VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM
KKT Productions
The Passion of Dracula, an offering from KKT Productions, and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, continuing at the Royal George Theatre Center, offer dramatically different approaches to the death-defying legend. The first takes it deadly seriously, while the second (an equal-opportunity version for women) laughs it into camp. And one sinks while the other soars on its silliness.
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All that remains of the original cast is Alexandra Billings as the younger vampire. (She will occasionally alternate in the role with Jerry Skagerberg). As the innocent 14-year-old who in only a matter of centuries becomes a battered harridan, Billings is, if anything, funnier and more over- the-top than ever. Her timing would be the envy of a rattlesnake, and her wicked, mug-a-minute grimaces–ranging from a pucker-pussed Tallulah Bankhead to an Ann-Margret who’s stolen Joan Crawford’s lips and eyebrows–approach the purity of cartoons.
Here Count Dracula is a romantic archetype, the last of his Hun-descended line (his most notorious relative is “Vlad the Impaler”). This Dracula harks back to a time “when man was one with the creatures of the night”–and we do hear four werewolf howls. His allure remains unmistakably erotic. Driven by the “loneliness of immortality,” he searches for his “bride of darkness”–and instead gets a stake through the heart.
