Dracula at The Building Stage

Chicago Tribune - Somewhat Recommended

"...Like most of the work at the Building Stage, one of the few Chicago theaters in the West Loop, this is a consistently interesting and progressive piece. Among its assets is a remarkably sensual sound design from David Amaral that features the music of Dmitri Shostakovich. Thanks to surround sound that has the throbbing score coming at you from all directions, it's quite the immersing experience."

Chicago Sun Times - Somewhat Recommended

"...Unfortunately, while the novelty and hypnotic beauty of the show's first 45 or 50 minutes could not be more impressive, the spell begins to wear very thin as the story unwinds in the second act. Ultimately there are just too many neck bites, too many stakes hammered into too many chests, too many transfusions and too many plot turns (blame Stoker for the latter), and the story's creepy repetitiveness becomes draining."

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...The graceful eight-person cast handle the show's self-consciously stagey conventions--speaking sotto voce, then freezing when bits of dialogue appear in supertitles, for instance--with facility and just the right amount of humor, and sound designer David Amaral scores the entire two hour show with an ingenious arrangement of Shostakovich excerpts. While the twist ending falls comparatively flat, the production's rich psychological resonances make for a satisfying evening."

Windy City Times - Recommended

"...Flapping into to West Loop, The Building Stage's version of Dracula is visually appealing and shows that a dialogue-heavy play is not needed to get a message across."

Chicago Stage Review - Not Recommended

"...The wordless mouthing of lines, with occasional overhead subtitles, becomes quickly irritating. It is surprisingly longwinded without dialogue. Although occasionally this style elicits intentional humor, the fleeting relief of the occasional giggle only serves to illustrate just how undecided this production’s motives are."

Time Out Chicago - Somewhat Recommended

"...The signified-by-absence tokens of the vampire—the missing reflection, the bat flitting off into the night—even argue for this written-out-of-his-own-story treatment. But sadly, Montgomery has grafted a stunningly unnecessary groaner of a twist ending onto all this elegance, the equivalent of splicing the last five minutes of Friday the 13th onto Tod Browning’s spectral 1931 film classic. And suddenly you can’t look anyone in the eye and you want to go home."