Chilling Vampire Dreams at BCT
Play delivers the monster next door
by Annalee Dunn
Vampire Dreams opens this weekend thanks to the Blaine Community Theater (BCT) and directorial ability of Christopher Key, a veteran of local theatrical productions. Author Suzie McKee Charnas adapted a chapter from her book Vampire Tapestry into a script for this play, the Halloween offering from BCT. Performances start October 17th at the Blaine Middle School cafeteria and continue for another weekend in Blaine before moving to Bellingham’s Firehouse Performing Arts Center on October 31st.
The plot draws us into the mystery of a New York City therapist, Dr. Floria Landauer, played by Karen Edland, who hopes to dispel the delusions of a university professor that he is a vampire. Professor Edward Weyland is played by Christopher Key in an impressive dual task of director and performer.
Don’t expect capes, gaunt white faces, and dripping red blood. This is a tale of a modern day vampire and his therapist. Or is it? The question of fantasy and reality carries the audience through to the last scenes asking what is human or monster, who is normal, and how do we break out as our true selves?
Charnas’ script explores the relationships between her characters with a close examination of their individual fears, attractions and fragile emotions. “Don’t you know you come here to take risks?” Dr. Landauer asks Weyland. The script demands the same from the audience. The everyday vampire gives a chilling description of his hunt, his prey and an ever more frightening revelation that his victims are just food, a necessary sustenance. Dr. Landauer, meanwhile, takes these extraordinary accounts of a vampire’s existence as part of the puzzle. Is he simply a bored human professor trying to break out of a mundane academic existence, or is he a monster; a mutated creature of sorts?
As the story unfolds, the risks are visibly taken by those on the stage. Edland is in all of over thirty scenes with a massive amount of lines and short monologues which she delivers without a skip. She carries this play with her portrayal of a woman finding her way as she tries to regain her footing as a mother, a lover, and an effective doctor. In short scenes where she records the doctor’s notes on each client, she reveals a vulnerability in confessions we don’t see in her sessions with each patient. She moves swiftly between being the one in control and the one who is grasping for a simple clue. Edland draws out a great complexity from her character and in turn the audience is intimately close to her story.
Photo credit: Marc Cutler
Christopher Key creates a character who is visibly matter-of-fact about his condition. He never gives the audience a hint to the authenticity or fantasy of his delusion. With poise and authority, he is a convincing aged academic who just might also be a calculating vampire out to survive unnoticed. “I don’t have to imagine what is real for me,” Weyland says, and Key’s performance assures us of that in its stark darkness and demeanor. He remains the character that is most sure of who he truly is and his role in life.
The supporting characters are Kenny, a young patient of Dr. Landauer’s, played by Phillip Wheeler, and Lucille, Dr. Landauer’s colleague, played by Kerry Walker. Both hold their own and help to reveal the backdrop and context of the strange vampire/therapist relationship. Kenny is perhaps the cathartic pure emotion that the other characters are unable to tap into. Wheeler pulls off a performance that is raw and loud, giving us a Kenny that is hopelessly in need of answers to why he suffers so.
Lucille is the mother type, despite what she claims. She coaches the doctor during mini-therapeutic couch sessions as things begin to unravel around the office. Walker and Edland have a close and friendly chemistry that portrays a gossipy camaraderie while also highlighting the absurdity and doubt of things like vampires and blood sucking. Walker and Wheeler are as true to their characters as Edland and Key, rounding out a fantastic cast for this production.
The stage direction keeps the audience guessing with very quick scene changes and an attention to lighting and the back and forth conversation between characters. The set is simple and there are no changes, allowing the focus to be on the actors and their story the entire time. At one point, Weyland describes dancing as the chase between hunter and prey. That notion of a delicate risk is tangible in the performance as the subjects of sex, love and fears arise between each character, but also as the very real possibility of a monstrous attack unfolds.
Vampire Dreams is a perfect night’s entertainment for the mature audience that desires a sophisticated and dark, yet also amusing option for the Halloween season. While this play might dash the common lore of the vampire as portrayed in popular movies and books, there is enough subdued yet real dread throughout to leave you wondering.
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