6 – 31 July
Looking for an opportunity to blow away the failing government/Covid/war/cost of living blues? Then head on down to this raucous and saucy mash-up of Count Dracula meets The Sound of Music meets Jack and Jill at the Wardrobe. If you haven’t got tears of laughter running down your face at least once during this show, well, perhaps you are living in the wrong city!
There have been many special nights in this most intimate of acting spaces, but director Tom Brennan’s Drac & Jill must rate as one of the best of them – a tour-de-force delivered at a pace beyond the dials – the laughs just keep coming as the bodily fluids keep pumping!
Bram Stoker’s original gothic horror is the riff on which actors Corrina Buchan, Caitlin Campbell, Tom Fletcher and Alice Lamb hilariously explore themes of repressed sexuality and love in an outrageous, no-holes-barred performance that had the audience braying its appreciation at the end of a two-hours-plus romp.
On a minimal set that provided clever window and door entrances, we go back to ancient rural Transylvania where we meet (in puppet form) Jill and her forbidden lover Jack. Their fates sit at the heart of our tale, with its eventual reveal and denouement having all the magic of Bergman’s cinematic expressionism. Alongside the physical mayhem was theatre craft at the top of its game.
Our hapless protagonists, the twittish Jonathan Harker and mousy girlfriend Nina duly set off from Bristol Temple Meads en route for Count Drac’s castle to explain the merits of buying a Bristol property. Unfortunately, our Jon soon has his neck explored by pointy teeth, leaving poor Nina on a mission to save him via the surprisingly sensual assistance of nun Frances, who is having anger management issues in the monastery. On the journey, and in a piece of classic Wardrobe audience participation, we visit the Hell Hole Karaoke Club where we get to choose one of three Bon Jovi songs to roar at the top of our lungs assisted by Dylanesque cue cards. The audience didn’t need encouragement!
As the epicentre of this boiling hot curry of a show Buchan slays it (apologies) as the dreadful count. Whether strutting her/his/their stuff complete with strap-on dildo, flying (yes) into battle with feisty nun Frances (Lamb) or being groomed by her orgasmic brides begging for ‘punishment’, Buchan is a memorable wide-eyed hell-raiser always in charge of the nonsense spinning around her. The amply gutted Tom Fletcher was wickedly funny as both mother superior and the hapless Harker while Caitlin Campbell’s restrained and ever-so-English Nina provided the perfect foil for her OTT colleagues.
Prepare to leave your comfort zones; get ready for an onslaught of wobbling flesh, and a wild mouse ride of theatrical ingenuity. Welcome to the wonderfully wacky world of the Wardrobe.
★★★★★ Simon Bishop 9 July 2022
Photo credit: Paul Blakemore
