Theatre review: Dracula Revamped
Dracula Revamped, Oran Mor, Glasgow ****
Lovely Mina has been kidnapped to become a vampire, Igorette the housekeeper is grumpy, one of the two disembodied hands that help her round the house keeps giving her the finger, twin ravens croak in Glaswegian, and the master – glitteringly played by the irreplaceable George Drennan – is in lethal neck-biting form; but all is not lost. Enter Mina’s geeky fiancé Jonathan, in the shape of the magnificently camp Darren Brownlie; within seconds, Dracula is stabbed through the heart and reduced to a pile of dust. And that’s just the first two minutes of Dracula Revamped, this year’s brisk and hilarious summer lunchtime panto presented by A Play, A Pie and A Pint Oran Mor.
Like most recent Oran Mor pantos, this one – written by James and John Kielty – is short on politics, although it’s hard not to emphathise with Jonathan when he complains about just how good the bad guys are at being bad. The show is, though, decidedly long on laughs, particularly when Dracula – temporarily confined in the dust-bag of a Henry Hoover – tricks Jonathan and Mina into resurrecting him, and promptly transforms Mina into a demonic vampire bride; and with Ashley Smith acting her socks off as both vampire Mina and nice Mina, and Angela Darcy offering hilarious support as the disgruntled Igorette, the show romps to a joyful conclusion, complete with a song-sheet to remember, and a vintage singing competition between the two halves of the audience. They were the best? No, we were the best; and I’ll bite your neck to prove it.
JOYCE MCMILLAN
Until 20 July