Friday
October 16
8:00 PMDoors 7:30 PM
Salem in October
Dracula belongs in Salem in October.
Dracula's Speakeasy is a 21+ speakeasy and live performance of Bram Stoker's Dracula at Cinema Salem, One East India Square, on the Essex Street pedestrian mall in Salem, Massachusetts. It plays three times: Friday, October 16, 2026 at 8:00 PM, and Saturday, October 17 at 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM. Four cocktails are included, one for each chapter, over ninety minutes. It is not a haunted house.
Every October, Salem, Massachusetts becomes the busiest small city in New England. The month-long festival fills the streets with costumes, the museums run late, the Essex Street pedestrian mall is shoulder to shoulder from noon, and the commuter rail from Boston runs full both ways. Most of what there is to do is for everyone. Some of it should not be.
Dracula's Speakeasy is the evening for adults. Inside Cinema Salem, on the mall at the center of the season, a speakeasy is set for ninety minutes: small tables, four cocktails poured in order, and Bram Stoker's story performed around you by a cast of five. It is not a walk-through attraction and it is not a bar crawl. It is a seat, a glass, and the Count.
What you get
- A seat at a table in the room, for one of three performances: Friday, October 16 at 8 PM, Saturday, October 17 at 4 PM, or Saturday, October 17 at 8 PM.
- Four cocktails, one for each chapter of the story: The First Bite, Fresh Blood, The Crypt, Dracula's Kiss. Here is the Blood Bar. Mocktails pour on request.
- Ninety minutes of live performance at the tables by a cast of five.
- A theater on the Essex Street pedestrian mall, two minutes from the Peabody Essex Museum and ten from the train. Here is exactly where.
Why this month
Stoker's Count arrives by sea, in the dark, into a town that does not yet believe in him. Salem in October believes in everything for thirty-one days. The costumes on the street, the candles in the windows, the crowd thinning after dark on the way back to the station: the city does the set dressing for free. We bring the room, the bar, and the story.
Make it the plan
Buy tickets first, because the room is small and October weekends sell out across the city. Take the train from North Station if you can. Arrive when the doors open, half an hour before the performance, with your ID. Eat before the 8 PM performances. Afterwards the street is still awake, and you are already in the middle of it.
Where we are
On Essex Street, in the middle of everything.
Cinema Salem is inside Museum Place, the small mall whose doors open straight onto the Essex Street pedestrian mall. When you are standing on Essex Street in October, in the middle of the crowd, you are about a minute from our door.
Walking times are approximate and assume an October crowd. Nothing on this list needs a car.
- 1minEssex Street pedestrian mallThe mall's doors open onto it.
- 2minPeabody Essex MuseumAcross Essex Street.
- 3minOld Town Hall and Derby SquareDown Essex Street toward the water.
- 5minSalem Witch Museum and the CommonUp Essex Street to Washington Square.
- 5minSalem Witch Trials MemorialCharter Street, behind the Peabody Essex Museum.
- 1minMuseum Place GarageAttached to the building, entrance on New Liberty Street.
- 10minSalem station, commuter railUp Washington Street, about half a mile.
- 8minPickering Wharf and the waterfrontDown Derby Street.
- 15minThe House of the Seven GablesAlong Derby Street past the wharf.
The three nights
Pick your night.
Questions
The ones we hear most.
Where do I buy tickets?
On this site, every performance has a Buy tickets button that takes you straight to the seats for that night on Eventbrite. Pick the night, pick the number of seats, and pay there. Your tickets come back to you by email from Eventbrite.
How much are tickets?
General admission is $55 and VIP is $70, plus Eventbrite's ticket fee, which is shown before you pay. Every seat includes the four cocktails.
Do I have to be 21?
Yes. Every guest is 21 or older and shows a valid government-issued photo ID at the door. That includes the 4 PM matinee.
Are the four drinks included?
Yes. Your seat includes four cocktails, one poured for each chapter of the story: The First Bite, Fresh Blood, The Crypt, and Dracula's Kiss.
I don't drink. Can I still come?
Yes. Every chapter pours without alcohol on request. Tell the bar when you sit down, or write to us before the night, and it is the same glass and the same story.
How long is it?
Ninety minutes. Doors open thirty minutes before the performance.
October 16 & 17, 2026 · Cinema Salem