Dracula

Professional stage debut of Carolyn Seymour.

Janina Faye was mugged in south-west London on Sunday 17^th August; her role was played for the remainder of the run by Jenny Counsell. Faye was also prevented from appearing in the theatre’s next show, CHARLEY’S AUNT. (‘Attack on actress hits production’, Reading Evening Post 20^th August 1969, page 9.)

“We produced DRACULA in 1969, at a time when the dire effects of the losses we’d made on our American tour were being most keenly felt. To offset these losses we were committed to producing plays which were calculated to make money, more or less regardless of their artistic merit. One such, I had been many times told, was DRACULA, and I included it in our programme with every confidence that it would pack the house. Instead, we played to, without exception, the worst business of all time.” – John Counsell: ‘Vagaries’, Curtain Up 17^th June 1975 (page 1)

“Then came the total disaster of DRACULA, which lost £3,500 and wiped out all our gains of the previous months… [But] the spectacular success of WHO KILLED SANTA CLAUS? [qv] went some way to paying off the losses on DRACULA.” – John Counsell, ‘Backward Glance’, Curtain Up 24^th November 1969 (page 3)

Cast & Crew

Cast

Observations

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