Abraham "Bram" Stoker was born in Dublin in 1847, the son of a civil servant. He studied at Trinity College where he was a noted athlete and footballer, graduating in Pure Mathematics. He entered the civil service in 1870, working at Dublin Castle. He began writing and also developed his interest in the theatre. He wrote dramatic criticism and developing an admiration for Henry Irving who appointed him business manager at the Lyceum Theatre London in 1878. His first novel, published in 1890, was Snake’s Pass. By far his best known work is Dracula, first published in 1997. It immediately became a best seller and was published in paperback 4 years later.

In 1905, with the death of Henry Irving, Stoker’s post at the Lyceum came to an end. Already a sick man he was forced to make his living from writing alone, particularly journalism. He wrote a series of profiles of prominent British figures for an American newspaper including Arthur Conan Doyle, W.S. Gilbert and Winston Churchill. Churchill (34 years old in 1908) had, until that point refused all requests to be interviewed. He relented in this case of Stoker because Stoker had written Dracula.

Bram Stoker died on 20th April 1912 and was cremated at Golder’s Green Crematorium, where his ashes remain.

The cast

Jessie McPhie
Mina

Toby Moore
Harker/Arthur

Rusty Ashman
Dracula

Mark Overall
Van Helsing

Kate Sanders
Lucy

Stiofan Lanigan-O'Keeffe
Seward

Simon Ramsey
Renfield


John Godber

John Godber was born in 1956, in Upton, West Yorkshire; the son and grandson of miners. He trained as a teacher of drama at Bretton Hall College. Prior to his appointment as Artistic Director of Hull Truck Theatre Company in 1984, he was Head of Drama at Minsthorpe High School, the school he attended as a student. Whilst he was teaching at Minsthorpe he won almost every major award at the National Student Drama Festival between 1981 and 1983. He has also won five Edinburgh Fringe First awards and in 1984 won the Laurence Olivier Comedy of the Year Award for Up'nUnder . His plays are performed across the world. Bouncers was nominated for Comedy of the Year in 1985 and won seven Los Angeles Critics Circles Awards and five awards in Chicago in 1987. On the Piste (1990) was nominated for Comedy of the Year in 1993 and April in Paris (1992) was nominated Comedy of the Year in 1994.

Where is Lucy's tomb?

It is often assumed that Lucy’s tomb would be in Highgate cemetery; there is reference to Lucy’s body being interred in a tomb in a churchyard at ‘Kingstead’. There is no such place, but in the novel, before going to the churchyard, Seward and Van Helsing dine at Jack Straw’s Castle. They return to Hampstead Heath before catching a cab from Spaniard’s (the Spaniard’s Inn on Spaniard’s Lane). It is possible that Kingstead is a fictitious name for Hampstead though the novel gives the distinct impression that the churchyard is ‘out of town’ from the two pubs, possibly putting it in the area now occupied by the Hampstead Garden Suburb.

There is a reference in the novel to the sun rising over Hampstead Hill seen from Lucy’s tomb. There is also reference to a Shooter’s Hill on the side of the Heath where one of Lucy’s juvenile victim’s is found. This would suggest that the tomb is to the West of Hampstead, in the direction of Shoot up Hill, which connects Kilburn to Cricklewood, possibly in the area around Childs Hill or what is now West Hampstead

A recently published book on Haunted Places in Middlesex suggests that the inspiration for the tomb is the Rundell mausoleum in St. Mary’s Church Hendon. Though it is unlikely the sun could be seen rising over Hampstead Hill from there except on the shortest of winter days.

Clearly the tomb was not intended to be in the secular burial ground at Highgate, given the clear references to a churchyard, but more likely (given Stoker’s apparently hazy geography) in a fictitious churchyard, nominally to the West of Hampstead.

Andy Farrer

Rehearsal photos: