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Home , John Seward, Mina Harker

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Dracula

A comedy Inspired by ’s original novel, adapted by Sarah Simpson

Teachers’ Pack

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Dracula is a comedy for students' aged 13 and over.

Loosely based on the original gothic novel by Bram Stoker, I’ve written it in accessible, contemporary English for four actors. I hope you and your students will find these activities useful and fun. We welcome your feedback so please write to us and give us some tips.

Very best Sarah [email protected]

Ps: Here’s a link to a nice piece from bbclearningenglish.co.uk – it’s about bats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4FxO9zPGp0

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The Characters …

Jonathan Harker a young lawyer, nice, keen, not very clever, engaged to Mina

Mina Harker Jonathan's fiancée, good, kind and intelligent, can be very bossy.

An Innkeeper good-hearted, very nervous and clumsy

Lucy Westenra Mina's friend, very pretty, flirtatious and emotional, a bit vain

Dr runs a lunatic asylum, good and kind, not very brave

Professor elderly, an expert on , taught Dr Seward at University

Count Dracula extremely polite, a vampire

Renfield a lunatic who eats flies

The Female Vampires bloodthirsty, mad

A gypsy woman physically strong, makes money where she can

4 The Plot

Jonathan Harker is a young lawyer. He is engaged to be married to Mina Murray. Jonathan is sent to to finalise the contracts for the sale of a large deserted house in England. The buyer is a Transylvanian gentleman called .

After a long journey, Jonathan arrives at . Count Dracula is extremely polite and keen to learn about the English language and British culture, but seems in no hurry to sign the contract. Every day workmen arrive and carry away dozens of heavy boxes. Jonathan is mystified. What could be inside all these boxes? And where are they taking them? As time goes on, Jonathan begins to realise that he is a prisoner in Castle Dracula. He decides to try to escape.

Meanwhile, back in England, Mina Murray goes to visit her friend in the seaside town of Whitby, Yorkshire. Lucy is very beautiful but she is also emotionally unstable. She is in love with Dr John Seward who runs a lunatic asylum. His patients include , a woman who eats live insects. During Mina's visit to Whitby Lucy becomes ill. She eats very little and goes out sleepwalking in the night. Two tiny holes appear on her neck. Everyone is very worried about Lucy. They can’t understand what is wrong with her. Dr Seward contacts his old university teacher, Professor Van Helsing to ask for advice.

Then one night there is a terrible storm and a strange ship carrying a cargo of heavy boxes arrives at the port at Whitby. As the ship reaches the port a terrifyingly huge black dog jumps ashore and runs off into the countryside. When the townspeople board the ship they find that the crew are all missing and only the dead captain is left.

Lucy becomes weaker and weaker. Finally Professor Van Helsing arrives in Whitby. He is an expert on vampires and immediately realises that Lucy is under the power of a “nos feratu” (a vampire). He advises Dr Seward to put garlic flowers around Lucy's bed to protect her. But Lucy doesn't like the smell of the flowers so she 5

removes them. In the morning Mina finds her “dead”.

The story moves back to London, to Lucy’s tomb in Highgate Cemetery. Van Helsing and Dr Seward go to the tomb. They must drive a stake through her heart and cut off her head. It’s the only way to really kill a vampire.

Jonathan has managed to escape from Castle Dracula and now arrives back in London. Van Helsing can see that there is a connection between Count Dracula and what has happened to Lucy. He fears that Count Dracula is now in London. Now they must find him as quickly as possible and drive a stake through his evil heart!

True or False – say why

1. Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvania for a holiday. T/F 2. Count Dracula allows Jonathan to leave the castle. T/F 3. Mina goes to stay with her friend Lucy in Whitby. T/F 4. A ship full of people arrives in Whitby. T/F 5. Lucy is bitten by a vampire. T/F 6. You can kill a vampire by shooting them. T/F 7. Van Helsing is a young student. T/F 8. Renfield is a doctor who likes salad. T/F 9. Van Helsing thinks Dracula is in the UK T/F 10. Jonathan and Mina are planning to get married. T/F

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Pairwork – Reading + Speaking Student A

Read this news article from the BBC and check the meaning of the underlined vocabulary. Then explain it to your partner (student B) Rare Victorian vampire slaying kit up for auction

A vampire slaying kit from Victorian times is going up for auction in Yorkshire.

Included in the 19th century set are a pistol, a mallet and four wooden stakes to drive into the heart of a vampire.

There are also old bottles of garlic, sacred earth, communion wafers and holy water, to help protect you from the toothy villain.

The stakes don't have any blood on them so it's believed they haven't been used before!

Nigel Smith from Tennant's Auctioneers, North Yorkshire, says he expects the kit to sell for around £2,000, adding that there'd been "tremendous" interest from across the world.

Mr Smith said these kits are rare: "I've been in this business about 30 years and I've sold one other one about 15 years ago from a museum in York."

It's thought vampire slaying kits became fashionable after the famous 1897 novel Dracula, written by Bram Stoker.

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Pairwork – Reading + Speaking Student B

Read this news article from the BBC and check the meaning of the underlined vocabulary. Then explain it to your partner (student A) Victorian vampire-slaying kit sells for £7,500 at auction A Victorian vampire-slaying kit has sold for £7,500 to an unknown buyer at an auction in North Yorkshire.

The 19th Century box contains a crucifix, pistol, wooden stakes and mallet, as well as glass bottles containing holy water, communion wafers, holy earth and garlic paste.

The box was left to a Yorkshire woman in her uncle's will.

Nigel Smith, from Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, said it had received "a lot of interest".

"We had been expecting something between £1,500 and £2,000 and it went for £7,500. We had six telephones on it and there was a lot of bidding.

"It's an extremely interesting thing," said Mr Smith.

The kit was probably made in the late 1800s and was possibly inspired by the popularity of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula.

Ms Drage said she had not seen anything like it before.

"It's probably a novelty thing, a kind of toy."

As well as the weapons, the box holds a copy of the Book of Common Prayer from 1851 and a handwritten extract from the Bible which quotes Luke 19:27. 8 Make a Poster for a Vampire Slaying Kit

In the play, Professor Van Helsing has a vampire slaying kit (the equipment you need to kill a vampire). Use the vocabulary in the box to make a funny cartoon A3 poster of a vampire slaying kit. The poster should show all the contents of the kit and explain how to use them to slay a vampire. (slay (v) is a literary word for kill – it means to kill somebody or something in a violent and dramatic way)

Vocabulary a kit vampire to slay/kill to protect to cut to drive heart wooden stakes garlic a crucifix communion wafers

a knife

9 Make a Character Fact File

What do you know about each character in the story? What can you imagine about them? Choose two characters from the list and complete a fact file for each of them. Use the information about the plot and characters and your imagination to help you. Compare your fact files with other students. Here is an example

Full Name Professor Van Helsing

Age Around 65

Residence Abroad

Social position and Respected by society because he is a very wise family background university professor. Possibly married with grown up children Career path Studied medicine at university. Was a doctor for many years. Now teaches student doctors (eg. Dr Seward) Strengths/powers Knows a lot about vampires, tries to help other people

Weaknesses Not very good at English, needs a stick to walk

Enjoys Solving mysteries, studying vampires

Appearance Medium height, bald.

Typical dress A jacket and trousers. A coat. His clothes are old and a bit scruffy.

Adjectives to describe Intelligent, curious, kind, elderly, this character knowledgeable, intellectual, brave, adventurous

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Now choose a different character from the list of characters and complete a character fact file for them. Compare your answers with another student. Do you agree?

Full Name

Age

Residence

Social position and family background

Career path

Strengths/Powers

Weaknesses

Enjoys

Appearance

Typical dress

Adjectives to describe this character 11 Web Quest + Presentation

Work in small groups. Choose one of the following topics. Do some online research. Prepare a short presentation for the class (five minutes). You could present your information using Powerpoint, a poster or your own visuals.

Topics

Women in Victorian Britain Vampire Bats Transylvania Bram Stoker’s Life Films inspired by “Dracula” Victorian inventions Goths visiting Whitby Medicine in Victorian Britain The Victorian attitude to death Your own idea

12 Read a Scene and Write a Diary Entry

Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, is composed of a series of diary entries and letters. First, read this section of SCENE THREE from the play, the scene where Jonathan meets Count Dracula for the first time.

SCENE THREE

The sound of a carriage and horses. The sound of a door closing. Jonathan’s voice: Goodbye! The sound of the carriage driving off into the distance. Lights up very low. The sound of wolves howling. Jonathan is alone.

Jonathan Gosh. I can’t see a thing. It’s so dark. Castle Dracula must be somewhere near here. I don’t like the sound of all those wolves. (He shivers) brrrr… I’ frozen too. Gosh.. I don’t know how on earth I’m going to find the place. A lantern appears in the darkness.

Jonathan Oh.. what’s that light.. it must be the castle. (he starts moving towards the light of the lantern ). Thank goodness for that. I was beginning to get a bit worried. The wolves howling gets even louder. The lights become a little brighter to reveal Dracula standing holding a lantern.

Jonathan Ah, that must be come out to say hello. How kind …

Dracula (bowing slightly) Welcome! 13

Jonathan Count Dracula (holding out his hand). .Jonathan Harker. How do you do?

Dracula (turning away and ignoring the outstretched hand) Do come in. You must be tired after your journey.

Jonathan (a little surprised) Thank you.

Dracula is very rigid and very polite.

Dracula Please, let me take your coat.

He helps Jonathan off with his coat and hangs it up.

Jonathan (handing him his coat) Thank you!

Dracula Please, do sit down (gestures to the table).. A glass of ruby port perhaps?

Jonathan Thank you (Dracula pours him a drink) Thank you

Dracula A bite to eat? (removing the cover from a dish of food) You must be hungry after your journey?

Jonathan Thank you. And you – won’t you have something to eat too? Dracula No, no. I will eat later. Please.. eat.

Jonathan (embarrassed, drinks a little port) I have brought the contracts for the house you wish to buy, Count 14

Dracula. Would you like to see them now? (standing and reaching for his case)

Dracula Later, later, Mr Harker. Do sit down please. There is no rush. First I would like you to tell me all about England. I will be moving there soon as you know, and I would like to understand something more about the English. The scene continues…….

Write a diary excerpt

Imagine that you are Jonathan Harker. Imagine everything that Jonathan sees, hears, touches, tastes and smells during this scene. Imagine how he feels. Begin like this:

Saturday 8 January 1897.

I have finally arrived at Castle Dracula....

15 Write a scene

Work in pairs. Choose a scene and write it together. Perform your scene to the class. Which is the funniest? The scariest? The most interesting?

Scene a) Jonathan Harker meets Count Dracula for the first time. Count Dracula asks lots of questions about England and English people. Write the scene.

Scene b) Mina visits her friend Lucy in Whitby. Lucy is very excited because she is in love with Dr John Seward. She tells Mina about Dr Seward, and asks Mina about her fiance. Write the scene.

Scene c) Dr Seward visits Renfield. Renfield asks for more sugar to catch more flies. Renfield is insane. Dr Seward is very kind. Write the scene.

Scene d) Jonathan is on the way to Castle Dracula. He stays the night at an Inn. He asks for directions to the Castle. The Innkeeper is afraid. He doesn’t want to give directions. Finally he gives directions and he also gives Jonathan a crucifix to keep him safe. Write the scene.

16 Jonathan’s Diary Gapfill

Now imagine you are Jonathan Harker and complete his diary entry about meeting Count Dracula for the first time. Use the verbs in the box in a suitable tense..

not want to be meet ask hear feel see follow taste come stop arrive

seem go offer not eat

can't see drink try I ______refuse get at Castle Dracula. The journey to Castle

Dracula _____ long and very uncomfortable. Finally the carriage ______. I _____ out. It was very dark and cold. I

______wolves howling in the night. I ______a little afraid. I ______a thing. Eventually I ______a light shining. I ______the light and ______to the Castle entrance. Count Dracula ______me and welcomed me but he

______shake my hand. He was very formal so it

______strange. We ______inside Castle Dracula. The

Count ______me food and drink but he ______anything. I

______some port. It was good but it ______old. The

Count ______me lots of questions about England. He wanted to know some strange things.

I ______to show the Count the contracts for the house in

England but he ______to look at them. 17 Answers

Jonathan Harker’s Diary Gapfill

I _____have arrived______at Castle Dracula. The journey to Castle Dracula ___was__ long and very uncomfortable. Finally the carriage ___stopped____. I ___got__ out. It was very dark and cold. I _____heard______wolves howling in the night. I _____felt___ a little afraid. I ____couldn’t see_____ a thing. Eventually I _____saw_____ a light shining. I ____followed______the light and ____came____ to the Castle entrance. Count Dracula ___met____ me and welcomed me but he _____didn’t want to______shake my hand. He was very formal so it __seemed______strange. We _went_____ inside Castle Dracula. The Count ____offered____ me food and drink but he __didn’t eat______anything. I ___drank______some port. It was good but it _____tasted_____ old. The Count _____asked_____ me lots of questions about England. He wanted to know some strange things. I _____tried_____to show the Count the contracts for the house in England but he ____refused______to look at them.

18 Additional Reading https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/whitby-abbey/history/dracula/

HOW DRACULA CAME TO WHITBY

How Bram Stoker’s visit to the harbour town of Whitby on the Yorkshire coast in 1890 provided him with atmospheric locations for a Gothic novel – and a name for his famous vampire.

The dramatic ruins of Whitby Abbey, on the headland overlooking the town

A GOTHIC SETTING

Bram Stoker arrived at Mrs Veazey’s guesthouse at 6 Royal Crescent, Whitby, at the end of July 1890. As the business manager of actor Henry Irving, Stoker had just completed a gruelling theatrical tour of Scotland. It was Irving who recommended Whitby, where he’d once run a circus, as a place to stay. Stoker, having written two novels with characters and settings drawn from his native Ireland, was working on a new story, set in Styria in Austria, with a central character called Count Wampyr.

Stoker had a week on his own to explore before being joined by his wife and baby son. Mrs Veazey liked to clean his room each morning, so he’d stroll from the genteel heights of Royal Crescent down into the town. On the way, he took in the kind of views that had been exciting writers, artists and Romantic-minded visitors for the past century.

The favoured Gothic literature of the period was set in foreign lands full of eerie castles, convents and caves. Whitby’s windswept headland, the dramatic abbey ruins, a church 19 surrounded by swooping bats, and a long association with jet – a semi-precious stone used in mourning jewellery – gave a homegrown taste of such thrilling horrors.

Bram Stoker photographed in about 1906

ABBEY AND CHURCH

High above Whitby, and dominating the whole town, stands Whitby Abbey, the ruin of a once-great Benedictine monastery, founded in the 11th century. The medieval abbey stands on the site of a much earlier monastery, founded in 657 by an Anglian princess, Hild, who became its first abbess. In Dracula, Stoker has Mina Murray – whose experiences form the thread of the novel – record in her diary:

Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey, which was sacked by the Danes … It is a most noble ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits; there is a legend that a white lady is seen in one of the windows.

Below the abbey stands the ancient parish church of St Mary, perched on East Cliff, which is reached by a climb of 199 steps. Stoker would have seen how time and the weather had gnawed at the graves, some of them teetering precariously on the eroding cliff edge. Some headstones stood over empty graves, marking seafaring occupants whose bodies had been lost on distant voyages. He noted down inscriptions and names for later use, including ‘Swales’, the name he used for Dracula’s first victim in Whitby. 20

Graves in St Mary’s churchyard, Whitby, with the abbey ruins in the background

AN ENCOUNTER WITH DR ACULA

On 8 August 1890, Stoker walked down to what was known as the Coffee House End of the Quay and entered the public library. It was there that he found a book published in 1820, recording the experiences of a British consul in Bucharest, William Wilkinson, in the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (now in Romania). Wilkinson’s history mentioned a 15th-century prince called Vlad Tepes who was said to have impaled his enemies on wooden stakes. He was known as Dracula – the ‘son of the dragon’. The author had added in a footnote:

Dracula in the Wallachian language means Devil. The Wallachians at that time … used to give this as a surname to any person who rendered himself conspicuous either by courage, cruel actions, or cunning.

Stoker made a note of this name, along with the date. 21

Anonymous 16th-century painting of Vlad Tepes, or , Prince of Walachia 1456–62

THE BIRTH OF A LEGEN D

While staying in Whitby, Stoker would have heard of the shipwreck five years earlier of a Russian vessel called the Dmitry, from Narva. This ran aground on Tate Hill Sands below East Cliff, carrying a cargo of silver sand. With a slightly rearranged name, this became the Demeter from Varna that carries Dracula to Whitby with a cargo of silver sand and boxes of earth.

So, although Stoker was to spend six more years on his novel before it was published, researching the landscapes and customs of Transylvania, the name of his villain and some of the novel’s most dramatic scenes were inspired by his holiday in Whitby. The innocent tourists, the picturesque harbour, the abbey ruins, the windswept churchyard and the salty tales he heard from Whitby seafarers all became ingredients in the novel.

In 1897 Dracula was published. It had an unpromising start as a play called The Undead, in which Stoker hoped Henry Irving would take the lead role. But after a test performance, Irving said he never wanted to see it again. For the character of Dracula, Stoker retained Irving’s aristocratic bearing and histrionic acting style, but he redrafted the play as a novel told in the form of letters, diaries, newspaper cuttings and entries in the ship’s log of the Demeter.

The log charts the gradual disappearance of the entire crew during the journey to Whitby, until only the captain is left, tied to the wheel, as the ship runs aground below East Cliff on 8 August – the date that marked Stoker’s discovery of the name ‘Dracula’ in Whitby library. A ‘large dog’ bounds from the wreck and runs up the 199 steps to the church, and from this moment, things begin to go horribly wrong. Dracula has arrived …