"Barry Rowell's surrealistic theatre piece is billed as a retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the classic novel serves primarily as a springboard for a bizarre collage of sights and sounds. Director Ezra Buzzington and his design team have pulled out all stops to create a visually and aurally arresting spectacle, but the ultimate point remains fuzzy.
Rowell's premise is that the bloodsucking Count Dracula (unseen) has broken the neck of the imprisoned lunatic Renfield (Brad C. Light) - an incident from the novel. From there, Rowell attempts to imagine what might have flashed through Renfield's brain in the seconds before he died. Stoker characters come and go, including Mina (Grace Eboigbe), Jonathan (Ron Morehouse), Dr. Seward (Lisa Clifton), Van Helsing (Marz Richards), Lucy (Elizabeth Liang), and three sisters, played by Gabby Sanalitro, Julia Prud'homme, and a cross-dressing Joel Scher.
Rowell's premise is that the bloodsucking Count Dracula (unseen) has broken the neck of the imprisoned lunatic Renfield (Brad C. Light) - an incident from the novel. From there, Rowell attempts to imagine what might have flashed through Renfield's brain in the seconds before he died. Stoker characters come and go, including Mina (Grace Eboigbe), Jonathan (Ron Morehouse), Dr. Seward (Lisa Clifton), Van Helsing (Marz Richards), Lucy (Elizabeth Liang), and three sisters, played by Gabby Sanalitro, Julia Prud'homme, and a cross-dressing Joel Scher.
Monitors on the side walls display a wide range of strking video images, created by Donna Mathewson - for example, laboratory shots of a beating heart. Cinematographer Nickolas Rossi's periodic filmed sequences show a sea captain (Darrett Sanders) who shouts orders to a crew. The pertinence of these sequences is unclear. Drew Pluta's sound design, including rock music, enhances the creepy ambiance. The lively early scenes bring to mind the cheeky subversion that drives The Rocky Horror Show, but ...b4 I Wake quickly gets down to the business at hand : a stream-of-conciousness fantasy that's largely incaccessible. It's somewhat like Night of the Living Dead by way of James Joyce's Ulysses, an odd mix indeed."
Les Spindle
Backstage West
Read the review in BUZZINE
And from Flavorpill
B4 I Wake is for anyone who ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula and
thought the revered classic lacked a certain something. The dark and
mischievous minds at beloved Hollywood repertory company Theatre of
NOTE have figured out the problem: it wasn't weird enough. Also, it
needed music. Loud, sexy rock music. Writer Barry Rowell and director
Ezra Buzzington bring their collective experiences to bear in this
exuberantly macabre splicing of disparate genres. Think Phantom of the
Paradise crossed with Dark Shadows and maybe a little bit of The
Hunger. Best to bring some garlic, or at least someone to hold your
hand.
Read the review in BUZZINE
And from Flavorpill
B4 I Wake is for anyone who ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula and
thought the revered classic lacked a certain something. The dark and
mischievous minds at beloved Hollywood repertory company Theatre of
NOTE have figured out the problem: it wasn't weird enough. Also, it
needed music. Loud, sexy rock music. Writer Barry Rowell and director
Ezra Buzzington bring their collective experiences to bear in this
exuberantly macabre splicing of disparate genres. Think Phantom of the
Paradise crossed with Dark Shadows and maybe a little bit of The
Hunger. Best to bring some garlic, or at least someone to hold your
hand.
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