Vampires have never been so ubiquitous. This is thanks partly to the continuing popularity of television shows such as Dark Shadows (the cult Sixties supernatural soap opera, recently filmed by Tim Burton) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but also bestselling novels such as Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga. These days, bloodsuckers are even considered suitable for children – we’ve already had Count Duckula, Sesame Street’s The Count and the breakfast cereal Count Chocula, and now, just in time for half-term and Hallowe’en, we have Hotel Transylvania, a cartoon comedy in which Adam Sandler provides the voice of Dracula. Nor is the stage immune to the vampire’s sinister charms.
Next week, the Polish production Nosferatu opens at the Barbican. The latest offering from acclaimed theatre company T R Warszawa (whose 2008: Macbeth was one of the hits of this year’s Edinburgh Festival) and director Grzegorz Jarzyna, it was inspired by one of the most famous novels in the English language, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, even if it does put a modern spin on the tale. As the Barbican warns, “This production contains nudity, smoke effects, strobe lighting and scenes that some may find disturbing.” That, and also quite a lot of blood. It is at the cinema, however, that vampires have recently had the highest profile. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2, the final film adaptation from Meyer’s tetralogy, opens in a fortnight. There is no question that it will be a monster hit with its target audience of young women who project themselves into the persona of Kristen Stewart’s heroine, Bella Swan. They, too, yearn for a boyfriend just like 100-year-old, but still incredibly good-looking, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), on to whom they can project fantasies of being swept off their feet by a guy who broods like a bad boy but who isn’t really very bad at all.
Source: via @Mel452
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