According to their missive, Rabbit Hole Ensemble produces a “distinctly minimalist aesthetic that focuses on the audience, space, and the performer.” Their two-part new work, The Night of Nosferatu, excels in exactly this unique method of storytelling. Stanton Wood’s adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, and F.W. Murnau’s silent film, Nosferatu, focus on the classic themes of greed, despair, love, and death. The two-act tale Land of the Undead and The Morning of My Death, written by Wood and directed by Edward Elefterion, although long, features an ensemble well versed in movement-based acting, as well as vocal foley art.
The story begins in England, circa 1938, the ensemble ignites a low-angled cliplight on an anxious Jonathan Harker, as he reveals the journal about his frightful expedition to Transylvania. Encouraged by the favorable prospects offered by real estate agent, Renfield, to sell nearby property to Count Nosferatu, Harker, against his wife, Mina’s, better judgment, embarks on the fateful journey to Transylvania. Once Harker realizes that his soul and Mina’s are in danger, the Count is already on ship-route to his new home in England. Part 2, The Morning of My Death, leads us through Mina’s point of view of her dreamlike state since Jonathan’s leave. Her distress and her cerebral understanding of the blood-driven predator cause her own captivity in a mental institution. Meanwhile, the count victimizes the locals and inhabits the house across the street. In her despair, she foresees the doom enclosing in on her and on Jonathan.
The ensemble cast proffers a resonant performance through their manipulation of space and sound. Danny Ashkenasi*, as wide-eyed sales agent, Renfield, is devilishly introduced in Part 1 and adeptly transfigures his body and voice into a beastly mental patient by Part 2. Paul Daily, a hopeful and loving Harker, is an excellent counter to his despondent wife. Tatiana Gomber* sweeps the stage in Part 1 with a convincingly dark melancholy and transforms into a willful heroine in Part 2. Matt W. Cody as Nosferatu, commands the stage with an eerie presence and demonically seductive voice. As a sincere Lucy and a demonstrative Morana, Emily Hartford creates a vibrant sensibility for her characters. Ned Massey* plays a strong ship’s captain and a pragmatic, but tortured, Lucy’s husband.
Edward Elefterion adeptly directs this chorus in balanced formations that often emphasize a counterpoint, either of Mina as a desperate outsider, or Harker as the inevitably hopeful victim, and the Count as a penetrable force of nature. All the while, the ensemble vocally provides the crashing of ocean waves, echoing haunts, creaking ship sounds, and pounding heartbeats, to create a sense of space and mood.
Appropriately showing in October, this tale has been rejuvenated with new blood. This production asks the audience to immerse themselves immediately into physical storytelling, complete with ensemble made atmospheric sounds, simple, but effectively moody lighting, and basic black or white costumes. It takes an initial adjustment to jump into the world that Elefterion creates, but once you’re in, The Night of Nosferatu, overall, ambitiously re-invents preconceptions of this horrific classic.
Remaining shows: 2pm Sept. 30, Oct. 6, 7, 13 & 8pm Oct. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13 At: Workshop Main Stage Theater
