Faculty Advisor
Dr. Anna Andes
Start Date
April 2020
End Date
April 2020
Description
It is from the Expressionistic style of theatre, first born out of pre-World War I tensions in Germany, that what we today associate with visual horror was first formed; film scholars suggesting that the horror movie as we know it was born out of Expressionistic nightmares like Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). Therefore, in order to study the implementation of Expressionistic technique on theatrical performance, three adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, are studied as a horror story put on the stage. Analyzed herein is Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston’s revolutionary version from 1927, Liz Lochhead’s revisionist take on the vampire from 1985, and Jim Helsinger’s one-man adaptation from 2010. Despite these plays’ showcasing characteristics, none prove to be as Expressionistic as the original novel upon which they are based, and prove that most visual media which represent Stoker’s novel are perhaps not as faithful to it as one may first suppose.
Included in
Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Theatre History Commons
At the Mercy of Monsters: Expressionism and Bram Stoker’s Dracula on the Stage
It is from the Expressionistic style of theatre, first born out of pre-World War I tensions in Germany, that what we today associate with visual horror was first formed; film scholars suggesting that the horror movie as we know it was born out of Expressionistic nightmares like Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) and F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922). Therefore, in order to study the implementation of Expressionistic technique on theatrical performance, three adaptations of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula, are studied as a horror story put on the stage. Analyzed herein is Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston’s revolutionary version from 1927, Liz Lochhead’s revisionist take on the vampire from 1985, and Jim Helsinger’s one-man adaptation from 2010. Despite these plays’ showcasing characteristics, none prove to be as Expressionistic as the original novel upon which they are based, and prove that most visual media which represent Stoker’s novel are perhaps not as faithful to it as one may first suppose.