Our Interview With A (Sort Of) Vampire

Our Interview With A (Sort Of) Vampire series introduces two of the brilliant creatives behind the NYT rep’s upcoming production of Dracula. Second, director Atri Banerjee reflects on what makes theatre scary, rehearsing with three types of blood and how to create an ensemble piece for a cast of 18…

Interview and pictures by Beatrice Updegraff for Mobius Industries.

“The vampire has always been used as a metaphor for different fears and concerns that people have in society. We were sort of thinking a lot about the gender roles in the play and how those might be interpreted differently in the 21st century. Without being quite blunt – Dracula is basically an abusive man who drains resources from mainly the women around him. And more broadly thinking about the structures of power which enable people like the Draculas of the world to exist.”

“There’s a lot of blood in the show which is causing me a bit of a headache at the moment. We actually need several different kinds of fake blood. We need an edible fake blood that can go in people’s mouths. We need a fake blood that’s not too sticky so it doesn’t get stuck to the floor all the time. So we’ve got ‘blood rehearsal’ as one of our first rehearsals of the tech. The theatre is such a non-literal space, so it’s thinking, when does the blood need to feel really real, and when can it be more suggested. A lot of what makes things scary is actually things being unseen as much as things being seen. In a live audience you can’t really hide things in the way that you can on a screen with film. So that’s a particular challenge – but it’s an exciting one.”

“The first half of the play is sort of more directly inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula, particularly the sections to do with Lucy and her story. And then the second half of the play takes that in a whole other direction. It’s sort of set in the present day and just imagines what vampires might look like today. We’re celebrating the fact that it’s a play, celebrating the fact that it’s quite theatrical.

“I got involved in directing when I was relatively young. I grew up in Italy and I really wanted to be a film director. And then I moved back to England when I was about 14 and decided to get involved with my school drama group because I thought that if I learn how to do plays, then I'll learn how to do films. I just sort of continued – I fell in love with directing from there. I was much more interested in being behind the scenes and putting the bigger picture together.”

“The NYT Rep are an amazing group of actors. They come from a whole different range of backgrounds and a whole different range of experiences. I really felt like we wanted to make sure it was a piece that gave everyone a moment to shine. It’s very much an ensemble piece – lots of movement, lots of dance, a celebration of what those eighteen bodies in space can do together. You can really feel that ensemble spirit the moment you’re in the room with them.”