“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own free will!”
From the forgotten depths something truly awful is coming. Lurking in the shadows is your worst nightmare. A parasite, a monster, a woman.
This is no ordinary adaptation.
Joanna Holden is getting on. The roles are drying up and so is her skin. After too long in the shadows she’s coming to claim what is hers. One of literatures greatest monsters as you’ve never seen it before.
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| Jack Kelly and Joanna Holden. Photo by Henry Maynard. |
Longtime collaborators Joanna Holden and OftheJackel are fusing their significant experience in physical comedy and clown (Cirque De Soleil, Clowns Without Borders…) with Joanna’s lived experience of the menopause and society’s treatment of ageing women. From this unholy marriage springs something truly terrifying. A raucous retelling of Bram Stokers famous tale full of blood, rage and humour.
We caught up with Joanna Holden to learn more about the piece.
What can you tell me about Countess Dracula?
Countess Dracula brings together several elements: Bram Stoker’s novel, my experiences of the menopause, and what it’s like to be a performer at this stage of my life. We have taken all these elements and stirred them into a heady mix with moments of laughter, tears and rage.
What inspired you to create this piece?
Sitting on the tube, seeing vibrant young men full of life and thinking I want to drink their blood to have their testosterone and get my libido back. That was the jumping-off point. Then the more we dug into Dracula the novel, the more we found all of these parallels between the way society treats mythical monsters and ageing women.
How do you approach bringing your own vision to the piece?
We devised this show, which involved a lot of play and improvisation. It was a balancing act between using the novel but not getting too tied to it. We weren’t setting out to do a faithful adaptation, but we also didn’t want to lose some of the great stuff that is in the novel.
You bring in the themes of a woman dealing with the menopause. How does that help shape your version of the story?
Well, that’s me. I am a menopausal woman, so I live with it every day. My life currently is viewed from that perspective, and once you allow yourself to see it, there is lots to be found. It is rich territory. There is a lot dramatically. My experience of menopause, and from what I know many other women’s too, has it all: highs, lows, laughter, tears, rage. It’s all there if you take the time to look.
How have you blended the themes together within the show?
That has happened somewhat organically. We have kind of let them find each other. We didn’t try to force it, just stayed attuned to the different themes and tried our best not to lose sight of them. It’s a big territory we are dealing with. We have tried not to be too prescriptive or create a cliché of what menopause is. By avoiding literal representations, hopefully we create space for everyone to see something that resonates.
How did the collaboration with OftheJackel begin, and how has the process of working on this show together been?
I have worked with Jack and OftheJackel on a number of their other shows, so we have an established working relationship, although this time it’s a bit different as I have a personal investment in this piece as it is informed by my own experiences. It was whilst working on OftheJackel’s show Plant that we started having conversations about Dracula. Jack seemed to get very excited at the mention of it as an idea, and he went off and started pulling bits together.
What research did you have to do whilst developing the show and the ideas?
Not a lot. I just lived it! We have run workshops with women with lived experience of the menopause. It was wonderful to share a space with them and to hear their stories. Those first-hand accounts, that have a lot of similarities and yet are incredibly diverse, have had a big impact on the show. We have tried to keep the spirit of those women present in the room as we made the show.
What was the first piece of theatre you remember having a big impact on you?
The local dance school would put on a show every Christmas. My grandma would get tickets to the Scunthorpe Civic, now called the Plowright (thank you, Joan). They did Sleeping Beauty, and the young woman dancing and playing the witch was brilliant and terrifying. I was transported as if from my seat onto the stage and saw the show through her eyes. I was hooked!
What keeps you inspired?
The women we have met in the making of this show and the fantastic creative team who have helped bring this show to life. That there seems to be a growing desire to talk about this subject, and it feels like whilst it’s moving slowly, too slowly, things are gradually starting to change. There is hope. Oh, and my mum and all the women who went through this before us.
What would you hope someone takes away from seeing Countess Dracula?
The idea that there are many stages we go through in life, and they are all there to teach us something. We put an emphasis on youth and coming of age, but the experiences we have as we get older have the potential to be just as formative and joyful. Ageing is a process, as is menopause. Change is an important part of life. As the poet David Whyte says, we are as humans more often close to something than we are arriving. Life is a journey, not a destination.
Countess Dracula will run at Camden People’s Theatre from 29 October – 1 November 2025. Tickets are available from https://cptheatre.co.uk/whatson/Countess-Dracula-2025
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