKee). Doug Gilpin’s three-tier set allows much of the first act to successfully take place in as many as three locations at once.
Additional performances: 7:30 p.m. today, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday and July 3 in the Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Ticket information is available by calling (501) 450-3265 or at the website, arkshakes.com.
Arkansas, Pages 18 on 06/25/2010