A novel told in letters, retold in glasses.

Bram Stoker's Dracula arrived in 1897 as a stack of documents: Jonathan Harker's journal from the castle, Mina's letters, the captain's log of a ship that ran aground with no crew, Dr. Seward's recordings, Van Helsing's notes. There is no narrator. The reader assembles the Count from what the other characters saw.

Dracula's Speakeasy keeps that shape and changes the medium. The documents become chapters, and the chapters become drinks. You are handed the story the way Stoker's characters were, one piece at a time, by people in the room who have seen more than you have. The bar pours The First Bite while Harker is still admiring the architecture. By Dracula's Kiss, everyone in the room knows what the architecture was for.

The room

Inside Cinema Salem, a speakeasy is set for the night: small tables, low light, a bar at one end. The cast does not stay on a stage, because there is no stage. The performance happens at the tables, between them, and behind you. You are never asked to perform. You may be spoken to.

The bar

Four cocktails were built for the four chapters, and their names are the map: The First Bite, Fresh Blood, The Crypt, Dracula's Kiss. Every one pours without alcohol if you ask, in the same glass at the same moment. The Blood Bar page has the details the bar is willing to share.

Salem

Stoker's Count came ashore at Whitby, on the Yorkshire coast, on a ship called the Demeter. This October he comes ashore in Salem, Massachusetts, in the one month when the whole city is already awake past midnight. Our theater sits on the Essex Street pedestrian mall, right at the center of it. Here is why October in Salem is the right month for him.

Who made it

The show was written and produced by E.A. Clifton, who makes theatrical evenings drawn from the darker side of literature and legend. It is presented by GlitchTV together with Cinema Salem. The cast is five, and you can meet them here.