WA Ballet returns to His Majesty’s with encore production of deliciously dark Dracula

Dracula

WA Ballet

His Majesty’s Theatre

4.5 stars

When WA Ballet debuted its world premiere of Dracula in 2018, it was love at first bite.

So popular was the season that artistic director Aurelien Scannella chose to present an encore of the work two years later — until COVID-19 threw the arts sector into disarray.

The company was forced off stage and worked on delivering virtual content until its home base of His Majesty’s Theatre was allowed to throw open its grand doors once more.

With restrictions easing, that time came just when Dracula was due to dance again.

It must have been a strange sight for the performers to view an audience at half capacity due to social distancing requirements on opening night, but they offered the same heart and soul seen in the original production — and the first major Australian ballet back on show.

Those who fell under the spell of the 2018 version will be delighted to know that only minor cast changes have occurred.

Otherwise, it feels it hasn’t aged a day — unlike Scannella’s haunting portrayal of the crumbling Old Dracula.

He came out of a decade-long retirement to take on the role, which is interchanged sublimely with Matthew Lehmann as Young Dracula.

The way the duo harmonise is a very clever trick to communicate the narrative of a heartbroken hero who drowns his sorrows in human flesh.

It is one of many devices used by choreographer Krzysztof Pastor, whose contemporary sequences are bewitching.

The bedroom scene with lawyer Jonathan Harker (Oscar Valdes), who visits Transylvania to finalise a land sale, and Dracula’s three vampire wives seemed even more sensuous this time around, and a trip to the mental asylum where straight jackets were tangled in impeccable timing was grin-enducing.

Deliciously Gothic, the production further deepens the age-old myth and marks an enchanting return for WA Ballet.

Dracula is on until September 26 (all dates sold out).