Although its roots are in the Victorian era, towards the end Malcolm’s version convincingly casts the story forward to the present day. It’s more subtle and thoughtful than a mere updating, like the 2020 TV version with Claes Bang, or indeed Hammer’s groovy, hippy-devouring Dracula A.D 1972, the sixth outing for Christopher Lee as the count. (Interestingly, the Lyric’s spectrally white auditorium was designed by Frank Matcham in 1895, while Stoker was working for Henry Irving at the Lyceum across town and also writing Dracula: it now sits in a 1970s building off a modern traffic gyratory.) Here, we find out what the vampire’s real motivation was, who the real monsters are and who really has agency.
