The Blood is the Life: The Origins of Renfield – Etcetera Theatre, London

Writer: Steven Feeney

Directors: Steven Feeney and Beth Baker

A drama school exercise to explore an overlooked character in literature, Steven Feeney’s presentation on R.M. Renfield from Bram Stoker’s Dracula has evolved into a one-act play performed at the Etcetera Theatre that recasts the famous novel by giving Renfield a new backstory. Determined to rectify presentations of the character as beholden to Count Dracula and enfeebled, The Blood is the Life: The Origins of Renfield instead asserts his forceful presence and returns agency to this devoted servant by letting him tell his own story.

Working at The Reform Club in London, Renfield is nearby serving drinks when two members discuss visiting Transylvania and the castle of Count Dracula in the Carpathian Mountains and, having established his burly credentials, Renfield volunteers to accompany one of them. Following a brief stopover in Paris, the men arrive to a warm welcome, but as night falls, they fear their host is not what he seems.

Feeney and Baker have created a whole life for Renfield to exist within, detaching him from the Dracula character and imagining a pre-existence in London that, in the spirit of Stoker’s psychological interest in the character, starts to get beneath the surface of his motivation. The atmospheric creation of working life in London, the hints at a fiancée lost to Victorian disease and an innate but casual violence in Renfield’s makeup provide a strong basis for the development of the show and Feeney’s desire to reposition audience perceptions of him.

The Blood is the Life, however, has work to do in structuring the long monologue sections, which often betray its own origins as a multi-character piece reworked for a single actor to perform. Feeney as Renfield performs lengthy sections of conversational dialogue between several characters at once which become a little confusing and overly detailed, making it harder for the audience to track progress through the story. If Feeney and Baker want Renfield to be an unreliable narrator, then there needs to be greater clarity in time, place and speaker to underscore those moments when truth is being rerouted or concealed.

If this is his story, then Renfield has to be the one who speaks by describing the words of others, and ensuring the places where he slips into the dialogue of other characters are more tightly managed. Looking at works like Shirley Valentine, Prima Face and the Death of England trilogy would help with creating a model for text that retains its one-person perspective but mimics or reports dialogue effectively. Similarly, the meat of the story takes place once Renfield and his companion are on the road, so too much preamble only leaves room for a hurried finale in the current iteration. Pacing across the play and ensuring that every scene delivers some insights into Renfield is crucial to both the psychological perspective that the writers are taking and the need to misdirect the audience as truth becomes malleable and then fantastical.

Feeney and Baker perform well as Renfield and guest house attendant Elizabeth, although her sidelined role feels rather redundant, there for a predictable finale. But there is a great deal of potential here, and some further work on the script will achieve the aim of The Blood is the Life: The Origins of Renfield to bring Renfield out of the shadows and into the light – although probably not where a vampire’s assistant will want to be.

Runs until29 September 2024