Dracula: The Vampire Play in Three Acts by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston (1927)07:41 Dec 14 2011
Times Read: 550
The play Dracula written by Hamilton Deane exhibits a similar but sordid way of interpreting the original story by Bram Stoker. Dean added, changed, and subtracted characters to achieve his ultimate goal. Except for a short introduction with an old man crawling out of a window in Transylvania, the play takes place entirely in London.
From the beginning of the play, Mina is married to Jonathan Harker, whereas in the book, they were married during the course of the story. None of Mina's suitors appear in the play. The couple has an estate next to the asylum run by Dr. Seward.
The three-act play takes place predominately in two separate rooms, the study of the Harker's house and Mina's bedroom. It takes place over a four or five day period. There is no discussion about what happened in Transylvania or that Jonathan actually traveled there. It is known that he did assist Count Dracula in the purchase several estates in London. Though no scenes take place at the asylum, the audience knows that it is located next to the residence of Jonathan Harker.
When it is determined that an unnatural force such as a vampire or werewolf is the cause of Mina's condition, it is ordered that her room be protected with garlic flowers, not Lucy's room as in the novel.
Lucy comes into the play already dead. She was engaged to Lord Godalming. There is talk about her condition before dying and the similarities with the current condition of Mina. And later, a 'Bu-ful' lady is described who is terrorizing small children. There is talk about ending her unnatural life, but in the play they do not actually do it, it is simply assumed that they did.
The character of the American, Quincey Morris, was changed into a woman for the play. Her role in the play is not very important, and she is rarely present during the play. Her main role is being there for Mina when she needs her. She is a friend of the family who helps out with various jobs, such as obtaining the garlic flowers for Mina's bedroom.
Arthur Holmwood was replaced in the play with his father, Lord Godalming. In the Bram Stoker novel, when Lord Godalming passed away, Arthur received his title, but in the play, Arthur is not even mentioned. Lord Godalming was engaged to Lucy and he is the one who gives permission to kill the un-dead Lucy, though it is not actually carried out in the play.
The play comes to a close in Carfax Abbey instead of in Transylvania. Lord Godalming and Jonathan Harker purified all of Dracula's earth boxes in his other estates to force him into the Abbey where they will be able to trap him. Once Dracula flees from Jonathan's house after killing Renfield, they follow him back to the coach house of the Abbey where Jonathan Harker destroys Dracula.
Hamilton Deane (1880–1958) was an Irish actor, playwright and director. He played a key role in popularising Bram Stoker's Dracula as a stage play and, later, a film.
Deane entered the theater as a young man, first appearing in 1899 with the Henry Irving Company (Stoker was stage manager for Henry Irving for many years). Even before he formed his own troupe in the early 1920s, Deane had been thinking about bringing Dracula to the stage. Stoker had attempted this in 1897 but the verdict from Irving consigned it to the waste-paper basket. Unable to find a scriptwriter to take on the project, Deane wrote the play himself in a four-week period of inactivity while he was suffering with a severe cold. He then contacted Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, and negotiated a deal for the dramatic rights.
Deane re-imagined Dracula as a more urbane and theatrically acceptable character who could plausibly enter London society. It was Deane's idea that the count should wear a tuxedo and stand-up collar, and a flowing cape which concealed Dracula while he slipped through a trap-door in the stage floor, giving the impression that he had disappeared. Deane also arranged to have a uniformed nurse available at performances, ready to administer smelling salts should anyone faint. Deane’s play premiered in the Grant Theatre, Derby in June 1924. Despite critics' misgivings, the audiences loved it. With Raymond Huntley as the Count and Deane as Van Helsing, it was a huge success and toured for years. Deane had initially intended to play the role of the count himself. When the play crossed the Atlantic in 1927, the role of Dracula was taken by the then-unknown Hungarian actor Béla Lugosi. For its US debut, Dracula was rewritten by the American playwright John L. Balderston. The show ran for a year on Broadway and for two more years on tour, breaking all previous records for any show put on tour in the United States. It is the Deane/Balderston interpretation upon which the classic Tod Browning film Dracula (1931) was based.
John L. Balderston (october 22, 1889 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - march 8, 1954 Los Angeles, California) was an American playwright and screenwriter best known for his horror and fantasy scripts. In 1927, he was retained by Horace Liveright to revise Hamilton Deane's stage adaptation of Dracula for its American production. His 1929 play Berkeley Square later formed the basis of the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. His Dracula subsequently formed the basis of the 1931 film version, leading Balderston into a screenwriting career, initially for Universal Pictures horror films: in addition to Dracula, he contributed to Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Mummy, and Dracula's Daughter. He spent much of his career adapting novels for the screen, including The Prisoner of Zenda in 1937 and 1944's Gaslight, which earned him his second Academy Award nomination (the first was for 1935's The Lives of a Bengal Lancer). He was also one of the team of writers who collaborated on the 1939 film adaptation of Gone with the Wind.
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