In 2001, a young actor performing in Bratislava, Slovakia accompanied a classmate on a clandestine visit to a garden – the garden of Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, the butcher of Bratislava. Between 1602 and 1604 she tortured and murdered at least thirty-seven – and perhaps over a hundred – young women, beating, starving and freezing them and in some instances hacking off parts of their bodies.
“Just talking about it gives me the chills,” Joe Brack now says.
Later versions of the story – probably apocryphal – allege that Báthory bathed in the blood of her victims, in order to keep up her youthful appearance. And Brack – who has compiled an impressive list of credentials on the Washington stage (My Princess Bride, The Santaland Diaries, Astro Boy and the God of Comics, among others) – is now in rehearsal for a play involving another half-legendary character: Count Dracula, who was based (we now know) on the savage real-life aristocrat, Vlad Tepas (or “Vlad the Impaler”).
In the 2014 Capital Fringe show Dracula . A Love Story, Brack plays Jack Klaxon, a character loosely based on Jonathan Harker in the original Dracula tale. But “Klaxon is cool and cynical, while Harker was a true believer from the outset,” Brack explains. (Bram Stoker’s novel begins with Harker visiting Dracula at his Transylvanian estate). “Jack counterbalances some of the wilder conclusions people are drawing about Vlad,” says Brack. “He’s the part of us that says, ‘yeah, right.’”
Dracula. A Love Story is a modern retelling of the Dracula legend, set in Washington, D.C. Vlad Tepas (Lee Ordeman) is a lobbyist whose dying wife Mina (Christine Hirrel) needs a companion when he is away at night, ostensibly attending social functions. He recruits Lucy Cervas (Carolyn Kashner) as Mina’s companion – and her replacement. Klaxon, Lucy’s fiancée, is concerned, as is her father Will (Brian Crane), who eventually calls in an expert, Dr. Calderone (Lynn Sharp Spears). Mr. Redland (Josh Speerstra), Tepas’ servant, completes the cast.
“This is a story about rapture,” playwright Tim Treanor says. “Lucy sees that Vlad is extraordinary and she’s hungry for that. But you can find rapture with ordinary people, doing ordinary things as well.”
“Although this is Dracula and everything, ninety percent of what goes on here is instantly recognizable from our own experiences,” Brack says. “I remember once when an ex of mine dramatically threw her engagement ring at me and stormed off,” he relates, alluding to a scene in the play. “I never heard from her again.” Brack is now married to actor Tonya Beckman.
Dracula . A Love Story by Tim Treanor was part of the 2014 Capital Fringe Festival.