The latest incarnation of the Renaissance Theatre Company‘s “Nosferatu” is a big deal. First of all, there’s the number of performers: 30 are pictured in the playbill. Add to that the musicians in the band and the entertainment in the accompanying bar experience, and you have what must be one of the biggest casts around.
Then there’s the space itself. The Ren’s converted warehouse near Orlando’s Loch Haven Park is large — but it has never seemed this large. Wandering through the hallways and astonishingly decorated rooms, I realized multiple times I had no idea where I actually was in the building.
“Nosferatu” is a show built for spectacle, and on that level, it succeeds. It’s a living, breathing embodiment of the theatrical arts in which, as it happens, nearly every character is undead.
This is the third version of “Nosferatu” to be staged at the Ren, and it is completely different from previous iterations. There are similarities in design: the careful creation of atmosphere, the feeling of decadence, the choreography by Kathleen Wessel that provides thrills and chills, sometimes at the same time. And, of course, the sexy vamps.
Keeping with the “go big” theme, the show opens at a grand banquet table, the length of which hasn’t been seen since Belle and Beast sat down to soup. A vampire (Blake Aburn, in classic breathy voice and vaguely British accent) gives a history of the species to a quivering mortal (Adonis Perez-Escobar, appropriately terrified), including references to Vlad the Impaler, Count Dracula and others.
Later, the action moves into a ballroom, but Mrs. Potts is nowhere to be found. Instead, it turns out, this night is all about whether the vampires should make a covenant with humans to live alongside them and explore connection and love — or just savagely rule over them and use them for meals.
I may have glossed over some finer points because I was just too distracted by the beauty all around me — a feeling that would only increase as we patrons explored the rest of the venue before reassembling for the grand finale.
Your investment in the story line will depend on how much you care about vampire lore (me, not so much) but the plot is really just an excuse to admire the theater arts of scenic, lighting and costume design while appreciating how much emotion music brings to an experience and acknowledging the power of dance to stir deep feelings in us: Unease and awe being two of them.
Matt Lynx and Jason M. Bailey composed the original music, which builds disquietingly like a pounding heart and opens up into orgiastic abandon. (Vampires are insatiable in many ways, after all.)
Philip Lupo’s lighting and the set design by Lupo, Aburn, Donald Rupe and Joey Coombs combine to create a world both expansive and claustrophobic. A crypt, a conservatory, a creepy child’s bedroom (that featured an exhilarating dance in and on the top rails of a wooden crib) … all feel “real” in the best horror-story way.
And the handsome sets are dressed from the playbook of New York’s famed “Sleep No More,” with an attention to detail that keeps the eye moving.
As director, Rupe knows how to use his performers to create a mood. Hooded figures silently line the banquet table in rhythmic movement. Later, a horde of vampires, backlit and descending a towering staircase in lockstep, draws deserved applause just for the sheer theatricality of the moment.
That’s merely one striking scene in a bloody good feast of theatrical fun.
‘Nosferatu’
- Length: 90 minutes, no intermission
- Age note: Patrons must be 18 or older; show contains full nudity
- Where: Renaissance Theatre, 415 E. Princeton St. in Orlando
- When: Through Nov. 5
- Cost: $50 show only, with packages including admission to the after-hours VBar and a $120 VIP experience including reserved seating, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Group discounts and a limited number of $10 released at noon the day before each performance
- Info: rentheatre.com/nosferatu
Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more arts news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/arts, and go to orlandosentinel.com/theater for theater news and reviews.
