Airlock Theatre’s rambunctious and raucous Count Dykula is lots of fun at Soho Theatre
“Now it is time for the real bloodbath”
Can you meaningfully critique a show that describes itself as a “gay goth’s wet dream”? I’m not so sure. Airlock Theatre’s Count Dykula arrives at Soho Theatre’s main space with rambunctious humour, a raucous sense of fun and edges that couldn’t be rougher if it tried and yet somehow it really doesn’t matter, such is the magnetism of writer/performers Eleanor Colville, Rosanna Suppa and Robbie Taylor Hunt.
Eschewing the stereotypes perpetrated by the cinematic lowlight that was Lesbian Vampire Killers, Count Dykula is living her butch preying on victims behind the big Asda but tbh, she’s struggling with turning into a bat and it is getting harder to capture ever more savvy humans. Deciding to enrol at Scare University to improve her chances, she’s shocked to find MAGA-ish culture wars are reshaping the very essence of what is being claimed the right way to be a monster.
What follows is an outrageous caper that riffs on all manner of familiar tropes – US high school melodrama, horror film clichés, fringe theatre lo-fi-ness, even a gag nabbed from SNL. From malevolent dean Scarlett Fang to the two-headed dragon that is the head of Administration to disinterested cheerleaders, Dykula has to team up with new besties Zombie, Ghost and Were-Pug to somehow save the day and also sing a song or three.
Taylor Hunt directs with a freedom which is often joyous but just as often chaotic which keeps things ever-close to hilariously bonkers. There’s lots of quick change fun from all three, meta-acknowledgements that there’s more characters than actors for some scenes, up-to-the-moment gags about Nosferatu and sterling work from Meg Narongchai, at once a musician and an integral part of the set design.
You could say the pacing could steady just a little so that some lines aren’t lost, you could say the third quarter comes close to forgetting it is a musical, you could say there’s opportunity for the story to resonate more powerfully as it embraces individuality in anyone in any form. But you’re not really thinking about any of this at the time, such is the entertainment level here.
