The same weekend that sees Liz Shipe's Sherlock Holmes return to the Brumder Mansion also sees a return to Aaron Kopec's Dracula. For the production, Kopec has stripped evidently stopped down the story to its core for what should be a satisfying mutation on something that he's worked opn in various ways numerous times over the years. This is the fourth time Kopec has worked on an adaptation of Stoker's classic.
The cast involved includes Liz Whitford returning to the role as Lucy--whitford can play both vulnerable and less-than-vulnerable, which works really well in the role. This time around, Randall T. Anderson plays Jonathan Harker. Anderson is a charismatic presence onstage. He should serve the heroic role well. In an interesting choice, Beth Lewinski will be playing Dr. Van Helsing. Lewinski is good with comedy . . . and I distinctly remember her doing some good serious dramatic work in shows like Sexual Perversity in Chicago, but here she's playing a really iconic main character. If she can pull this off she'll have proven she can play a heroic male lead. . . not many actresses get the opportunity for that kind of test. Also performing across- gender is Sharon Nieman-Koebert as Dr. Seward.
The Alchemist Theatre's Dracula runs February 28th through March 16th. For ticket reservations, vista the Alchemist online.