Hey Blog! This week we\u2019re going mystical and even some undead! Welcome to a blog with vampires attached!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The supposed original vampire was the famous Count Dracula, the titular villain of Bram Stoker\u2019s novel Dracula<\/em>. This was a dark character, who slept in a coffin full of Transylvanian earth, drank people\u2019s blood, forced others to drink his blood, and tried to turn people into other vampires. Horror? Dark? Gothic? Yup, all three! However, this wasn\u2019t the first ever vampire to set foot on the world stage \u2013 vampiric tales had been going around for many years before ever this undead nobleman got into literature, but Stoker was the first one to properly lay out the rules of vampires \u2013 aversion to sunlight, shapeshifting, blood-sucking, telepathic control, terror of religiously blessed items, connection to bats, and some connection to the devil. Though vampires had curses, dark magic, and great strength, a few things \u2013 crosses, garlic, sacred bullets, maybe some mountain ash (otherwise known as Rowan, this is my wand wood; see post Wild Woods and Wands, Feb 22) and a stake through the heart, would all weaken their powers\/kill them. However, this is not a book review, and instead, it\u2019s about a play!<\/p>\n\n\n\n This play was a spoof of Dracula, by the Ambergate Players, called The Vampire Strikes Back<\/em>. We went with a friend\u2019s family, as they also wanted to come. It was in the traditional panto theme \u2013 loads of jokes, funny lines, and a totally different plotline to the original. This was all about the treasure of Vlad the Impaler \u2013 the supposed Dracula from the novel, though this has never been confirmed \u2013 and his descendants, vampires every one, and their hunt for the treasure! Not only that, \u201cthe most powerful of them all was Count Dracula\u201d, who wanted to find the three keys to open the treasure box. These keys alone would open the box and give Dracula the wealth he so craved. As usual in pantos, there were silly lines and jokes, e.g., rhyming lines such as mistaking \u201cempire\u201d or \u201chigher\u201d for \u201cvampire\u201d; or being attacked by a bat \u2013 a cricket bat! The plot was that Dracula had been terrorising the local village, attacking people with cricket bats, hypnotism, and blood loss (sucking out their blood), and the heroine Sapphi (and her \u201crapid vampire hamperer\u201d weapon) was trying to confirm it was actually Dracula, so she could attack him. The interval had the As for whether it all came right in the end \u2013 well, I can\u2019t say \u201cread the book\u201d (I haven\u2019t actually read Dracula, but I might one day), so Yes, it did. Thankfully at noon sunlight shone down the chimney, and the characters were able to use a mirror to reflect it back onto Dracula. But he wasn\u2019t gone forever \u2013 as this panto was The Vampire Strikes Back<\/em>, could it be Return Of The Sapphi<\/em> next? (See Star Wars Titles The Empire Strikes Back<\/em> and Return of the Jedi<\/em> for where I got this idea from). Anyway, if the players do another next year, I will probably go!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hey Blog! This week we\u2019re going mystical and even some undead! Welcome to a blog with vampires attached! The supposed original vampire was the famous Count Dracula, the titular villain of Bram Stoker\u2019s novel Dracula. This was a dark character, who slept in a coffin full of Transylvanian earth, drank people\u2019s blood, forced others to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-ed-in-a-shed-2"],"yoast_head":"\nbest bit of the evening<\/s> cake (rocky road for me) and drinks, as in all the best performances!<\/p>\n\n\n\n