Dracula

Sensual horror

Dracula, directed by Weronika Zajkowska, is a spectacle that can be heard and felt. It is a story about fear and the fight against evil, but also a full-fledged artistic experience that engages the senses and imagination. It's also a story about vigilance — about the fact that evil doesn't go away, even if it seems tame for a moment. The play consistently adheres to the literary prototype: instead of another contemporary variation, it proposes a return to Bram Stoker's novel and its classic, dark horror. It comes alive in full accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, and at the same time attracts the sighted — because in darkness we all perceive the world in the same way: through voice, sounds, noises, breathing rhythm, smell.

It is a theater that transcends sight and touches the senses, leading the viewer into horror classics.

Feel

The olfactory stimulus is the shortest path between the external world and the inner landscape of our mind. Therefore, in Dracula, fragrance becomes one of the tools of building terror — a subtle but extremely powerful channel that leads the viewer into the story.

The design of the olfactory setting is based on four chords: fear, desire, the image of Dracula's castle and sea voyage. The scents of fear and desire span the spectrum of secretory molecules — between their most repulsive release and the soft version associated with sensuality. Delicately “dirty”, organic tones attract us with their naturalness and closeness to the body, which we atavistically miss, although the dream about the hygiene of civilization tried to erase it.

The chord of the castle combines the smell of dampness and stone walls with a hint of myrrh, which adds to it the weight of history and dark elegance. In turn, in the olfactory image of a sea voyage, we combine the excitement of adventure, the coolness and lightness of the air with the pulsating anxiety from under the deck. Whether it's the smell of rum barrels, or the sticky, nostril-biting tone on the verge of decomposition — still appealing to us animals, a gentle ferment, but slowly transcending the sense of security.

Shreds of dreams. Dracula Costumes

Costumes for Dracula build a world of dusty memory and a castle that smells of dampness. This is not a reconstruction of the era, but a dream of Victorian shapes: corsets, puffins and collars return in raw, natural fabrics. Textures that can be felt under the fingers - stiff cotton, rough wool, cool silk - and traces of time: abrasions, fraying, cracks predominate. The beauty of antiaesthetics, turpism is replaced by smooth prettiness.

Mina first wears a stiff, modest dress in a shade of dusty purple with a corseted top and vertical pleats; the sleeves taper and end with a soft bell of heather lighter fabric, at the neck she has a convex, white, silicone collar like a specter of lace. Later she appears in a linen dress made of raw cotton: once it was white, now it is frayed and stained with rust, with three dense ruffles giving volume and delicate traces of blood at the breast; light lace on the old tulle wraps the wrists.

Jonathan arrives in a knee-length coat that combines soft black wool with rough hood and cuff linings and green lining; underneath he has a voluminous white cotton shirt with sleeves pulled down at the wrists, brown-gray high-waisted woolen trousers and black leather officers reaching knee pain. From the Transylvanian cold, it is protected by a voluminous hood.

Dr. Seward — elegant and dignified — wears a muted green tailcoat with sharp, wide lapels trimmed with deep brown fabric; a layered ruffle of satin, ecru guipure and aged lace adds to the chic look, and the cuffs protruding from under the tailcoat are made of shiny ribbon-colored fabric.

Van Helsing is dressed in a stiff, mid-calf black coat; on his chest he has a cross-shaped fissure fastened with embroidery; underneath he has a flesh-colored shirt, at the waist he buzzes châtelaine with small tools — talismans like silver scissors, a mirror, a watch, a strand of horsehair, and a cross.

Dracula's costume is a heavy coat of burgundy, very thick leather, trimmed with brown ram fur; what is most remembered, however, is his long, sharply pointed claws, as if rotted and deformed.

Vampire Girls — these are three different images: “Mina-phantom” in a white strappy dress with an asymmetrical front and cascading train and a collar made of boar's teeth; “Doll” is clad in layers of ivory-colored fabrics arranged on a wide frame, a nude corset with painted black lace and ripped inserts, the whole are complemented by delicate Victorian white ankle boots, loosely laced with braided linen; “Lucy-phantom” appears in a skirt of heavy navy satin with a slit at the front revealing a dense, white petticoat with black splashes, animality adds horsehair pinned to her back.

All these details form a common language: a romantic dream experienced by the brutality of time.

Request from the producers of the show:

In this performance we activate all the senses — also the sense of smell!

For the show, we have prepared specially designed fragrances that are part of the story. Let's let them sound full — give up perfume and intensely scented cosmetics before visiting the theater.

Thank you for creating the atmosphere together!

634th premiere of the Polish Theatre in Wrocław

ATTENTION! The performance features variable intensity sounds, dynamic lighting effects (including strobe), and smoke and scent effects. The unusual setting of the hall makes the action take place close to the spectators, and the actors move among the audience.

If you have any questions about availability or reception comfort, please contact: +48 531 866 532.

A performance co-financed by the Stanisław Wyspiański Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow as part of the Fundusz na Start programme