Dracula dans la forteresse de Cluis-Dessous

In the fortress of Cluis-Dessous, an old beautiful ruin, the amateur theatre group - or association - called Le Manteau d'Arlequin, staged the classical story about the blood sucking Dracula, first and foremost known through the book by Bram Stoker.

Briefly about the group: They were founded in 1920 under the name of Société Musicale et Lyrique, changed the name to le Cercle Lyrique before taking the name they now use.

They have won several competitions for amateur theatre groups, held in Montluçon and Vichy.

The performance of the evening kept itself very much to the book by Stoker but it also had references to the film by Francis Ford Coppola, who in turn is very loyal to the original book.
The night and all its shadows and the castle ruins, of course created an ambience worthy the content.
No microphones were used wherefore the actors sometimes had to spek out more loudly than the situation demanded, taking in to consideration the content of the story.
On the other hand music interleaved the change of scenes and prerecorded sound was used in a very comic way. E.g. when someone dropped a cup the sound was amplified making it sound as if a whole store of porcelains were knocked about.
On the whole a well staged performance ending at one o'clock in the night.

I apologize for the bad quality of the photos, taken with an iPhone without zoom.


























































(Photo poster copied from: http://a34.idata.over-blog.com/314x500/2/79/27/64/FINAL-AFFICHE-DRACULA-4.jpg)