4/5

If you think you’ve had a tough day at the office, spare a thought for Jonathan Harker.

The lawyer is first locked in a room in Count Dracula’s castle. He then spots the count scaling head first down the side of the Tim Burton-inspired building and then, to cap it all, he’s seduced by three brides who could have stepped straight out of a Sisters of Mercy video.

These opening scenes perfectly capture the tone of Northern Ballet’s uber-Gothic revival of Dracula, replete with diaphanous fabrics and choral music. They neatly represent the production’s dichotomies — life, death, good, evil — and the space in between.

Those contradictions are at the heart of the production’s key scenes. They’re present in the struggle to save the life of the already living-dead Lucy Westenra (Pippa Moore), presented in photographic stills separated by blackouts, and in the tension between Dracula (Tobias Batley) and Mina Murray (Martha Leebolt) when they sensuously duet. It is a show not short on memorable scenes such as this. 

Where the company’s recent productions of Cleopatra and The Great Gatsby have put style over substance, Dracula is awash with moments that capture the audience’s imagination.

That’s aided by Ali Allen’s stunning set designs and choreographer David Nixon’s costumes. 

They enhance the staging, as when Renfield (Kevin Poeung), a lunatic whose broken movements echo his broken mind, descends from the ceiling in a metal cage and sinister pantomime horses with glowing red eyes canter over billowing dry ice.

These full-blooded moments of theatre-led ballet are enough to completely seduce the audience — there’s plenty to sink their teeth into.

Susan Darlington