Dracula is a story that’s pretty easy to parody. The original story is laid out in such a way that you can pick and choose scenes to poke great fun out of. Gagula takes Bram Stoker’s famous horror story and turns it into a panto suitable for teens and adults. It also turns Dracula into Countess Gagula, the panto vampire.
This is essentially a camped-up version of Dracula, for grown-ups. With sock-puppets, ridiculous monsters and an over-the-top version of Van Helsing, we get in early with the panto style call-outs and high camp silliness. Everyone on the stage is having a tonne of fun, and that’s essential for a panto because fun is the thing that draws the audience in and gets them to buy into the idea.
Gagula introduces us to the world of the Fun-Dead. Panto Vampires will turn the world into an arts-funded panto-fest, unless we stop them. Wackiness ensues, and if you listen carefully, you can hear Bram Stoker rolling in his grave fast enough to generate electricity.
This is a very silly, very fun show that we would be delighted to see done at horror conventions and goth weekends. It is very much an early proof of concept however; the version STARBURST saw was rough round the edges and needed a lot more polish but that will hopefully come in time; the fringe is a place for beginnings, after all.
Gagula also shows us how easy it would be to do a Muppet version of Dracula. The scary bits in Dracula are pretty easy to tone down, and the main characters are pretty much outrageous stereotypes to begin with. Gagula also underlines the fact that the main character in Dracula is Dracula, and that means if they ever do make a muppet version, that lead could not be a muppet. ( Which is bad news for Count von Count, but we digress.)
Gagula is a tonne of fun; Dracula panto is a brilliant idea. Go hunting for it if you can.
