There have been innumerable re-tellings of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Morna Pearson’s distinctly Scottish adaptation Mina’s Reckoning is a compelling theatrical triumph that speaks with readability, originality and energy to a contemporary viewers.
It’s 1897 and in an Aberdeenshire asylum for girls a bunch of “unreasonable” girl are gathered. These girls, so clever, so “normal” are confined right here. They share, with an surprising humour, their lived experiences as girls within the Victorian period, how each girl’s function is to fulfil their organic future: “books shrink your ovaries”, both “grow a brain or grow a baby” and the staggering conceitedness of males. Mina Murray’s thoughts is about otherwise, intellectually curious, independently minded, she is thwarted at each flip. In the asylum she begins to recount her encounters with the “muckle beast”, Dracula.
Morna Pearson’s lyrical writing packs a punch and hits its mark with each line. It is firmly rooted within the Scots storytelling custom, the story weaves a magical net round you because it unfolds. For all its fashionable sensibilities it stays laudably devoted to the narrative we’re so accustomed to, making it all of the extra interesting. All the acquainted tropes are right here. What has been added or eliminated solely improves on the supply.
We transfer between the wild Aberdeenshire coast and Transylvania with ease. Kenneth MacLeod’s towering, multi-layered set is totally wonderful. The looming shadows create a perpetual unease. Aideen Malone’s lighting design is the most effective seen in lots of a 12 months and Lewis den Hertog’s video design is complimentary and totally becoming for the setting. A selected spotlight is how Dracula’s sea journey to Scotland is realised.
The all feminine non-binary ensemble are universally magnificent. Liz Kettle is a stunningly clean, sardonic Dracula, Danielle Jam a sure-footed Mina and Maggie Bain a repellently misogynistic Dr. Seward. The remainder of the ensemble are pitch good.
This is a piece of formidable scale that’s realised completely. Morna Pearson’s writing is a triumph. It entertains spectacularly, it educates with out patronising and leaves you wanting extra.
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Images: Mihaela Bodlovic
