Dracula: a feminist revenge fantasy, really

Kate Hamill drives a stake through the heart of toxic masculinity, and it is funnier than that sounds.

This is not the Dracula you know. Hamill's gender-bending retelling is billed, by her, as a feminist revenge fantasy, and it works as horror and as comedy at once. The question it keeps asking is whether you can tell the monster from the man when your own survival is at stake. Her postmodern wit pulls the familiar story of Victorian vampires apart and rebuilds it as something smart, disquieting and darkly comic.

Directed by Pippa Walton and produced by Lou Okell and Andrés Idrovo, with Lulu DeSalivo as stage manager. The cast is Emma Duffy, Izzy Porter, Larry Weatherspoon, Joseph Roman, Tarah Vega, Melanie Fay, Megan Gorman, Mason Andrew, CJ Palumbo, Daniela Cardarelli and Alexandra Stewart.

Eleven performances. Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm, from 18 September through 10 October. The senior citizen preview was on Thursday 17 September.

What it costs. Reserved seating, $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and students, with group discounts available. Booking runs through Ludus.

Good to know. Brookfield Theatre is an all volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit built around making its work accessible, and the ticket prices reflect that.

Where to go. The theatre is at 184 Whisconier Road in Brookfield, an easy run up from anywhere in lower Fairfield County.