Skip to main content
Advertise with the Morning Star
Dracula, Leeds Playhouse
Northern Ballet's take on the vampiric legend is a gothic feast
Gothic feast: Dracula [Emma Kauldhar]

HALLOWEEN treats don't get much better than Northern Ballet's revival of 2005's Dracula.

Choreographer and director David Nixon has creatively reinterpreted selected scenes rather than giving a faithful adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel and this largely works in the production's favour, making it a boldly signposted and sumptuous gothic feast.

The amount of black velvet on stage, whether as swirling capes or piles of earth, is enough to dress a small army — Ali Allen's set design, especially the curling metalwork and cobwebs in the cemetery, is a Tim Burton dream brought to life.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
The Twat Union in full swing
Culture / 8 April 2025
8 April 2025
MIK SABIERS enjoys the theatrical feminist six piece who have a lot of fun that the audience feeds off as the set rolls on
DANGEROUS LIASONS: Dominique Larose and Joseph Taylor in Jan
Ballet Review / 17 March 2025
17 March 2025
SUSAN DARLINGTON applauds the translation of Jane Eyre into a ballet that preserves the drama of her formative years
Jonathan Hanks in A Christmas Carol
Theatre Review / 23 December 2024
23 December 2024
SUSAN DARLINGTON enjoys, with minor reservations, the Northern Ballet’s revival of its 1992 classic
CONSTRUCTIVISM FOR KIDS: Ballet Shoes at the National Theatr
Theatre Review / 9 December 2024
9 December 2024
PETER MASON is moved by a striking production of Noel Streatfeild’s enduringly popular children’s book