All grows despairing when the Grim Reaper’s sickle is brandished. I fear a battle is eminent against the stranger at death’s door. For Lucy’s fever and her mother’s failing heart portend darker days upon us. Lord grant that we have responded in time.
(Lights fade. Exeunt.)
END OF ACT I
ACT II
Scene Breakdown
1 “An Angel of Mercy”
2 “Hoard of the Flies”
3 “When the Wolfsbane Blooms”
4 “A Seeming Deathbed”
5 “Post Mortem”
6 “It Is The Man Himself!”
7 “Revelations”
8 “Warning and Betrayal”
9 “Suffer the Children”
(10-Minute Intermission)
Scene 1
“An Angel of Mercy”
[Whitby, The Westenra Cottage]
(Lights and low, calm underscore accompanies the entrance of Seward followed by Van Helsing. They are just outside Westenra Cottage.)
SEWARD
…and having said that, Professor Van Helsing, I feel she is in need of some sort of phlebotemal treatment. I couldn’t very well conduct such a procedure without proper council.
VAN HELSING
Not to vorry, my good friend. When I received your telegram, I vas out the door and on my way. The description of the marks upon her neck has me concerned. Did you adorn ze room with garlic as instructed?
SEWARD
Indeed, Sir, we have. Much to the chagrin of everyone concerned I had our nursing staff hang garlands of the stuff all about. We must’ve procured every clove in the area.
VAN HELSING
Goot! I must see her immediately.
SEWARD
Come, Professor. The cottage is this way.
VAN HELSING
You left her alone?
SEWARD
Not entirely. A couple of nurses, her mother, and her dear friend, Mina, keep constant vigil. A footman is nearby and friends just outside the door.
VAN HELSING
Have you procured the instruments I requested?
SEWARD
Yes, a trocar, lancet, sterile needles, and transfusion system.
VAN HELSING
Very goot.
SEWARD
So have you a conjecture?
VAN HELSING
I have, for myself, a thought at present. Later, I shall unfold for you.
SEWARD
Why not now? It may do some good; we might arrive at some immediate correct decision.
VAN HELSING
When the time is right. My friend, Jack. We learn from failure. Not from success. We must get it wrong, before we get it right.
SEWARD
This way, Professor.
(Suddenly Dracula appears. A foggy haze surrounds him as he scales a gable atop Whitby cottage. The vampire waves a hand across the men on the ground. They come to a freeze in mid-conversation. Slow music of suspenseful nature underscores the following.)
DRACULA
A visitor! How quaint. But, beware my presence, Dutchman. I came to England to invade a new land. Where, perhaps, for centuries to come I might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate my lust for blood, spread contagion, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten upon the helpless. My labor has only begun. The measure of leaving my own land, barren of the living, and coming to a new continent where life of man teems till they are as a multitude of standing corn, was the work of centuries. The glimpse I have had of your living world, has only whet my appetite for more, grown my desire. And I am famished. Were another of the Un-Dead, like me, try to do what I have done, not all the centuries of the world would provide sufficient time. And hunters of the vampire? I will not fear you! For I am the Wolf ! Your ‘man-eater’, as they of Gypsy camps call the werewolf, who has at last, tasted blood of the nineteenth century. As for Miss Lucy? I put my disease in her. Infected her with my poison. None of you are safe as long as I reign supreme in the darkness. ‘As flies to wanton boys, I kill you for my sport.’ But I shall never die. I come again, and again, and again.
(Dracula waves his hand, he vanishes and the two men are once again animate. They have no idea they had been rendered into suspended animation. They arrive at the steps of the front door. They encounter Holmwood and Morris.)
VAN HELSING
Gentlemen.
SEWARD
Professor Van Helsing, may I introduce the Honorable Arthur Holmwood, the groom-to-be and son of the Lord Godalming.
VAN HELSING
Sir Holmwood? It is a pleasure.
HOLMWOOD
Please, call me ‘Arthur’.
VAN HELSING
All right,… Arthur.
HOLMWOOD
Thank you for coming.
SEWARD
And this is Mr. Quincey Morris.
MORRIS
How do, Doc?
VAN HELSING
Charming.
SEWARD
Miss Snelling, our nurse.
(Snelling curtsies.)
SEWARD
Mrs. Westenra, the patient’s mother.
(Mrs. Westenra offers her hand.)
MRS. WESTENRA
It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Professor Van Helsing.
VAN HELSING
Madame, the pleasure is all mine.
(He kisses her hand as a gentleman would.)
MRS. WESTENRA
Now, please. See to my Lucy.
(He steps further in)
SEWARD
And this is Nurse Hennessey.
(She curtsies.)
VAN HELSING
Nurse Hennessey.
(He sees Lucy motionless in her bed. He is suddenly alarmed.)
VAN HELSING
Why she’s not even conscious!
SEWARD
I thought I conveyed that to you at the train station!
VAN HELSING
I must’ve misunderstood!
(Van Helsing goes immediately to check her pulse.)
VAN HELSING
It is not too late. Quickly! We’ll need two small glasses. One with vater, the other with brandy. And a small cloth for dipping.
(Van Helsing checks under her eyelids.)
HENNESSEY
Right away, Professor.
SEWARD
What can we do?
VAN HELSING
Her skin needs enrichment. It is parched. If we can daub her regularly with the fluid I suggest, it may help to resuscitate.
(Van Helsing takes his stethoscope and listens to her heart.)
SEWARD
Well?
VAN HELSING
Veak heartbeat. She’ll need an immediate adrynal injection.
(Van Helsing prepares it. At this time Maid Snelling has brought the small glass of water, and Nurse Hennessey brings the small glass of brandy with cloth. Snelling hands the water to Van Helsing. Hennessey holds the glass of brandy close to the patient and it appears she is going to daub Lucy’s skin with the alcohol.)
HENNESSEY
Here’s the glass of Brandy, sir. Shall I dab it on her neck wounds for antiseptic?
VAN HELSING
No, no, no. The vater is for Miss Lucy’s forehead. The brandy is for me.
(Snelling and Hennessey trade places, Van Helsing downs the shot of brandy in one fell swoop. Hennessey goes to daub Lucy’s head with the cool, damp cloth.)
VAN HELSING
I have made a cursory examination and there is no functional cause.
(Van Helsing gives the injection of adrenaline.)
HOLMWOOD
Cursory?! What does th
at mean?!
VAN HELSING
All mysteries are contained in the color of her skin.
SEWARD
What can you glean from that?
VAN HELSING
It is the difference between anemia and jaundice. If the skin pallor is an overall light yellow, we may have an anemic condition. If it is stained or splotchy and present in the eyes, it may be jaundice.
(Van Helsing takes a scalpel from Seward, makes a tiny cut in one of Lucy’s fingers, takes a drop of her blood, and spreads it on a strange herb from his bag. He smells it, breathing in deeply. He folds it into a small square. He then places the packet upon a small burning candle and the thing goes up suddenly in a puff of smoke and fire. The flame startles everyone.)
VAN HELSING
In this case, it is neither. A shortness of bile. Red blood cells and iron are in depletion.
HOLMWOOD
Just look at that! We can’t trust this man with Lucy’s health.
VAN HELSING
Vy? Because I am a philosopher? A metaphysician? I believe in alchemy and ritual?
SEWARD
Arthur, relax. Professor Van Helsing is also a scientist.
VAN HELSING
I vant more garlic in the room!
HOLMWOOD
He’s a madman.
VAN HELSING
Ve are in a phase of spiritual pathology. She must be protected from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact.
HOLMWOOD
A Bloody Witchdoctor!
SEWARD
(To Morris.)
Get him out of here! I’ll not have my friend and mentor insulted!
VAN HELSING
Easy, easy friend Jack. It’s all right. He means no harm and no offense taken. It’s true, my methods are unorthodox to some, completely insane to many. (To Seward.) Vy don’t you go back to your office and rest a while. You’ve been under considerable strain. I’m alright here.
SEWARD
Very well.
(Exits.)
HOLMWOOD
We hardly know this man!
VAN HELSING
There’s time enough later for us to fall in love. Now, if you vill all follow my exact instructions. We’ll begin with a blood transfusion of her entire circulatory system.
(Van Helsing begins to set up the instruments and transfusion contraption.)
MORRIS
What are those things?
VAN HESLING
This is the ghastly paraphernalia of our trade. Standard equipment, Mr. Morris. Now, a brave man’s blood is the best thing on this earth vhen a woman is in trouble. You’re a man and no mistake. Vell, the Devil may work against us for all he’s worth, but God sends us men when we need them.
(Van Helsing holds up a hypodermic needle with a long tube connected to it. He rubs alcohol with a cotton ball over the needle.)
Mr. Holmwood, rest easy. It’s Lucy must receive the pinprick. Not you.
HOLMWOOD
What can I do? Tell me, and I shall do it. My life is hers. But since, as you said, you’ll not be needing to stick that thing in me,… just know that I’d gladly do it. I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her.
VAN HELSING
The last drop? Really?
MORRIS
That’s what he said.
VAN HELSING
(To Holmwood.)
Roll up your sleeve.
HOLMWOOD
What?!
VAN HELSING
Blood transfusion. Now!
HOLMWOOD
I thought you said…
VAN HELSING
I lied. Roll up your sleeve. I did say ‘a brave man’, yes, that’s true. But you’ll do. Now give us a vein!
(By this point Van Helsing has already placed one end of the tube with needle in Lucy’s arm, and now after a brief swabbing of alcohol, does the same into Holmwood’s arm. It is quick.)
VAN HELSING
He is so young and strong and of blood so pure that we need not defribinate it. Science, Mr. Holmwood.
HOLMWOOD
More like science fiction.
VAN HELSING
Young man, I am a purveyor of the ‘healing craft’. Not just medicine, but the harnessed energies of mother earth, the cosmos, the universe. (Finishes with insertion of transfusion tubes.) There, that should do it.
(Enter Hawkins.)
HAWKINS
Professor Van Helsing?
VAN HELSING
Ja? Vat is it, young man?
HAWKINS
I’m Hawkins. The Westenra’s footman. May I have a word in private, Sir?
VAN HELSING
For a moment, certainly. (To Holmwood) Careful not to jostle the transfusion tubes.
(They cross away from the others in order to have a private conversation. Hawkins removes a telegram from his waistcoat.)
VAN HELSING
Now, vat can I do for you, good Mr. Hawkins?
HAWKINS
It’s a telegram, sir. It was wired into Dr. Seward’s office just half an hour ago. He said to deliver it to you and let you decide what’s to be done. Addressed to “The Honorable Arthur Holmwood”, hereafter “The Lord Godalming”.
VAN HELSING
Vat? Let me read that. Mein Gott! His father has died. Arthur is now the Lord Godalming. Inheritor of his father’s estate and title.
HAWKINS
Dr. Seward felt that you may not want him to receive the news at this time.
VAN HELSING
Jack Seward is prudent. Keep this confidential. I will inform Arthur later this evening. It is certain he will desire a train post-haste to make his father’s funeral. He’ll be away for several days. Have Seward’s office arrange the travel fare.
HAWKINS
Yes, Professor.
(Hawkins exits, Van Helsing pockets the telegram and crosses back to those tending on Lucy.)
VAN HELSING
Arthur, gently carry Lucille to the water closet. There the nurses will give her a cool bath to lower her temperature. Now everyone! To your work!
(Suspenseful music in as everyone exits and lights fade on the boudoir.)
VAN HELSING
With such advancement comes such sorrow.
[END OF SCENE]
Scene 2
“Hoard of the Flies”
[Whitby Asylum]
(Enter Dr. Seward and Waites Simmons who is carrying an empty canary cage.)
SEWARD
What is it, Simmons?
SIMMONS
My canary, Guvna. She’s been missing from her cage since sun-up. I’ve me suspicion, but I’ll be dogged if I can reckon out how that loony bugger escaped from his cell.
SEWARD
All right, Mr. Simmons. Bring him here. We’ll inquire as to the whereabouts of your bird and see if we can sort this out.
SIMMONS
Right then, Guvna. All right, now, Mr. Renfield. Come along. Dr. Seward would like to have a word with you.
(Simmons pulls Renfield out of his cell.)
SEWARD
Mr. Renfield, it has come to my attention that Mr. Waites Simmons’ pet bird has gone missing from its cage. What do you know about this?
(Renfield simply shrugs, but says nothing as his mouth is full.)
SEWARD
Speak up, Mr. Renfield. Do you know anything regarding the whereabouts of Mr. Simmons canary? Come on, man. Out with it!
(At this, Renfield can retain his silence no longer as he had been holding his breath from the start. He chokes and blows a flurry of yellow feathers out of his mouth. They float to the floor like a bizarre snow of flaxen.)
RENFIELD
&nbs
p; No, good Doctor. Renfield wouldn’t know what happened to the little critter.
SIMMONS
Blimey… He ate my canary!
SEWARD
MR. RENFIELD!!! You ate Mr. Simmons’ canary? How could you do it?
RENFIELD
With a tablespoon of malt vinegar and a pinch of salt.
SEWARD
I wasn’t asking how you prepared the meal. I meant, how could you ingest a poor man’s pet?
RENFIELD
Woke up with a craving for fowl, I suppose.
SIMMONS
How dare you!
(The sound of thousands of flies eases in.)
RENFIELD
Do you hear that, Doctor? That unmistakable noise?
SEWARD
Nothing but the sound of a few flies.
RENFIELD
Hoards of buzzing blowflies.
(Renfield produces a large jar packed with blowflies.)
RENFIELD
That’s the dinner bell. Renfield is reaping quite a harvest of them.
SIMMONS
Why there must be a million of ’em!
RENFIELD
I once knew a little boy who put so many flies in a bottle that they had no room but to die.
SIMMONS
You can’t eat all those!
RENFIELD
I don’t intend to, Mr. Simmons. Renfield’s going to fatten them up, feed them to a colony of spiders, who when bloated like molasses-filled balloons will burst betwixt his bites like ripened plums. Then he’ll feast and he’ll feast, and he’ll feast!… Doctor, won’t you be very good to Renfield and let him have more cubes of sugar? It would do him good.
SIMMONS
And the flies?
RENFIELD
Aye! The flies enjoy it, too! And Renfield fancies the flies. Ergo, Renfield delights in the sweetness.
SEWARD
Very well. I shall procure you a double supply of lumps and leave you as happy man as, I suppose, any in the world. Would that I could fathom your mind.
RENFIELD
To do that, ‘oh learned one’, you would need to carve open my pate like a pumpkin. You would drive into this melancholy melon, cut open a doorway, then skittle inside like a tarantula. But then, irony of ironies, you’d no longer be the examiner. You would be cursed by madness from within. Would you suffocate, Doctor Seward, within the walls of this skull? Or would you, like the very larvae infecting said grey matter, thrive?
(Seward opens his mouth to reply but cannot find an appropriate response.)
Dracula of Transylvania: The Epic Play in Three Acts Page 7