When Stoker Came to Town

This is a blog I’ve been wanting to do for a couple of weeks, and while I won’t go into the reasons for the delay it has also helpfully given me some time to reflect on the opening events of the Dracula Returns to Derby programme.

On 23 and 24 May, we had the fantastic Dacre Stoker in town, who gave two talks at The Museum of Making, a first delving into some of the writing secrets of the book and a second to explore Dracula’s journey from novel to stage to screen. Dacre has developed quite a reputation as an entertaining public speaker, as well as being highly informed and knowledgeable on his topic after many years of research that has taken him all over the world.

Derby of course has its own unique Dracula link – with the stage premiere taking place in the city in 1924 – so I suspect that this completed some sort of bingo card of significant Dracula locations.

Before I say any more – if you’re a fan of Dracula, and you have the chance to go to either of these talks, you should certainly make the effort. I’m going to share a few of the nuggets that stood out to me the most from both presentations, but I don’t think for a moment I can do them any true justice here. With that said, I’m sure the following will be of interest to anyone with an interest in Stoker’s novel and its many adaptation since…

1. Bela Lugosi became iconic in the role from the 1931 film, and effectively portrayed the suave and debonair count as first seen in the Derby Dracula of 1924. Lugosi offered his services at a much lower price than other actors – a decision that ultimately paid off! Lugosi would return to the stage as the Count at Derby Hippodrome in 1951.
   
   
2. On the subject of Lugosi, the 1931 version was shot during the daytime, largely at the Universal Studios Lot. However, by night, the same set was used for a Spanish language version of Dracula which was shot simultaneously and also released in 1931. Director George Melford and the cast were able to watch the production of the US versions during the day before shooting their scenes.
   
   
3. Bram Stoker was a meticulous planner and researcher, and spent a long time exploring multiple books in the British Library in preparation for writing the book. In fact, Dacre believes some still contain his notes and comments in the margins! This research was so precise that the long journey Van Helsing took across Europe by train was in fact possible at the time when the book was written.
   
   
4. While connections to places like Whitby, Transylvania (and increasingly Derby!) are well-known, Stoker started writing the novel itself in Cruden Bay in Scotland. Stoker set two of his novels on this island, and it is widely believed that nearby Slains Castle provided inspiration for the Count’s own residence, particularly the octagonal room referred to in the book.
   
   
5. Stoker was heavily involved in theatre himself, managing London’s Lyceum Theatre for 27 years as well as managing actor Henry Irving, one of the most famous performers of his time period. In fact, the Lyceum hosted a staged reading of Dracula – though this was for a tiny audience and conducted for copyright reasons.

Those were some of the highlights for me from two fascinating talks – I could have made this ten times as long and never covered everything, so if you do get a chance to see Dacre in action through his upcoming talks and events, I’d heartily encourage you to do so!