26/02/2026
Yesterday I saw Dracula (dir. Kip Williams) with Cynthia Erivo & it's brilliant! Nearly two hours and the audience was completely still. No rustling, no scrolling, I’ve rarely felt that level of focus in a room. I’m still thinking about the craft behind it (!!) It’s proper theatre, built for the digital age. Like making a film. In real time. In front of an audience. Night. After. Night.
You can feel the whole machinery working: lenses, marks, timing, the kind of precision where the tiniest slip would crack the spell. A technical tightrope walk, with almost no room for improvisation. And the acting has to live in 2 worlds at once: big enough for the theatre, precise enough for the lens. She has to play it for the back row & the close-up at the same time. Cynthia’s also the sole performer, playing 23 different roles.
And what really got under my skin is how this Dracula isn’t just a cape in the shadows. The monster is psychological. Internal. The part of us that wants what we’re not supposed to want & pretends we don’t.
Sharing these programme pages to credit the brilliant makers. If you can, go see it live. The whole thing only exists for the people in the room....
I’m a Transylvanian Surrealist Digitalist living in London, so this story hits differently for me. Tomorrow I’ll tell you why. 🦇☀️
