I am Dracula and I bid you welcome...

Seen by many as the epitome of gothic fiction, Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' has horrified some, inspired others, and entertained many. Although written in 1897, the story has seen new life breathed into it by Sell a Door's theatrical version, based on Liz Lochead's adaptation.

Boasting a wonderful cast, including names such as Louis J. Parker, Matthew Grace and Sophie Holland, the performance is one of raw emotion, conveying an intensity that brings the evil Transylvanian count to life. Yet it is more than simply a piece of artistic brilliance - it is a profound psychological exploration. The charcter of Renfield, powerfully depicted by Kieran Hennigan, provides a constant commentary, as the facade of his insanity proves a cover for alarming insight that ultimately goes unheeded.

'Dracula' is a play based around love, be it sisterly affection, Harker's romantic intentions, or the pure lust of the title character, and it is here that Sell a Door excel themselves. The sincerity in each relationship is evident and acted with such passion that it intensifies the tragedy of the production's conclusion.

Sell a Door's performance will be on at the Greenwich Playhouse in London until December 5th, with tickets available here. A trailer for the production can be seen here

On this day...

As today is, of course, St. Patrick's day, it seems appropriate to have a look at some of the great literature Ireland has produced. Bursting forth with the dual force of playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, Irish literature really found its feet in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Of course there had been notable writers before, such as Jonathan Swift and Oliver Goldsmith, yet none had, or possibly ever will, hit the heights that both Wilde and Shaw achieved. 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', 'Pygmalion', 'Mrs. Warren's Profession' - all caused scandal, reality, shock or acceptance, yet above all, they are alll regarded as some of the finest examples of literature.

Although Wilde did write one novel, Ireland's best prose writers are found in the form of Bram Stoker, creator of 'Dracula', and later modernist James Joyce, whose best known work is 'Ulysses'. Finally, so as not to exclude any genre, Ireland has a history of great poets. William Butler Yeats is arguably the most recognisable, courtesy of such works of 'The Tower'. Yet, of course, Ireland still has a poet very much in the spotlight, in Seamus Heaney, creator of such collections as 'The Spirit Level'. Ireland has been the recepient of 4 Nobel Prizes for Literature, and can boast about having one of the oldest literary traditions, after Greek and Latin.

Murder, monsters and Austen?...

The gothic genre, is one which has had both popularity and longevity, and boasts many of today's best known novels. A combination of horror and romance, it is thought to have been started by Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' in 1764 and has grown prolifically since, with key eras of notable contribution. Coleridge's 'Christabel' and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' as well as Shelley's 'Frankenstein' are all examples of gothic literature from the Romantic period; yet arguably, it was the Victorian era which proved the most productive for the genre. Titles such as Stevenson's 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde', Wilde's 'The Picture if Dorian Gray', and Stoker's 'Dracula' all found their conception in Victorian society; America having its own star in Edgar Allan Poe. Despite it huge popularity, gothic fiction has also produced numerous satires, the famous of which is Austen's 'Northanger Abbey'. A quiz on the gothic genre can be found here

On this day...

Irish novelist Bram Stoker was born in 1847. Although bed-ridden until the age of seven due to illness, Stoker excelled in both athletics and academia; attending Trinty College, Dublin at the same time as Oscar Wilde. He started his career as the theatre critic for the 'Dublin Evening Mail' whilst still a student, and consequently met actor Henry Irving, to whom he became personal assistant. Irving then granted Stoker the position of managing the Lyceum Theatre, and so he moved to London with his new wife Florence Balcombe, a previous object of Wilde's attentions. In this post Stoker got to travel the world, twice visiting the Whitehouse, and meeting both Theodore Roosevelt and his literary hero Walt Whitman. Stoker is best known for his novel 'Dracula', published in 1897. Now part of popular culture, it is written in epistolary form, drawing on the experience gained whilst working in the newspaper industry. Stoker died in 1912, at the age of 64.