The gothic story of Dracula has always evoked much storytelling and the easiest stories with which to engage are those which contain partial truths, even if they include improbabilities and impossibilities. Vampires exist in the myth of every culture and one thing is certain – the vampire is the one who sucks the life out of you.
Using the conceit of the title cards from F.W. Murnau’s iconic 1922 silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors, the small company of Montague Basement – under the direction of Saro Lusty-Cavallari – have constructed a performance which places the monster Count in a modern cultural context. What or who is he now? He is the sum of greed, the manifestation of our fear.
There are times when this production lands beautifully on this point and one becomes aware that the vampires of today are the politicians and CEOs and sexual predators intent on draining the life out of the economy, people and the environment. These are the strongest moments. But the production also proposes that by focusing on the evil Count figure, we fail to deal with the evil within ourselves and it is here that the play is weakest; the scenes are less confident and certain. It is as though at this point the production over-reaches itself and undermines the strength of the first parallel.
Moments of humour are used to punctuate the message and the ensemble handle these well, especially to cover when things don’t go according to plan because WHS issues have not been properly worked through. If an audience is distracted with concerns about safety on stage, the engagement with the performance will suffer. Playing a variety of characters, the ensemble of Lucy Burke, Jeremi Campese, Lulu Howes and Annie Stafford give confidently in their roles and as crew with Stafford in particular impressing with her comic timing and ability.
Montague Basement’s brief is to explore, through performance, various viewpoints along a central theme by using pastiche and collage. New work is important to live theatre and must be encouraged and supported; performance is an ever-changing form, and like all art, it is without boundaries. Nosferatu: A fractured symphony engages with the challenge of the art form but the engagement is inconsistent, leading to an equally inconsistent engagement for the audience. A re-visit and a re-working by the company could result in a memorable piece of theatre.
Kate Stratford – On The Town
Photos: Zaina Ahmed
Nosferatu: A Fractured Symphony
Directed & Devised by
SARO LUSTY-CAVALLARI
Based on the novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
8 – 19 January 2019
Tuesday – Saturday 8pm
Venue: Old 505 Theatre
Theatre Company: Montagues Basement
Duration: N/A
He’s the 1%
A spoilt aristocrat buying investment properties from overseas. He’s a boat person. Invading our shores, bringing disease and death across the water. He’s a sexual predator.
A perverted sadist corrupting the wives and daughters of everyone he meets. Count Orlock. The Vampyre. Mr. De Ville. Dracula. Nosferatu. He’s everyone’s favourite.
Blasting apart one of the most iconic films of the silent era, Montague Basement kicks off Old 505 Theatre’s 2019 season with this new devised work.
With nothing but fragments of F.W.Murnau’s 1922 film to work from, Nosferatu: A Fractured Symphony dares to imagine a world without Dracula, and rebuilds that myth before our eyes.
Ticket Prices
$45 Premium Adults* / $40 Adults / $30 Concession, Industry & Under 30 / ‘Pay what you want’ Previews
