Where evil stalks

Where evil stalks

As the sun lingers on the horizon during the long evenings of early summer, and the bats fly overhead, the courtyard of the Bargello museum, once Florence's seat of government and then prison, will be the setting for William McNulty's stage adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.

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Thu 17 Jun 2010 12:00 AM

As the sun lingers on the horizon during the long evenings of early
summer, and the bats fly overhead, the courtyard of the Bargello museum, once
Florence’s seat of government and then prison, will be the setting for William
McNulty’s stage adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Florence
English Speaking Theatrical Artists (FESTA) will be performing the play from
June 26 to July 9.

 

To the
disappointment of some Twilight fans and the relief of everyone else,
director and co-founder of FESTA, Shaun Loftus, is distancing Count Dracula
from the prevailing Edward Cullenesque sweet boy-vamp. Loftus explains that the
Dracula of Stoker’s novel is ‘not a romantic, seductive lover-he is a fiend-a
fiend who must be destroyed in the ultimate showdown between good and evil.’
She continues, ‘Once upon a time, vampires were thought to be horrific
creatures who roamed foggy graveyards at night, murdered children and stole the
blood of the innocent, creating more of their kind.’

 

Vittorio Cucci
Ryan, who will play the count, explains that the driving force behind his
character is the ‘primordial urgency to breed and survive . . . he is the
hunted, not the hunter.’ Enthusiastic about his role, Ryan added that ‘the many
shades and colours of McNulty’s Dracula make him an actor’s dream.’

 

‘Dracula’ promises to be much more than a one-dimensional account of the
thrills and spills of the famous vampire. ‘The play is not really about
Dracula,’ says Claude Girardi, who will play Dr. Seward, ‘rather, it is a
psychological examination of the characters surrounding him.’

 

The Bargello, a
former prison and execution site, is an evocative setting. As it did with last
year’s production of Macbeth, FESTA will integrate the building’s
medieval ornaments, stonework and bats into the play’s eerie feel. ‘The well in
the center of the courtyard will be the focal point,’ explains Loftus. ‘It is a
metaphor for that which joins our earthly world to those terrifying things that
lurk deep below the surface.’ Sarah Marcucci developed the Italian subtitles
that will be projected onto a screen, blending into the natural set the
Bargello provides.

 

FESTA
(www.festatheatre.com), a multicultural troupe of actors from Italy, Australia,
America and the UK, is known for its eclectic range, which includes Alice in
Wonderland, Peter and the Wolf and last year’s Macbeth.

The second of four
productions in the Estate al Bargello programme, Dracula is sponsored in part
by KME for Dynamo Camp (www.dynamocamp.org), with make-up designed and provided
by MAC Cosmetics.

 

 

I WANT YOUR
BLOOD . . .

 

FESTA and the Italian Red Cross-Florence Local Branch (www.crifirenze.it) have organized the Dracula Blood Drive on June
20
, from 10am to 7.30pm in Piazza della Reppublica. While giving the
gift of life, meet the actors of the upcoming production of Dracula!

 

Dracula

Museo Bargello, via del Proconsolo,
9r  June 26 to July 9,

Tuesday to Sunday,
at 9:15pm  – In English, with Italian
subtitles

For more
information and details on how to get tickets,  visit www.thedraculaproject.org

 

 

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