My high school assigned us Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” for summer reading prior to my senior year, but somehow never got around to the obvious autumn follow-up of Brahm Stoker’s “Dracula.” So I cannot tell you how strictly “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors”, playing now at Peninsula Community Theatre, sticks to the canonical text, but I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the original is not a comedy. Rather than a fraught, drawn-out, jump-scare style horror, this piece is a fun PG to PG-13 mix of “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Monty Python”.

We begin our action with the cast literally throwing giant book versions of “Dracula” off-stage to set the tone. This lets the audience know that while they may think they know Dracula from years of popular media, what if… Dracula was a bit sexy? Lawrence Nichols as Dracula delivers from the start, exiting his manor with a confident swagger and the tightest of leather pants (or maybe not the tightest… prepare for the second act when Costume Designer Sherry Buchanan pulls out all the stops in the leather pants department). Dracula, it seems, wants to sell his manor home in Transylvania and start over in England. Like any of us would, he hires a real estate agent, Jonathan (played by Matt Haley) to help him with this task. Haley plays Jonathan as an often frightened and always cautious foil to Lucy, his fiancé, and Dracula, who are both more devil-may-care about taking risks. From the first glimpse of Lucy’s photograph, Dracula becomes enraptured by her (in particular… her neck) and decides, in addition to the other 5 properties that he is buying from Jonathan, to buy one adjacent to Lucy’s family’s home as well.  

This brings the action to the home of the Westfeldts – Father: Captain Westfeldt (played by Mark Glickstein), Daughter: Lucy Westfeldt (portrayed by Lizzy Mathes), The Other (in all ways) Daughter: Mina Westfeldt (acted by Matthew Hipkins), and the mental patients that live on site (didn’t see that coming, did you? Each mental patient is double cast as a member of the family). This family (along with Jonathan) encounter the weird and wacky brought to their hamlet by Dracula in hilarious fashion.  As in any good comedy of errors, the happenstances are often ignored or the causes misattributed by the characters. When Mina falls to a mysterious illness, the vaunted Dr. Van Helsing is called in for additional expertise. Hipkins, double cast as both Mina and Van Helsing, is hilarious throughout. He nails both the ditsy portrayal of the less loved daughter and the stoic, conclusion-jumping nature of Van Helsing.

With all the players in place, they must finally expose the villain amongst them! Director Al Buchanan does a great job of getting the actors to lean into the hilarity. Notably, Mark Glickstein having a conversion with himself as both Captain Westfeldt and Renfield (the butler/mental patient/future Igor?) was especially funny, and I hope that Glickstein doesn’t get too dizzy from all the spinning.

With minimal set pieces, the lighting and props often set the scene. Tom McIlvain (Lighting and Sound Design) created a spooky lighting and sound package, complete with lightning and thunder effects. And I also always love when coconuts are used for horse hoof beats. It never gets old.

If you get assigned Brahm Stoker’s “Dracula” for your next book report, I don’t think seeing this play will work as a substitute for reading the book.  So stick to Cliffnotes (are those still a thing?) and just enjoy “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors” – it’ll have you laughing and put you in just the right spirit for Halloween.