Defunkt Theatre’s current show is a workshop production of
playwright Anne Washburn’s The Communist Dracula Pageant, which
takes place during the 1989 Romanian Revolution and focuses on the
trial of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, who had ruled Romania for the
previous 40 years. The couple was seized during a military coup, and
eventually executed for genocide.
This is no straight historical reproduction, although most of it is
based on fact: The proceedings are hosted by Vlad Tepes (played with
lumbering enthusiasm by Kenichi Hillis), “the original Dracula.” He
guides the audience through a tight little show that concerns itself
with the way that political reality is constructed and manipulated. As
Washburn put it over email, “It really was the first revolution to be
televised.”
Washburn’s own ability to construct and manipulate is on display
here too, in a tightly wound script that teeters between outlandish
comedy and probing political commentary. (The show also contains the
single best use of cue cards that I’ve ever seen.)
I asked Washburn to share some thoughts on why she found the
Romanian Revolution interesting enough to set a show there.
“I was interested in what a puzzle the Romanian Revolution
was. After it ended, the question really remained—was it a
real revolution, or an opportunistic coup? The events of those few
days were fueled by an aching desire for change… but when the dust
settled, essentially the same system was in power and to this day the
trajectory of events and responsibility is unclear. I was fascinated by
the degree to which it was fueled by both manipulated and free-floating
rumors, and more than anything by images on TV which impelled people to
conclusions and then actions.”
Defunkt conveys these themes adeptly—it helps that the
ensemble has some serious comedic timing; mining laughs from even the
script’s more obtuse moments. It’s a sharp, engaging show from the pen
of an acclaimed playwright—Washburn will be in town this weekend
to participate in audience talk-balks, so if you’ve got any interest
whatsoever in contemporary theater, you might want to be in that
audience.
