COUNTESS DRACULA
Camden People’s Theatre
★★½
“there’s a surprising charm to Countess Dracula’s world”
Night madness? Otherworldly rage? A desperate desire for eternal youth? All qualities embodied by Countess Dracula, yes, but also by anyone experiencing the menopause, according to this playful adaptation of the horror classic.
Countess Dracula explores the hardships of aging for both women and performers with a light-hearted spirit, examining mental health, partnership and power. As a vaudevillian duo and partnered couple, Joey and Jack find their Dracula-inspired show gets out of hand once Joey begins to experience menopausal symptoms which disrupt both their professional and personal dynamics.
Theatre company OftheJackel in collaboration with Joanna Holden put Bram Stoker’s tale through the lens of two farcical entertainers, creating amusing vignettes peppered with physical comedy, which give off the reassuring quality of a silent film. The set design enhances this comfortable, quirky mood, with the lush opulence evocative of a horror house offset by a slightly homemade toybox feel, giving the audience the sense of having been shrunk down into a finger puppet show. There’s a neat alignment in how the disruption of the menopause and the breakdown of the pair’s double act play off each other. The horror stunts are suitably camp and practical (direction by Deborah Newbold), carried out in keeping with both the vaudevillian universe created and the original text.
Joanna Holden brings a wide-eyed childlike glee to the titular role which enhances the uncanny and unsettling nature of her bloodthirsty Countess. Jack Kelly props up the plot, taking on multiple roles as a doctor and Joey’s chain-smoking mother, as well as offering plenty of endearingly hapless support as her partner, thespian and otherwise.
Despite her trial and tribulations though, Joey is chirpy in the opening scene and chirpy in the closing one, so the transformation of her character feels flimsy. We didn’t really get to sink our teeth into the themes of societal perception, instead simply gnashing at them. When Joey visits the doctor, we start to unpick one of the most terrifying confrontations women can experience – a sneering medical system ready to cart them off or chop them up instead of listening – but we move on so quickly that the return and resolution of his character doesn’t feel entirely earned.
While the vignette feeling brings interest to the physical comedy interludes, it feels like they’re included at the expense of real character exploration, which is a sacrifice. It leaves the experience more like a collection of thematic skits than a piece with true perspective, lightly pondering rather than provoking thoughts. But the balance between comedy and horror is well judged, and there’s a surprising charm to Countess Dracula’s world which had us enchanted.
COUNTESS DRACULA
Camden People’s Theatre
Reviewed on 30th October 2025
by Jessica Hayes
Photography by Henry Maynard
Previously reviewed at this venue:
MISS BREXIT | ★★★½ | May 2024
CONFUSED CHRONICLES OF ALEPPO | ★ | August 2023
INVASION! AN ALIEN MUSICAL | ★★ | July 2023
