2021 Bray God'sMadmen With Synopsis

God’s Madmen
(or, Time without the Devil)
By
John Patrick Bray
Inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Run time: 75 minutes
Contact:
JohnPatrickBray@gmail.com
Characters:
Harker, 20’s
Seward, 30’s
Mina, 20’s
Lucy, late teens/early 20’s
Countess, youthful in appearance, but quite old
Renfield, 40’s
Captain, 40’s
Mate, 30’s
Van Helsing, 50’s
Suggested doubling: The actor playing Renfield can also play Mate and Van Helsing
(suggested in the script.) The actor playing Seward can play the Captain. The actor
playing Lucy can play Countess. Cast size: 5 (3M, 2W)
Notes: The play is written without an act break and should be presented as minimal as
possible, relying on an easel and boards to suggest changes in time and location (think
“Victorian Music Hall”).
Synopsis:
What if there was a Dracula story in which Dracula…never showed up? What if fear and
paranoia drove the residents of Seward’s asylum to perform unspeakable acts –
bloodletting; sexual infidelity; gender-confusion; without ever actually seeing the Prince
of Darkness? Using Bram Stoker’s novel as a starting point, God’s Madmen examines the
ways in which each act of communication contains beginnings and the hope of a happy
ending – and the seeds of that hope’s destruction.
Production History:
God’s Madmen has had workshop productions or staged readings with Rose of Athens
Theatre (2012), Acadiana Repertory Theatre (2013), and 5th Wall Productions (2016) in
the US.
Louis Jordan is my favorite Dracula. Followed by Lugosi.
Bray-God’s Madmen-1
(LIGHTS UP on a placard on an easel. “God’s Madmen.” SEWARD enters, dusts the

sign. Looks at audience. He exits. LIGHTS CHANGE. A catacomb. HARKER sits up. He
is dressed in yesterday’s clothes. He appears to be lost in a dream. He looks around.)
HARKER
Hello? I say, hello? (Beat.) Sleepwalking again. Count?! I’ve been sleep walking again!
Used to happen to me as a child. My mother would catch me doing laps around the dining
table. This happened once while guests were over, assembled for dinner. I had been sent
to bed early for…I would rather not say what for…and I dreamed. I can’t remember the
dream.
(He looks around, obviously nervous.)
And I walked around the table, guests laughing, pointing. I heard nothing. Can you hear
me, Count?! (Beat.) Blast.
(A rustle. Gentle, blue light fills the room.

COUNTESS enters, in an almost see-
through night dress. She looks as if she is
about to celebrate her honeymoon.)
COUNTESS
Welcome to my house, Come freely. Go safely. And leave some of the happiness you
bring.
HARKER
I am grateful for the sound of another human voice. I get nervous when I’m alone, and I
feel the need to talk. I talk too much. Have you noticed?
COUNTESS
(Beat.) Do you bring happiness?
HARKER
I bring…contracts.
COUNTESS
Oh.
HARKER
I guess they are a form of happiness. The promise of a new life. The hope of a new
tomorrow.
COUNTESS
Are all contracts so full of hope?
HARKER
Surely. The contract of marriage.
COUNTESS
Ha.
HARKER
You don’t believe me?
COUNTESS
I am a wife.
HARKER
Oh?
COUNTESS
His wife.
HARKER
Oh. Well. I have a fiancée, so. We are both hopeful souls.
(COUNTESS gives him a bizarre look.)
Have I mentioned I talk too much?
(She smiles. A moment. She sits with him.)
And he has you down here? Cleaning?
COUNTESS
Cleaning. Sure. Cleaning. Insects. Rats. Children.
HARKER
You have children? You and the count?
COUNTESS
In a manner of speaking. (Beat.) So virile for such an old man.
HARKER
No, I didn’t mean to –
COUNTESS
I need to be happy.
HARKER
Yes.
(She puts her feet in his lap. He reacts.)
HARKER
Cold!
COUNTESS
Very cold. Warm them?
HARKER
Miss…I mean, Mrs. Dracula. Countess?
COUNTESS
Yes?
HARKER
Please. I am to be married.
COUNTESS
And I am married.
(Pause. She kisses him. He moves into it.

She looks at her feet on his crotch.)
HARKER
I say, you’re flexible.
COUNTESS
Feeling warmer.
HARKER
I am. Oh, you mean you. Countess, I –
(Pause. She looks at him. He looks at her. A

trance. He kisses her passionately. She
straddles him, kissing his ear.)
Well, when in Romania.
(He allows himself to be taken. She kisses

his neck. Opens his shirt. She continues to
kiss his neck. He is ecstatic. As she licks his
body. Blood appears across his chest and
stomach. He does not notice.)
Oh, my God.
COUNTESS
See? The catacombs don’t feel so empty now.
HARKER
No, they don’t.
(He looks at her. They are both covered in

his blood. He smiles.)
You’re smiling.
(He affectionately touches her nose leaving

a spot of blood.)
COUNTESS
So are you.
(She affectionately touches his nose, also

leaving a spot of blood.)
HARKER
I never knew I could be so happy…
(She gives him a bloody kiss. They continue

kissing and nipping as LIGHTS CHANGE
to reveal SEWARD’S desk. Note: The
catacombs remain lit. SEWARD sits in his
office with RENFIELD, a lunatic. Another
Note: Seward’s office can be simple: a desk,
a few chairs; a small table with bourbon and
a few shot glasses. There is a coat rack with
SEWARD’S jacket, lab coat, and hat. He
also has a flashy walking stick.)
SEWARD
Am I to believe this?
RENFIELD
I have no reason to lie, sir.
SEWARD
Completely cured.
RENFIELD
That’s right, sir. Completely, sir. And I have you to thank for it, sir.
SEWARD
I see. May I just ask you a few questions?
RENFIELD
Oh, please do.
(SEWARD opens his journal.)
SEWARD
You really don’t mind?
RENFIELD
Not at all, sir. For science.
SEWARD
Good. Well, to begin with…what makes you certain that you’re cured?
RENFIELD
I have no desire to eat bugs. I wish to eat…meat.
SEWARD
Meat?
RENFIELD
Cooked meat.
SEWARD
Cooked? That is an improvement.
RENFIELD
Yes, sir. It is. I miss the taste of flame-licked hamburg. I miss fall-off-the-bone pork.
Chicken. Lamb.
SEWARD
Grasshoppers?
RENFIELD
Grasshoppers?
(SEWARD places a jar in front of

RENFIELD. It contains a large insect.)
RENFIELD
I really am trying to cut back.
SEWARD
What if I cooked it for you?
RENFIELD
(Joking)
Maybe then.
SEWARD
And if I open this jar?
RENFIELD
Please, don’t. They repel me.
SEWARD
Do they?
RENFIELD
Yes, sir. Insects completely repel me.
SEWARD
You were eating them, though. Spiders. Flies.
RENFIELD
Because…I believed they were giving me life.
SEWARD
And now? You don’t believe it anymore?
RENFIELD
Sir. May I speak plainly?
SEWARD
Please do.
RENFIELD
At first, I ate them because I thought…I thought life eternal was to be mine. And I
continued to eat them…because you made me.
SEWARD
Did I?
(RENFIELD nods.)
Does that seem like the sort of thing I’d do?

RENFIELD
Three months ago, I would not have believed it.
SEWARD
What has changed?
(Sound of thunder. RENFIELD reacts.

Distracted.)
RENFIELD
Storm’s coming.
SEWARD
You are asking to leave, yes?
RENFIELD
Yes.
SEWARD
Because you are cured?
(Pause.)
Is there some other reason, Renfield?
RENFIELD
TAKE THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!
(RENFIELD moves away from the

grasshopper jar.)
SEWARD
Why? Don’t you want it?
(SEWARD opens the jar. RENFIELD

catches the grasshopper. An agonizing
moment. RENFIELD returns the
grasshopper to the jar.)
RENFIELD
(Beat.) This is what happens. To all of us who deal in real estate. You end up showing
mansions, houses, apartments, ruins. All covered with vermin. You need to convince the
prospective buyer that their home is clean. No roaches under the sink. No rats in the
cellar. No spiders in the loft. And so you dispose of the bodies in the easiest manner poss.
Make them disappear. Consider all the blood this creature may have inside its little body.
RENFIELD (Contd.)
And, if I eat it…it’s as if it doesn’t exist anymore. But it would, Doctor Jack. Inside me.
And you. Give me. More. Why do you continue to feed me?
SEWARD
(Beat.) Tell me again about the man. The curse of Transylvania.
RENFIELD
No, no, no, no. It was all a dream. It must have been. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have sent
Harker.
SEWARD
Harker?
RENFIELD
Harker. Another clerk. He’s handling the paperwork now. He’ll be dusting the
catacombs.
(RENFIELD shakes the bottle. The

grasshopper reacts.)
Disposing the vermin.
SEWARD
(Beat.) Who told you this?
RENFIELD
Harker’s betrothed.
SEWARD
She visited you?
RENFIELD
Oh, yes. I’ve had plenty of visitors. Guards. Fellow lunatics. Church women. (Beat.)
Please kill me.
SEWARD
Why should I kill you?
RENFIELD
I am already dead.
SEWARD
That’s morbid.
RENFIELD
Dead vermin…I can’t stay here, and you won’t let me leave. Is that right?
SEWARD
I won’t let you leave, that part’s right.
RENFIELD
I think it’s getting closer.
SEWARD
Is it?
RENFIELD
Yes.
SEWARD
Something is coming then? To eat you? Make this house look clean?
(RENFIELD smiles.)
RENFIELD
No. It was all a dream. Harker is there now, isn’t he? All a dream.
SEWARD
Right. All a dream. (Beat.)
RENFIELD
You have bourbon.
SEWARD
Yes. Have you been snooping in my office?
RENFIELD
I would like a bourbon.
SEWARD
Would you? (Beat.) Sure. Let’s both have a bourbon, what do you say?
RENFIELD
As if we are…friends?
(Seward sets up a couple of shots of

bourbon.)
SEWARD
I don’t have any friends. Not really.
RENFIELD
Not even Ms. Lucy?
SEWARD
She. She says I am her true friend.
RENFIELD
Uh-oh.
SEWARD
Like a brother.
RENFIELD
UH-OH.
(Pause.)
SEWARD
It’s the kiss of death.
RENFIELD
I’ve had the kiss of death. It’s far less painful.
SEWARD
(Noticing RENFIELD’S mouth)
Your teeth.
RENFIELD
Filed them.
SEWARD
Why?
RENFIELD
They weren’t working. (Beat.) Let’s drink our whiskey.
(They raise their glasses.)
SEWARD
To life!
RENFIELD
The blood is the life!
SEWARD
Yes.
(SEWARD takes his drink. RENFIELD sets
his down.)
SEWARD (Contd.)
Renfield?
RENFIELD
I’m sorry, Dr. Jack. I’m not staying for the fireworks.
(SEWARD goes limp.)
SEWARD
How did you?
RENFIELD
There’s a nurse who respects me. She’s going to marry me. It’s why I got my teeth all
pretty for her.
(RENFIELD leans in close to SEWARD.

SEWARD struggles against the drug.)
SEWARD
Will you kill me?
RENFIELD
No. Ms. Lucy has done a fine job of that.
(RENFIELD moves his mouth very close to

SEWARD’S neck. Watching SEWARD, he
opens the jar with the large insect.)
I am very good at cleaning up vermin, sir. Very good.
(He forces it into SEWARD’S mouth,

covering it with his hand. A moment. The
grasshopper is down.)
He’s coming, sir. He’s coming. I can feel him, smell him, taste him, he’s coming. I’m not
staying for this. I’m not staying to let you drive me mad.
(RENFIELD stands. He regards

SEWARD’S coat rack. Removes
SEWARD’S jacket and hat. RENFIELD
stands as if he’s respectable. Society. This is
a pre-Dracula RENFIELD, though
something still seems off. He turns to
SEWARD and smiles.)
RENFIELD (Contd.)
See you, Jack.
(RENFIELD exits.)
SEWARD
(Weakly)
Bye…
(LIGHTS CHANGE. Next placard: “At
Sea.”.)
(DARKNESS. The Sound of a storm.

LIGHTS FLASH, revealing two men on the
deck of a ship. They are pulling ropes.
LIGHTS FLASH several times revealing
them in various stages of struggle with the
storm. MATE is tying CAPTAIN to the
ship’s wheel.)
CAPTAIN
Pull that rope.
MATE
Sir, this is suicide.
CAPTAIN
This boat. Will. Survive.
MATE
A boat is made of wood. Dead wood!
CAPTAIN
LIVE wood! Unpolished, doesn’t splinter when hammered!
MATE
Dead trees, then!
CAPTAIN
They’re serving a more important purpose! PULL THAT ROPE!
MATE
But it’s getting closer.
CAPTAIN
The beast is controlling the storm.
MATE
It can’t be sir. The storm is not an animal!
CAPTAIN
Live wood, storms with a soul! It’s hell on earth -
(CAPTAIN and MATE are thrown. Both

manage to hold on. MATE screams,
CAPTAIN laughs.)
CAPTAIN
Tie yourself to something!
MATE
No, sir. If it’s between the water and the beast, the water’s teeth are kinder.
CAPTAIN
It is between the water and the beast and we will survive this. And kill the beast.
MATE
Crash the ship, sir!
CAPTAIN
What did you say?
MATE
Let her crash! Kill the beast! All on board are lost! We can end this now – take it with us!
CAPTAIN
I WILL NOT LOSE A SHIP!
MATE
Forget your ship, sir! Save mankind!
CAPTAIN
There is no mankind without a ship!
MATE
That – that makes no sense, sir!
CAPTAIN
You are either with the ship, or you are with the beast!
MATE
Sir! No, sir! Listen to reason!
(CAPTAIN withdraws his gun.)
CAPTAIN
THIS IS ALL THE REASON I NEED! Off you go! With a bullet in your hide or in your
head!
MATE
No!!! NO!!!
(MATE leaps away. CAPTAIN fires after

him. The storm gets worse. CAPTAIN
reloads his gun.)
CAPTAIN
Off you go, then. WHERE ARE YOU, BEAST? I HEAR YOU! AS I HEARD BONES
CRUNCHING IN YOUR TEETH! The ecstasy of human blood in your voice. WHERE
ARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELF DEVIL!
(THE STORM stops. LIGHTS are normal.)
There it is then. The eye of the storm. Quiet. Quiet! HAVE WE LOST YOU, BEAST?!
ARE YOU VICTIM TO YOUR OWN TORRENTIAL TIDES?
(A shadow moves across him. He fires. He

tries to reload quickly. THE STORM
resumes. A shadow covers him. LIGHTS
FLASH! Eyes of the beast! He drops the
gun! LIGHTS FLASH! A LOW GROWL!
LIGHTS FLASH! BEAST IS ON HIS
THROAT! SCREAM! STORM REACHES
A CRESCENDO! Sound of waves. The
storm has passed. In the distance, there is a
bell. A lighthouse light moves across the
deck. The captain is dead. LIGHTS
CHANGE. RENFIELD stands under a
special. Placard “Jack has mail.”)
RENFIELD
Doctor Seward. I hope this letter finds you well. There was an alarming lack of police
after me. Which means either you have let me go or I am better at outfoxing you than I
thought poss. Life is good. Out here, in the world. My wife, she understands me. We have
traveled exotic lands, and she finds me…the greatest of crawling creatures. This morning
she surprised me - The Madagascar Hissing Cockroach…drawn butter, pinch of pepper.
No salt. This is what love is, Jack. A wife who feeds you. Can’t leave an address. Don’t
know if anyone is looking for me. So, from the world, I am yours. Renfield.
(SEWARD enters at the end of the speech.

He changes the placard; it now reads “Some
Time Later.” MINA enters. She is striking;
possibly made of stone. COUNTESS
giggles. LIGHTS UP on Catacomb where
HARKER and COUNTESS are in the throes
of carnal pleasure.)
MINA
Thank you for taking him, Dr. Seward.
SEWARD
We do have a reputation.
MINA
Yes.
SEWARD
You say your fiancé –
MINA
Jonathan.
SEWARD
Jonathan. Your fiancé –
MINA
No, not. Maybe. Oh, I don’t know what he is anymore.
SEWARD
Oh?
MINA
He. He has –
SEWARD
Yes?
MINA
My fiancé has been with another woman.
SEWARD
Are you sure?
(HARKER giggles as COUNTESS straddles

him also giggling.)
MINA
He has syphilis.
SEWARD
Syphilis?
(MINA nods.)
Are you sure?
MINA
There are marks all over his body. Strange marks. All over his….
SEWARD
Yes, I understand. Syphilis. And you are sure there are no possible explanations? Any
explanation that would make your husband innocent of your accusations?
(COUNTESS bites HARKER again. He

cries out – in pleasure and in pain.)
MINA
That’s him, Doctor. Out in the hall.
SEWARD
Oh. I see. (Beat.) Have you come in contact with the, urm, open flesh?
(MINA shakes her head no. She is fighting

tears, remaining strong.)
MINA
I haven’t been in contact with his flesh...any flesh. We are engaged. (Beat.) I am…I am
marble. That’s what I hear. Kiss me. You will see that nothing happens. It is my power.
To be unfeeling. Practical. (Beat.) Kiss me.
SEWARD
Cleary you are in shock and need to be humored. (Beat.) Maybe as an academic interest?
(SEWARD approaches her.)
I could write a paper about…ahem…
(He kisses her. She does not react. It is as if

nothing is touching her at all. He steps back.
HARKER holds COUNTESS. LIGHTS
FADE on HARKER and COUNTESS.)
SEWARD (Contd.)
I am utterly convinced. And embarrassed.
MINA
I just feel more…alone. (Beat.) He returned in the hold of a ship. With crates of dirt and
bones. Laughing. Crying. Jonathan has syphilis, doctor. And I need you to help him.
SEWARD
I can make him comfortable, and that is all.
MINA
I see.
SEWARD
Tell me, where was he when he contracted this disease?
MINA
Transylvania.
SEWARD
Transylv…Transylvania?
(MINA nods.)
MINA
I had never heard of it before. I could not even find it on a map, and Jonathan showed it
to me before he left. I believe it’s somewhere near Romania. But it’s as if it does not
actually exist. It just…vanished. From the map. From every map. Consult your globe,
you will see nothing. Not even a shadow.
(Pause.)
SEWARD
What was he doing in Transylvania?
MINA
My fian…my Jon…he…he. He is a clerk. He was bringing deeds
to a Count.
(SEWARD reacts. A moment.)
SEWARD
Do you believe in coincidence?
MINA
Yes.
SEWARD
Oh.
MINA
If you don’t believe in coincidence, then you believe in some divine plan. But I’ve seen it
firsthand, Dr. Seward. The complete absence of God when my parents were taken from
me. Cholera. In India.
SEWARD
You’re wrong, Ms. Mina. There is a God.
MINA
You, a man of science, believe in God? (Beat.) He refuses my prayers, so he might as
well not exist. I’m glad he’s there for you. Oh, how the other half lives.
SEWARD
(Beat.) You talked to a former patient of mine. Mr. Renfield.
MINA
The solicitors sure weren’t going to be seen coming in…here. Somebody had to tell him
Jonathan would be taking over his work. Huh. He says you are the best. Renfield.
SEWARD
Too kind of him.
MINA
Perhaps. Two men sent, two men mad. (Beat.) Former patient, you say. He recovered?
SEWARD
I’m afraid so. I will miss his camaraderie.
MINA
Then perhaps…you can help Jonathan.
(Beat.)
SEWARD
I will admit Jonathan…Mr. Harker…today. You may stay, too. I have a guest room.
MINA
Thank you, doctor. I don’t know if I wish to.
(JONATHAN screams off-stage.)

SEWARD
You cannot hear the sounds of the asylum in there. Please. Take the guest room. And see
Mr. Harker in the morning.
MINA
I don’t know if I want to see him tomorrow. Or any day.
SEWARD
Don’t men deserve a second chance?
(Pause.)
One night. We can both talk to him in the morning.
MINA
Very well, doctor. I will stay for one night.
(She exits. HARKER freezes. COUNTESS

stands and watches SEWARD. SEWARD
falls on his knees.)
SEWARD
Please, God. Bring me Lucy. Bring me Lucy.
(COUNTESS exits. The wind opens the

door and smashes the glass. SEWARD exits.
BLUE LIGHT fills the catacomb. HARKER
sits up, covered in blood. He is alone again.
He looks at the blood. Feels his neck. A
moment of panic. He finds his shirt and puts
it on. COUNTESS enters holding a bundle.)
COUNTESS
We can be a family.
HARKER
Family?
COUNTESS
A real family. See?
(HARKER smiles, and moves weakly and

lifts the sheet on the bundle. His face falls.)
HARKER
Is it alive?
COUNTESS
(Rocking the bundle)
Shh-shhh-shhhh
HARKER
It needs a doctor.
COUNTESS
What it needs is its mother and father together for the sanctity of the home!
HARKER
No! It needs…look, it’s bleeding. Can’t you see it’s bleeding?
COUNTESS
It’s beautiful.
HARKER
Is that what I am? Beautiful?
COUNTESS
I thought you wanted this.
HARKER
Countess, please –
COUNTESS
Aren’t you lonely? Doesn’t this make it…less lonely? (Beat.) I’ve named her. “Hope.”
What do you think?
HARKER
She already had a name. Already had a mother and father. Before you –
COUNTESS
We can give her a better life.
HARKER
I think she’s dead…
COUNTESS
We can give her a BETTER life.
HARKER
Oh my God.
(HARKER looks at the blood on his body.

He looks at the blood on his hands.)
HARKER (Contd.)
Have I been bleeding all this time?
(COUNTESS gives him a severe look.)
What will happen to the child?
COUNTESS
She’ll cross over. She’ll come back. She’ll be raised in the shadows. There are far worse
things than life.
HARKER
I’ve allowed this. All of this.
COUNTESS
Allowed? No, you chose this, Jonathan. Chose this.
HARKER
Please kill me.
(Pause.)
COUNTESS
That is your counter offer to love?
(Pause.)
Very well. I only bade you to leave some of the happiness you bring. (Beat.) You brought
me a contract. Men and their contracts. He is leaving me, little paper-man!
HARKER
Dracula?
COUNTESS
LEAVING ME! After centuries of…the villages…the cities…and then the catacombs.
And now…I am left here with you. A sad surrogate.
HARKER
When does he - ?
COUNTESS
They voyage to the ship at sunrise. Tomorrow night…it’s all over. He is going out and
taking the storm with him! And you want death…
(He nods. She leans near him.)

COUNTESS (Contd.)
This will hurt like hell.
HARKER
I know.
(She bites him. He lets out a scream. He

throws her off.)
COUNTESS
Come to me.
(She raises her hand.)
Come to me.
HARKER
No!
(Pause.)
COUNTESS
No? Did you say…did you say “no?”
(Pause.)
He is gone. Dracula. He is gone.
(She waves her hand a bunch like a

melodramatic magician summoning him to
her. She grows impatient and snaps her
fingers at him like a dog. Pats her lap. Points
at him, and then dramatically at the space
next to her. HARKER watches her.)
Nothing. I have no power over you. It must be sunrise. (Beat.) So, why do you stay?
(Pause. HARKER holds his neck. He stands.

The baby starts to cry. HARKER looks at
the baby. Looks at COUNTESS. A stream
of sunlight pours into the catacomb.
COUNTESS looks at HARKER. She runs
into the sunlight and burns. She does not
scream. A moment, and she is dust.
HARKER watches. He moves to the crying
baby.)
HARKER
We can be a family. (Beat.)
(SEWARD enters behind him. He places the

Captain’s hat and a large journal, which
contains the ship’s log, on his desk.
LIGHTS CHANGE. HARKER takes the
baby bundle and shakes it out; it is merely a
blanket which he wraps around his
shoulders.)
“Come freely, go safely, and leave some of the happiness you bring.” Something she said
to me. I will never forget it.
SEWARD
What happened to the child?
HARKER
I took her to a hospital. I called her Harker. Hope Harker. I almost called her Hope
Murray, but I’m not certain Ms. Murray…Mina, that is…I’m not sure she’d…(approve)
SEWARD
Is that really what happened? You didn’t have to hold the baby in sunlight, or…or eat it?
(HARKER gives SEWARD a severe look.)
It’s not unheard of. (Beat.) And so, you made it to the ship, was brought here unharmed
in one of the worst storms our coast has seen, which killed everyone on board.
HARKER
Yes.
SEWARD
What did you see?
HARKER
Nothing. I dreamed.
SEWARD
What did you dream?
HARKER
I can’t say.
SEWARD
Can’t or won’t?
HARKER
Just talking about it makes it real.
SEWARD
So, tell it to me like a story. A folk tale one might hear in the mountains.
HARKER
Once upon a time, there was a real estate clerk. He entered the castle of a vampire, fled,
made it to a ship where the crew members were all systematically torn to pieces.
Devoured. He himself was spared. Perhaps because the vampire had plans for him later.
Perhaps because the vampire was full. Perhaps because the vampire did not want the
blood of a coward in its body.
(A moment.)
SEWARD
Why do you cut yourself?
HARKER
I am poisoned.
SEWARD
Your betrothed thinks you have….
HARKER
Yes?
(Pause.)
SEWARD
Is your room comfortable?
HARKER
It’s not my room.
SEWARD
Sure it is.
HARKER
It is a place where I am being kept, that in no way makes it mine.
SEWARD
(Beat.) What will you do now?
(Pause. HARKER moves to SEWARD’s

desk. He looks at the Captain’s hat.)
HARKER
Where did you get this?
SEWARD
You recognize it?
HARKER
Yes. It belonged to the Captain.
SEWARD
Yes. You were holding it when Ms. Mina brought you here. (Referencing the journal.)
And the ship’s log.
HARKER
Oh.
(HARKER sets down the Captain’s hat.)
Do I need to stay here?
SEWARD
Yes.
(HARKER reacts.)
We can get to the bottom of what really happened. I’m sure it was something. Something
which caused you to be in such a state. But what? What really happened?
HARKER
What do you propose?
(SEWARD looks at a pocket-watch.)
Hypnosis?
SEWARD
(Regarding the watch)
No. Just seeing the time. (Beat.) My mentor, Dr. Van Helsing, would suggest putting you
in a state of hypnosis. But I do not agree with it. You see, prior to hypnosis was a process
by Franz Mesmer, mesmerism. Mesmerism has to do with energy moving from one body
to another. Think of it as animal magnetism. No, really. Think about those two words,
and what they mean. Magnetic forces between bodies. A movement of energy. With
SEWARD (Contd.)
hypnotism, you would be asleep. With mesmerism, you will be awake. Truly awake. Can
you open yourself to me, Jon?
HARKER
How?
SEWARD
Tell me the story again. Just as you told me.
HARKER
Once upon a time, there lived…or didn’t live…or unlived…I need to be still.
SEWARD
That is impossible. There is too much energy in a living body. You cannot be still.
HARKER
Do the dead possess energy? What can make the dead…move?
SEWARD
There is no energy.
HARKER
Cold. Lifeless thing.
SEWARD
Strings from above. Puppets.
HARKER
No. Nothing up there to make us…
SEWARD
Unliving things are governed by different principles. We are alive.
HARKER
She stands in the light.
(COUNTESS enters, and stands in the blue

light, looking up, almost frozen. There is
music.)
She burns…does she burn? Do I see her burn? She doesn’t…scream…she doesn’t cry.
She should have been named Joan. Like St. Joan. A proper name. Far more proper
than…countess. Wife.
SEWARD
But the child lives.
HARKER
Yes. Not dead. Not undead. She is alive. I…I saved her.
SEWARD
You saved her. Know it. Feel it.
HARKER
But what she has seen. Can she live a normal life?
SEWARD
The child?
HARKER
Mina…what she has seen…why am I seeing Mina?
SEWARD
Animal magnetism….
HARKER
She waits for me…but…she doesn’t wait for me. She stands near me. Doesn’t she know
I’ve returned?
SEWARD
Yes. She knows.
HARKER
She knows. But she does not feel it. What is it when you know something, but cannot feel
it?
SEWARD
That is loss. Sadness. Isolation.
HARKER
I don’t want to know this. I need…I need to not know this.
(THE MUSIC STOPS. LIGHTS CHANGE.

COUNTESS disappears.)
(Beat.) I say, the Count wasn’t very wise, was he?
SEWARD
Was?
(SEWARD sits, and looks at his photo of

LUCY as HARKER speaks.)
HARKER
Or, “is,” I suppose. Consider this: he wishes to buy a plot of land. He calls for a clerk,
they send Renfield. Renfield is driven insane. But he hasn’t finished the paperwork. So,
they call for me. Does his Damndest to drive me mad…I don’t even know if the
paperwork was finished. What does he want? To drive real estate clerks into asylums?
Hardly seems fair!
SEWARD
Will you go mad?
HARKER
Do you want me to?
SEWARD
Yes.
HARKER
Why?
SEWARD
Because I know you feel what I feel. When you look at Mina. When I look at Lucy. I
know you feel it, too.
HARKER
Love is lunacy.
SEWARD
It is…
HARKER
(Beat.) Do you have a straightjacket?
SEWARD
Sure. Closet is full of them.
HARKER
(Beat.) You keep a closet full of straightjackets in your private room?
SEWARD
Why not?
HARKER
Do you want to be restrained?
(A moment. HARKER moves to the closet.

He grabs a straight-jacket. SEWARD stands.
As SEWARD speaks, HARKER puts him in
a straight-jacket.)
SEWARD
We are both a prisoner to something, Harker. Loneliness. Despair. Unfulfilled lust.
Things we know, things we don’t want to know. Knowledge sets us free, but what
happens if we are no longer prisoner? We become nothing. Nothing left to define us. So,
I say, yes, the best thing we can do is be restrained by something.
HARKER
Let me know if I am doing this right.
(HARKER pulls the jacket tighter.)
I can still move my arms. Pull. (Beat.) The two impulses that drive man, says Nietzsche,
that drives all of the arts, are the Apollonian and Dionysian impulses, after the Greeks.
The Apollonian can be located in visual arts, form, structure. Dionysian in music,
something amorphous, maybe even violent. It begins to resonate like a tuning fork, it
never quite disappears, but ripples throughout us. Just as these colliding impulses create
our arts, so do they create our humanity. I am a doctor. You are a clerk. If you are sick,
you wear a straight jacket. If you are well, you wear a starched collar. But inside…the
things that are contained. Can set us free so we can…destroy ourselves. So, we pull the
restraints tighter. Tighter on corsets. Tighter on boots and shoes. Tighter…because if we
let them go a little…
(HARKER is behind SEWARD, his mouth

open near SEWARD’S neck. A moment.)
What are you doing?
HARKER
I…I don’t know.
(SEWARD smiles.)
SEWARD
Good. That’s very good.
(SEWARD kisses HARKER. HARKER

kisses him back, and slowly backs away.)
HARKER
I should…
SEWARD
You should what?
(HARKER takes the restraints off of

SEWARD.)
What can you tell me of Renfield?
HARKER
I know he was here.
SEWARD
Is that all? Did you know him at your office?
HARKER
Only by reputation. Good Christian. Unmarried.
SEWARD
I believe that has changed.
HARKER
How well do you know him?
SEWARD
Before he left…he did something. Which makes me think I know him better than any
man alive.
HARKER
Oh?
SEWARD
(Beat.) Will you feed me an insect?
(HARKER backs away. Makes no other

response. A moment.)
Everyone ends up here. Kind of poetic, don’t you think?
HARKER
No. Not really.
SEWARD
Oh.
(A moment.)
HARKER
Let me see your Lucy.
(SEWARD moves to his desk. He removes a

small, framed photograph. HARKER has a
moment.)
She looks like…
SEWARD
Like what?
HARKER
A bride.
(Beat. A moment between them.)
I think I need to…
SEWARD
Yes?
HARKER
Return me to my room.
SEWARD
Your room?
HARKER
Yes.
(A moment. HARKER smiles. He exits.

SEWARD Wanders to the whiskey.
LIGHTS CHANGE. SEWARD exits.
Placard: “Women who Smoke.” MINA and
LUCY are standing outside. MINA smokes.
LUCY gives her a look.)
MINA
I enjoy smoking, it gives me great pleasure.
LUCY
Are you talking to me?
MINA
You looked at my cigarette.
LUCY
It just made me think of…
MINA
Yes?
LUCY
You’ll think I’m vulgar.
MINA
You are alive. Of course you’re vulgar.
LUCY
You…what?
MINA
I don’t mean anything by it. Just that we are alive, so we smoke cigarettes, drink spirits,
and enjoy being naked with other people in far off lands.
LUCY
Have you been reading my dream journal?
MINA
No.
LUCY
Oh, it sounds like you have – do you keep one?
MINA
I don’t dream. When I close my eyes, the world disappears.
LUCY
That is too bad. Anything can happen in dreams.
MINA
Anything can happen when you have your eyes open.
LUCY
You have a sharp-tongue.
MINA
Life sharpened it.
LUCY
Can I see?
(MINA sticks out her tongue. LUCY

smiles.)
LUCY
I am Lucy.
MINA
I am Mina.
LUCY
So. What brings you here?
MINA
Lunacy. You?
LUCY
The same. That is, I’m seeing the doctor.
MINA
Are you?
LUCY
Yes.
MINA
Good. He can use the company.
LUCY
Well, I don’t see him, I just keep him company. (Beat.) Clothes on.
MINA
I’m saving myself for marriage.
LUCY
Wow! Well. (Beat.) So am I. (Beat.) I will be married soon!
MINA
Has he proposed?
LUCY
Doctor Seward has proposed one hundred times!
MINA
Congratulations.
LUCY
Thank you, but it’s not Dr. Seward. I will be wed to a rich Count.
MINA
You have red hair.
LUCY
Yes?
MINA
Counts don’t marry gingers. Makes them think of Ireland.
LUCY
Well. My last name is Sullivan.
MINA
Is it?
LUCY
No. That was a joke.
MINA
You don’t get angry, do you?
LUCY
No. Maybe life has been too kind to me. I wake up in the morning. And I am alive. And I
don’t know why. And it’s wonderful.
MINA
I wake up in the morning. I get out of bed. I dress. I talk to people. I do activities. I pass
the time. I go to bed. I don’t dream.
LUCY
But you smoke.
MINA
Yes.
LUCY
And that is wonderful. I love the smell of smoking people. Not smoking people, but
people who smoke. And in the rain. Ash in the rain is just lovely, isn’t it? I suppose
everything is lovely when…
MINA
When there’s a Count to light your cigarette for you?
LUCY
And you? Will you be married one day?
MINA
To the only thing that will never let me down. Cigarettes.
LUCY
Married to a cigarette! How poetic!
MINA
And our wedding procession will be cigars. And I will sit with my cigarette in the bowl
of a pipe. Filled with ashes. We will be wed in the rain, just like this, for I hear tell that
rain is a sign of luck on a wedding day. We will go back to my chambers –
LUCKY
Not his? You really are modern.
MINA
I suppose I can make do with his – it’s an awfully small package, but a woman can make
do with an awfully small package.
LUCY
I’ve never found that to be the case.
MINA
And then I will lay back, surrounded by my cigarette’s awfully small package, and I will
smoke.
LUCY
Bravo!
MINA
Thank you.
(SEWARD enters reading a letter. He looks

up.)
SEWARD
Ladies. Ms. Mina, Ms. Lucy. You two know one another?
LUCY
We do. In the biblical sense.
SEWARD
Wait. I think I know what that means! (Beat.) No, nothing.
MINA
Do you know Jonathan, Ms. Lucy?
LUCY
Jonathan? No. Should I?
MINA
Just wondering. You have the same marks on your neck.
(MINA throws away her cigarette and exits.

SEWARD quickly examines LUCY’S
neck.)
LUCY
It’s nothing, Jack. It’s nothing.
SEWARD
Come inside right now.
LUCY
No!
SEWARD
This is serious. I need to have a look!
LUCY
No!
SEWARD
What is this?
LUCY
A necklace. From a rich Count!
(She laughs. Collapses. SEWARD drops his

letter just in time to catch her in his arms.
SEWARD carries LUCY inside. LIGHTS
CHANGE. RENFIELD enters. He picks up
the letter and changes the Placard: “Jack has
mail.” He starts reading the letter out loud to
the audience.)
RENFIELD
We were outside Romania. I showed my wife the castle. I…I don’t know what drew me
there. It is so empty. It is not scary at all. There is no sense of violence. No sense of a
curse. We entered Romania, and our joy continued. We met a little baby girl in an
orphanage. Hope is her name. We have adopted her, and she is our daughter. She does
not like eating insects. But you should see her with a little dirt on her chin. Oh, children!
They get so dirty! From the world, I am yours, Renfield.
(RENFIELD drops the letter. LIGHTS

CHANGE. HARKER sits in his cell. MINA
sits on the other side. RENFIELD changes
the Placard, which reads “You are cordially
invited.” RENFIELD exits. MINA regards
JONATHAN.)
MINA
Why won’t you speak?
HARKER
I’ve run out of words.
MINA
That’s a shame.
HARKER
Is it? I feel the more I talk the more I actually belong here.
MINA
Do you want to leave?
HARKER
We should just run off right now and be married.
MINA
Should we?
HARKER
Don’t you want to? Can you pretend for just a moment that I never left London. Never
traveled to Transylvania. Where would we be now?
MINA
Well…I would be sitting in my sewing room.
HARKER
I don’t think you would.
MINA
Why not?
HARKER
I would have given you a picnic.
MINA
In the rain?
HARKER
Of course, in the rain. Didn’t you know? It’s good luck to have a picnic in the rain!
Besides, if we waited for a full day of sunshine, we could wait an eternity.
MINA
And then what?
HARKER
I would hold your hands and look into your eyes.
MINA
And what would you see?
(She moves close. He looks into her eyes.

He smiles.)
It’s not often I leave you speechless.
(Pause. She reaches through “the bars” and

touches his neck.)
HARKER
Don’t. It’s horrible.
MINA
I just saw someone who has the same mark.
HARKER
WHAT?!
MINA
Outside. Just now!
HARKER
Mina, that’s not possible. She is dead!
MINA
Who is dead?
HARKER
She went up in a ball of light! Smoke! Dust! I heard fucking angels singing her to her
rest!
MINA
I liked it better when you were speechless.
HARKER
Let me see her. Take me to her!
MINA
I can’t. You’re locked up.
HARKER
For God’s sake! We need to get away from here!
MINA
We can’t. Jonathan…
HARKER
I know what those marks are, Mina. Please….
(A moment.)
MINA
I’ll get Doctor Seward.
HARKER
Thank you.
(Beat.)
What would you be sewing? If I never left London?
MINA
Forgotten our picnic, already?
HARKER
I’m sorry.
(LIGHTS CHANGE. SEWARD places

LUCY on his sofa. LUCY regards the
straight jacket.)
LUCY
You’ve been playing.
SEWARD
Lie still, please.
LUCY
God, I want to play…
SEWARD
Well, here’s a game. It’s called –
LUCY
Animal magnetism. I knew you were going to say that. Isn’t that weird?
SEWARD
Oh. Well. You are going to –
LUCY
Open my soul to you. I don’t think I can.
SEWARD
There is a fluid between us, and when we look at each other, it is as if we send ripples
through this fluid. We do this every day with all living things. I just…I want you to focus.
You are doing this on purpose. You are opening yourself to the ripples I create, and I am
opening myself to the ripples you create. We are open. Do you see?
LUCY
Okay. (Beat.) How?
SEWARD
Look at me. And tell me a story.
LUCY
Tell you a story.
SEWARD
An honest story.
LUCY
Can you handle honesty?
SEWARD
All scientists quest for truth.
LUCY
(Beat.) Once upon a time. There was a girl who wanted to dance. No, that’s not it. Do
you dance?
(SEWARD stands. He moves close to

LUCY. They move together. She follows
him.)
Once upon a time there was a girl who wanted to dance. With a rich man. And one day,
she met a doctor. He was not rich, but he was…he was…something else. You know?
Something else.
(They continue to dance. She has, subtly,

started leading.)
And he knew something about animal magnetism. And somewhere, in the catacombs of
her mind…so did she.
(She stands back and moves her arms

around. SEWARD dances for her like a
puppet! He tries to free himself, cannot! A
look of shock!)
What’s on my mind?
(She closes her eyes. Music starts. STOPS

immediately. The stage becomes the soul of
a monster – trapped, hungry! RED EYES!
SHRIEKS! SEWARD screams!
CONVULSIONS! BLOOD! LUCY opens
her eyes. SEWARD is on the ground
panting. Sweating. LUCY looks at him. She
sinks a little, as if drifting out of a trance.)
Did you feel anything?
(SEWARD stands.)
I suddenly saw a doctrine about vitalism in my head – living and non-living things being
ruled by different forces – different Gods. Apollo and Dionysus. (Beat.) Does that mean
anything to you?
(SEWARD is speechless.)
LUCY (Contd.)
I think I saw you as a little boy. Playing with a cat. But. It was dead. Was that your first
pet? A dead cat? It makes me feel sorry for you. And…indifferent…I…I don’t think I
love you. That was terrible. I don’t know why I said it. Please. Make me stop talking.
SEWARD
Lucy….
LUCY
Can I stay here tonight? Not in your...not with…my own bed, my own room. Can I?
(SEWARD nods.)
Good. I think…I don’t know what I think. Do you?
SEWARD
Lucy. Do stay. Tonight. For observation.
LUCY
Oh, no. Not observation. I can’t sleep when I’m being watched. Too…what is the
word….monstrous.
SEWARD
Monstrous. Watching you sleep would be monstrous.
LUCY
Yes. Are you a monster, Jack?
SEWARD
(Beat.) I never know how to answer that question. (Beat.) Let me show you to your
room.
LUCY
No. I know where it is. I saw it. In your head. Isn’t that something else? I can see little
pictures – plucked straight from your head. Green walls. I know the room. A little green
room. I know where it is, too. Good night, Jack.
(She stands.)
No peaking.
SEWARD
As God is my witness, I will not leave this room.
LUCY
You think of yourself as God. Is that true of all scientists?
SEWARD
…No….
LUCY
Huh.
(She exits. SEWARD goes to his chair. He

holds his head in his hands. LIGHTS
CHANGE. SEWARD walks to the easel.
Changes the sign, which reads “No
Peaking.” He looks at the Captain’s hat. He
picks it up. He picks up the journal
underneath. MATE enters.)
MATE
Captain’s log. I’m not the captain. But I need to speak for him. Something has been…
(SEWARD flips through the book. MATE

stops talking. SEWARD finds something
else.)
He is not recording anything. I was worried he would find my writing –
(SEWARD flips through more)
…boxes of experimental earth from Transylvania…
(He flips through more.)
…someone is on board. I hear a man cry “Mina.”
(He flips through more.)
…Wolf, tearing at the throat.
(He flips through more. Stops. Flips back.)
…tearing at the throat of Jeffreys. I want to doubt Henderson’s testimony – how could a
wolf possibly be on board our ship? And why attack a man? There has never been a
recorded account of a wolf attacking a man in all of human history. Do look it up – “man
attacked by wolf.” You won’t find an entry. And if you do, it is a lie.
(SEWARD flips through a bit more.)
Last night, I saw…a bat, larger than a Sea Eagle.

SEWARD
I’ve seen some of those, the Sea Eagles. “Barn door birds” they’re called. Incredible wing
span.
MATE
(To SEWARD)
This one carried a man at sea. A man named Morgan was torn into the heavens. His
shrieks howled into the storm. The rain mixed with his blood…
SEWARD
But this is NONSENSE!
MATE
(To SEWARD)
So I thought! Then Morgan was spotted on board. Three days after his corpse had been
surrendered to the deep. He was spotted by three crew members eating…a rat.
(MATE shrieks. LUCY shrieks. LIGHTS

CHANGE. SEWARD rushes off. MATE
remains, looking neutral. MINA enters,
picks up the journal. She opens it.)
MATE
(Whispering)
Mina.
(MINA drops the book. MATE exits.

SEWARD enters, holding a very bloody
LUCY. MINA watches.)
SEWARD
Look how pale you are. (Beat.) Lucy, you have lost an awful amount of blood. I need
to…
MINA
?
SEWARD
Transfusion. The blood is the life.
(SEWARD takes a transfusion kit out of his

desk. He sticks one end into LUCY, one end
into himself.)
LUCY
…ow…
SEWARD
Just hang on, please…just hang on…
LUCY
I’ll never marry you. (Beat.) Just because your blood runs through my veins, you think
I’ll be yours. Animal magnetism…fluids between us. Ha. Someone else’s blood already
runs in my veins. And he’s a wealthy man. A man of property and position. And he has
an accent.
SEWARD
You would leave me for a foreigner.
LUCY
Oh, don’t be so imperialist.
SEWARD
Don’t be such a tourist. No rich man will ever marry you.
LUCY
Not even a Count?
SEWARD
Count? (Beat.) A man of property you say?
LUCY
Yes. The old castle. Near the Church.
SEWARD
Right. Foreign accent, bites on the neck.
LUCY
I hate your blood.
SEWARD
I hate it, too. I want it out of me. Every drop. Right into your arm. Maybe my soul will go
with it.
LUCY
Your soul wants to be housed in the body of a ginger?
SEWARD
My soul just wants a new house.
(Beat.)
LUCY
I suppose we’re both tourists.
SEWARD
Yes.
LUCY
Kiss me.
(SEWARD leans in. LUCY removes the

tube from her arm and sprays SEWARD
with his own blood. SEWARD reacts.
LUCY chuckles.)
How much did you actually get in me? H’m? Your soul in me now?
(SEWARD trembles.)
SEWARD
I am yours, Lucy. Entirely yours. Does that mean nothing?
LUCY
Your blood is poison in my veins…
(SEWARD goes to his desk. WRITES a

note. He sees MINA. MINA watches LUCY
writhe. LUCY regards MINA.)
Oh, God. Your tongue…
SEWARD
Ms. Mina. Please come here.
LUCY
…please…
SEWARD
(To MINA)
I need to ask a favor of you. Please. Send this telegram for me. (Beat.) I’m sorry to ask
you. Please. I need to contact my old mentor.
(LUCY shakes on the bed.)
Something…something is happening to her. Please.
(MINA nods and exits. LUCY laughs.)

LUCY
I bet all our children would have been doctors. Little Jacks roaming the world. Lost. No
one to touch their little peckers.
SEWARD
These comments are not worthy of you.
LUCY
And you’re not worthy of anyone.
SEWARD
Lucy…is this…is this really what you want to say to me in your last moments?
LUCY
(Beat.) Are these really my last moments?
(Pause. She starts to shake apart.)
Oh, God. Hold me, please. Hold me.
(JACK moves away from her. He sits; buries

his face in his hands.)
Please. Please. Please hold me. Please…
(SEWARD exits. THUNDER and

LIGHTNING. It knocks SEWARD to the
floor, where he is immobile.)
Please…
(A shadow. Sounds of peace – gentle music,

soft blue light.)
Count? Count is that, you?
(LIGHTS CHANGE.)
Oh, Count. I remember that night. There was lightning. A shipwreck on the shore. A
crowd gathered to watch. Not to help, just to watch. I also watched. I wanted to be able to
say “I was there when…” And while everyone stands there, watching the boat. And what
do I see? You emerge from the water. Completely dry. In spats. A monocle. A walking
stick. A smokehouse hat. A pointed moustache, perfectly symmetrical. I see you right
now. Standing in the water. Beckoning me to you. Just looking at you, I feel a hand on
my breast. Is it my own? Your sharp teeth. Your sharp tongue. Your rapier wit.
Your…take me. I am yours, body and soul. I am yours, Count…I am yours…
(LIGHTS FADE as LUCY dies.)
(PLACARD: “Jack has mail.” A light on

RENFIELD, who enters holding a lily.)
RENFIELD
Dearest doctor. I am sorry for your loss. I am closer than you think, but do not want to
risk arrest. Therefore, I cannot attend…the services. (Beat.) Today, my wife brought me
beetles. Hope was awake until four in the morning. I can never sleep. My wife, she…she
means well, but after one has had the Madagascar cockroach, it is tough to return to
beetles. But a man can remember his happiest days, and know that they will return again.
Sometime soon. I hope. From the world, I am yours…Renfield.
(LIGHTS CHANGE. RENFIELD exits.

PLACARD: “After the funeral.” HARKER
sits in SEWARD’s office. MINA enters.)
MINA
You have the run of the place, now?
(No response.)
I can’t stay here any longer, Jonathan.
HARKER
I understand.
MINA
Do you? Good. It was never my intention to hurt you.
HARKER
It was never my intention to hurt you.
MINA
I will come and visit you sometimes.
HARKER
I might not be here.
MINA
No?
HARKER
Seward signed the papers.
MINA
Papers?
HARKER
I’m a free man.
MINA
Oh.
(Pause.)
Good news.
HARKER
Yes. I think Seward needed something…to do something good.
MINA
Yes. Well.
(Awkward silence.)
HARKER
I say, this feels like our first date together. The awkward silence. Barely able to look at
one another.
MINA
Or if we do, the danger of looking and looking. Smiling until our cheeks tremble. No
words.
HARKER
No words from you, maybe. But I tend to…
MINA
Yes. Yes, you do.
HARKER
I will miss you.
MINA
I know.
(Pause.)
I would have liked your picnic in the rain.

HARKER
Would you?
(Pause.)
MINA
Jon. Dance with me.
HARKER
What?
MINA
Right now. Dance with me.
HARKER
Oh. Sure.
(He stands up. He moves to MINA. They

dance.)
MINA
This is what you’re supposed to do.
HARKER
Is it?
MINA
Yes. You’re not supposed to let me go.
HARKER
I’m not?
MINA
No. You’re supposed to ask me to stay. Woo me. Dance with me. Damnit, do you think I
stayed in the asylum near you so long because…because I feel nothing?
HARKER
I don’t know. I didn’t think you did. I thought you were being dutiful.
MINA
Dutiful? Am I that cold?
HARKER
No. Just…pragmatic. (Beat.) The words aren’t coming out right.
MINA
No more words.
HARKER
No more words.
MINA
Make love to me.
HARKER
Those are words!
MINA
Did you know that death causes the body to cry out for sex?
HARKER
Does it?
MINA
Sure. It has to do with instincts. We know someone has died, and so our instincts take
over. Our instincts tell us we need to reproduce in order to keep the species alive.
HARKER
Well.
MINA
Don’t you feel the same instincts?
HARKER
Well, yes, but I haven’t considered the science behind it.
(They stop dancing, but don’t let go.)
MINA
Let me see your tongue.
(He sticks out his tongue, a little awkwardly.

She sticks hers out, too. They move tongues
together. They giggle. They do it again.
They kiss. They move to SEWARD’S sofa
and continue kissing.)
You’re supposed to pulse.
HARKER
What?
MINA
You looked self-conscious.
HARKER
Oh. I really didn’t mean to be self-conscious.
MINA
I’m getting wet.
HARKER
Oh? (Beat.) OH.
MINA
Yes! You understand?
HARKER
Well, to be honest, moving to the couch did give me a clue. Very subtle. Well it
be…painful?
MINA
It will hurt for a moment.
HARKER
Me or you?
MINA
I…I don’t know if it will actually hurt you or not.
HARKER
I get the feeling it’ll rip me to shreds. It has…
MINA
…has?
HARKER
Crossed my mind, is all. It has crossed my mind.
MINA
It might hurt you. But it’ll be me doing it…
HARKER
Well. Yes. Yes, it will!
(They kiss. Still close, they smile.)
I say, there is nothing I cannot handle!

MINA
Nothing?
HARKER
I am yours. Body and soul.
MINA
I am yours. Body and soul.
(They smile. They kiss.)
That is what it means.
(MINA smiles. Kisses him awkwardly. She

unbuttons HARKER’s shirt and looks at his
wounds. She kisses them.)
MINA
No more cutting your body.
HARKER
No more. I promise!
(He leans back. She moves her hand over his

crotch. He shudders.)
MINA
No more kissing girls in foreign lands.
HARKER
I beg your pardon.
MINA
Don’t ruin this moment. Just agree with me so we can move on.
HARKER
What exactly are you accusing me of?
(Beat. MINA starts kissing his body again.)
How are we supposed to start a life together if you’re going to be suspicious?
MINA
I don’t want to be suspicious. There is no suspicion, really, because I know you’ve done
it. It’s a fact. I want honesty. If we can be honest, we can move forward. If we can’t be
honest, then…
HARKER
No more words, please.
(MINA considers. She straddles him. A loud

thump. They freeze.)
What the hell is that?

(SEWARD races in.)
SEWARD
It’s Lucy!
HARKER
Lucy?
(MINA bolts off the couch. HARKER starts

buttoning his shirt; he has trouble standing.
SEWARD doesn’t notice.)
SEWARD
Yes. She decided to, uh…leave.
MINA
Leave?
SEWARD
To walk. To get up and walk.
HARKER
Out of her grave?
MINA
She’s…up?
SEWARD
And she’s biting children.
HARKER
What?!
SEWARD
The house around the corner.
HARKER
How is that possible?
SEWARD
You tell me, Harker. (Beat.) It’s all true. All of it.
HARKER
Yes.
(HARKER looks at MINA.)
It’s all true. All of it.
(She reacts. He has told the truth. Pause.

Another thump.)
SEWARD
Oh, God. She’s here!
HARKER
Mina stay put. Please. Let us men take care of this.
MINA
Did you just say “us men?”
(HARKER smiles. He kisses MINA. They

exit. MINA is alone. The thumping
continues. An owl screeches. A wing flaps.
Shadows move across MINA. Thump.
Lights return to normal. LUCY is seen
through the doorway behind MINA. LUCY
looks almost unrecognizable: bloody, white;
her face and body are torn in places. She
tries to enter but cannot. MINA turns to
LUCY.)
LUCY
Aren’t you going to invite me in?
MINA
No. I don’t live here. I’m only staying.
LUCY
Like everybody else?
MINA
No. Not like everybody else.
LUCY
Not like your Jonathan?
MINA
You know Jonathan?
LUCY
Do you ask every girl you meet if they know Jonathan?
MINA
(Beat.) Lucy?
LUCY
I could be Lucy, or I could be the countess.
MINA
Countess?
LUCY
I am the countess. And so is Mr. Renfield. And so is Jonathan. And so is…the Countess!
You will be her too one day, I’ve seen it. Oh, I’ve seen it all in my little green room.
(Pause.)
Please let me in. I brought something for you.
(She holds up a dead cat.)
See? It purrs. It sings. I held it between my legs and it purred. Don’t you want something
purring between your legs?
(Pause.)
MINA
Is this supposed to shock me? I’ve seen cholera. I’ve seen a man’s nose fall right off into
his dinner plate.
LUCY
(throwing away the cat)
So, you have seen it all?
MINA
You’re a vampire. The walking dead. An empty thing. Yes, I have seen it all.
LUCY
Oh. Well, the cat wasn’t for you, anyway. It was for Seward. He would have understood
LUCY (Contd.)
what it meant. Would have driven him crazy…would have…
(Pause. LUCY drops her scare-tactic

entirely. She starts to cry.)
What am I supposed to do?
MINA
Die. Rot. Just like the rest of us.
LUCY
I can’t.
(Pause.)
I didn’t think it would be this lonely.
MINA
No?
LUCY
I thought he’d…he was passionate. An incredibly passionate lover. I thought…are you
getting squeamish?
MINA
Well. Dead sex. Can’t be any good.
LUCY
Not afraid to speak your mind.
MINA
No. Which is why you are absolutely powerless. You can’t seduce me. You can’t reason
with me.
LUCY
I’ll bash my brains into the glass.
MINA
Suit yourself.
LUCY
You’re worried.
MINA
No. (Beat.) Yes. Yes, I am.
LUCY
But not about me.
MINA
No.
(LUCY closes her eyes. She raises her arms.

MINA suddenly raises hers, as if being
controlled. She can’t fight it.)
LUCY
Jonathan. You’re worried that he will become like me…that you will all join me. You
will, you know. It is only a matter of time, and I have all eternity to wait. I will watch you
all sleep night after night and be in your waking life. In shadows. In the smiles of
strangers. In your memories. I can put myself in your memories.
(MINA reacts. LUCY searches deeper.)
With your parents. I am the disease that took them. You understand? You can’t unknow
me. You have learned something that does not make you safe, any of you safe. And you
will be taken.
(LUCY releases MINA. A moment. MINA

walks over to JACK’S closet. She finds a
very large axe.)
Oh, don’t you enjoy the suspense?
(SEWARD races in.)
SEWARD
Lucy!
HARKER
Countess!
SEWARD
She’s my Lucy!
HARKER
But her eyes…
LUCY
Let me in. Please. I only want to watch you die!
HARKER
(To Mina)
Where did you get that?
SEWARD
It’s mine. It’s a riot axe.
HARKER
Riot axe?
SEWARD
In case of riots. I cut chop down doors, or…
HARKER
Or?
(LUCY cackles.)
MINA
Enter.
HARKER
No!
SEWARD
MINA!
(LUCY enters the room. SEWARD grabs

the coatrack. HARKER grabs the Captain’s
log. LUCY looks at the three of them with
longing.)
MINA
So. Who will you take first, Lucy?
LUCY
Do you really think they’ll get me in time?
(LUCY claps her hands. THUNDER. The

men fall to the ground. LUCY lunges at
MINA and tears into her stomach. MINA
drops the axe. The men stand. HARKER has
the axe. LUCY bites MINA’s stomach.
BLOOD! HARKER buries the axe in
LUCY’S back. LUCY screams, and rolls to
the floor. BLOOD! MINA stands, holding
her bloody stomach; she takes the axe from

HARKER and brings it down. Once. She
picks up LUCY’s head and throws it on the
bed.)
MINA
I didn’t think she could do it. I don’t frighten easy.
(She collapses. HARKER attends to her.

SEWARD lifts the severed head of LUCY.
He kisses it. He takes the head and walks
outside while HARKER places MINA on
the bed. A LIGHT hits the Captain’s log.
The stage goes dim. MATE enters.)
MATE
I don’t know where the voice is coming from. It cries for Mina. I would pity the mad
monster, if it didn’t scare the ever-loving Jesus out of me. Is it the monster crying for
Mina? Or is there someone else down there with him? Trapped in the box? I wish I had
someone to cry for. To want to live for. I believe all of humankind is my lover in a way.
If I could be married to anything, it would be to the feeling that the world gives me.
When I’m out on the sea on a calm day with the sun on my face. A pipe in my mouth.
Jeffreys playing the accordion. I think I love him. And I hope I see him again. On another
voyage. In the next life. I hope there is a next life. And if there isn’t? I hope there is a box
which keeps all of the memories I hold so dear. The accordion. The pipe. The son. My
God. Could there be such a box?
(LIGHTS FADE on MATE, who exits.

LIGHTS RESUME on the rest of the room.
It is a little later.)
MINA
I don’t have many memories. Of my family. I blot them out. Because when I try to see
them. My mother. My father. I see pieces of their faces. I hear the sound of flies. The
sickly-sweet smell of vomit…oh, God. I just said something nice about vomit.
(LIGHTS CHANGE. Placard: “Is the life.”

HARKER sits with MINA. SEWARD
enters, holding a transfusion kit.)
SEWARD
She has lost a lot of blood.
HARKER
Mina is strong.
SEWARD
She can be stronger. My mentor, Van Helsing, used to perform blood transfusions.
HARKER
Blood transfusions?
SEWARD
Yes. The blood is the life.
(He inserts one end into himself. The other

into MINA.)
This is the only way.
HARKER
How…much?
SEWARD
I don’t know. Watch what I’m doing here. Just in case.
HARKER
Just in case? (Beat.) Be careful, Jack, you don’t want to hurt yourself –
SEWARD
She needs to stay strong. You both do. If this monster walks among us, you will need all
you can get. I will give her every last drop –
(MINA opens her eyes.)
MINA
Don’t!
SEWARD
WHY NOT?! I have absolutely NOTHING, Mina. I have…(pause.) Her head is in the
sea. (Laughs.) In the sea. (Pause.) Take my blood. Be strong. You will need it. You’re
leaving right now. Before sundown. Before anything else can…can…
(He drops his face into his hands.)
MINA
We won’t leave you.
HARKER
I’m in favor of leaving.
MINA
Are you?
HARKER
I didn’t escape one fortress to die in another.
MINA
What if you did?
(Pause.)
Dr. Seward. Dr. Seward?
(SEWARD regards MINA.)
Are we going to become like Lucy?
(Pause.)
Then what choice do we have?
HARKER
What do we know about this monster?
MINA
We know its weaknesses!
(SEWARD holds the axe in a manly fashion.

Beat. MINA grabs her stomach in pain.)
SEWARD
Stay with us, Mina. Stay with us.
(SEWARD pumps more furiously. He goes

pale.)
HARKER
That’s enough, Jack. Please. Allow me. Please.
MINA
No!
HARKER
Why not?
MINA
Jon. You have been with…
HARKER
Yes?
MINA
Another woman.
HARKER
Oh. Oh? Are you sincerely scared of a social disease?
MINA
You did not see the cholera…the plagues…
HARKER
Mina, you would rather face eternal damnation than have a drop of my blood in your
body? I thought we were better, once I confessed to…
MINA
Yes, but I have to go through a period of hating you for a little while. It’s only natural.
HARKER
But you were just kissing my wounds!
(MINA gives a shrug.)
Great timing, Mina!
MINA
(Beat.) Jack kissed me.
(BOTH men look at her, shocked.)
MINA
I didn’t push him off of me. I didn’t welcome him, either. I just stood there. Like marble.
(Beat.) I wish I were marble.
HARKER
Why are you telling me this?
MINA
Because you deserve to know the truth. Did you enjoy it?
HARKER
It?
MINA
The countess.
HARKER
(Beat.) Yes. But in my defense, I was in a trance.
MINA
That’s what they all say.
HARKER
Oh. (Beat.) Yes, I enjoyed it.
MINA
Who was better?
HARKER
You were.
MINA
Yes?
HARKER
Oh, yes! Definitely!
SEWARD
And you are a great kisser!
(They both look at SEWARD.)
Both of you!
MINA
(To Harker)
With you. On the couch. Just now…you were my only lover. Would it hurt your feelings
if I told you I regretted that?
HARKER
Yes, it would.
MINA
Oh.
HARKER
I like being honest with you.
MINA
That’s good. That’s very good.
(SEWARD looks at HARKER. He moves

aside. HARKER takes his end of the
transfusion kit. SEWARD helps it into his
arm.)
HARKER
I say, that hurts!
MINA
It really doesn’t feel so bad…
(SEWARD unrolls his other sleeve.)
SEWARD
And after Harker, you’re getting more of mine.
MINA
The way you two panic. I wish the demon would come and finish the job. Finally get
some peace.
HARKER
Don’t say that. I love you.
(SEWARD pumps. Silence. MINA struggles

to remain conscious. SEWARD removes the
tube from HARKER’S arm.)
HARKER
Jack, please, Mina’s dying.
SEWARD
I’m too weak for another transfusion.
(Pause.)
HARKER
Mina. (Beat.) You do know I don’t have syphilis.
MINA
Yes. It’s not working. Damn. (Beat.) Look at you two. Your faces. What will bring you
comfort?
SEWARD
Chocolate.
HARKER
Can you pray to God?
MINA
I’m being serious.
(Pause. HARKER gets an idea.)
HARKER
Seward! Can you marry us?
(MINA gives HARKER a severe look.)
I mean it, marry us!
SEWARD
I’m not a minister.
(HARKER grabs the CAPTAIN’S hat.)
I’m not a ship captain.
HARKER
You’re all we have.
(MINA moans.)
HARKER
PLEASE!
SEWARD
Okay. Mina. Lovely, marble Mina. Do you take this man to be your husband? To have
and to hold until death do you part…which really will be soon, is this the best time for -?
MINA
Shut up, Jack. I do.
SEWARD
And Harker. Jon. Do you take this woman -?
HARKER
God, yes! Yes, I do!
SEWARD
Then…by the power invested in me by donning this hat, I pronounce you married. You
may kiss.
(HARKER kisses her.)
HARKER
Is it so bad?
MINA
Death?
HARKER
Marriage.
MINA
No. But, then again…
(She dies.)
HARKER
No…NO, NO. (Beat.) Mina…
(HARKER buries his head on her corpse.

SEWARD sits.)
I would like to thank my wife for talking to me about sex. The touch I knew from the
Countess…it was not real. I was in a trance, you understand? I never felt…loved. But just
the way Mina spoke me to…was more sincere than…truly, better than…bravo…
(He stands up applauding.)
Bravo! I say, bravo!
(SEWARD stands and applauds with him.

They stop. A moment.)
Goodbye.
(A shadow moves over the men.)
SEWARD
It circles the house. (Beat.) Jon.
HARKER
She was bitten.
SEWARD
Yes.
(HARKER regards the axe. SEWARD

regards the axe, and then HARKER.)
HARKER
I can’t do it, Jack. I can’t.
(SEWARD holds the axe. He looks like he

means business.)
HARKER
You get off on this sort of thing, don’t you?
SEWARD
Would it help you if I said “yes”?
(HARKER nods. SEWARD nods.

HARKER moves away from MINA.
SEWARD grabs the axe. He looks at MINA.
RAISES the axe. A moment. He lowers the
axe and cradles MINA. LIGHTS
CHANGE.)
(RENFIELD enters and changes the placard.

It reads “Jack has mail”.)
RENFIELD
Doctor Seward. I am writing because…I like a cold beer in the afternoon. I enjoy a cold
beer in the evening. I enjoy a cold beer in the morning. I enjoy cold beer…after beetles,
what else can there be? What am I supposed to do? Marriages don’t last, you know. They
can never, never last. Those fleeting moments of happiness early on fade, as the space
between lovers in bed grows larger, until I find myself hugging the darkness away from
my lover. Curled like a dying centipede, holding onto its spindly soul. I drink,
doctor. Daily. Please. Please visit us here…the factories almost look beautiful. The trains
almost look organic. The smoke almost smells like pie.
(A moment. RENFIELD looks up

dramatically, bearing his vampiric teeth and
bright, white eyes.)
I was supposed to feel alive!

(BLACKOUT on RENFIELD. SEWARD

lowers his glass. Chuckles. SEWARD opens
another letter. HARKER enters.)
HARKER
What is it?
SEWARD
Letters.
HARKER
Oh.
SEWARD
Here is one from my old mentor, Van Helsing. I told him we were doing his blood
transfusions.
HARKER
Capital.
(HARKER plops in a chair. SEWARD

opens the letter. He looks crestfallen.)
SEWARD
Oh.
(HARKER looks at SEWARD. SEWARD

looks apologetically at HARKER.
HARKER moves toward the letter.)
No, you really don’t need to see this –
(HARKER snatches the letter out of

SEWARD’s hands. He reads.)
HARKER
I…I…
(RENFIELD re-enters in a different hat, a

different posture; something to suggest he is
another man: VAN HELSING.)
VAN HELSING
Friend Jack. My eyes are lowered as I write this. If you could see them. They’re lowered.
Sad.
(He demonstrates.)
VAN HELSING (Contd.)

So sad. For I am late. Too late. Last week, a man named Landsteiner dazzled us all with
the discovery that there are different types of blood. Transfusing the wrong type of blood
into a human is tantamount to killing them. A slow, agonizing death. How could I know
you follow so close in the foot of your teacher? Please do forgive this old magician. I
know, as is said, trust comes by foot and goes by horse. Mercy, Jack. Mercy, God. Mercy
to your Lucy, who by now is quite dead, yes? Mercy to all. Mercy.
(LIGHTS FADE.)
HARKER
Mina…
(SEWARD sits at his desk. HARKER stands

in silence. A shadow falls over them.
SOUND of wings flapping.)
Oh, go away! Just…JUST GO AWAY!
SEWARD
It’s morning. That’s only a mocking bird.
(Pause.)
HARKER
I want to go back to my room now. Just…lock me in there. Give me hydrotherapy thrice.
Daily. Just…
SEWARD
Jon. Leave. This isn’t your house. You don’t need a room here. You never did. You went
through something terrible in Transylvania. You should have gone mad. And you didn’t.
I tried everything, but look at you. So. You’re grieving. You should be. Your grief causes
you to think you belong here. I can’t think of a saner thought.
HARKER
She was well. She was well and we killed her.
SEWARD
She was bitten. She would have –
HARKER
How do we know that? I was bitten, too. Repeatedly bitten. And yet…
SEWARD
I don’t know the answer.
HARKER
Lucy drank his blood. She said she did! I didn’t drink the Countess’s blood. Mina didn’t
drink the Count’s! Don’t you see?
SEWARD
Mina lost a lot of blood! She might have died if -
HARKER
DAMN IT, MAN, WE KILLED HER!
SEWARD
FINE! WE KILLED HER! I BOTCHED IT, JON!
(Pause. HARKER laughs.)
HARKER
“I botched it, Jon?” That’s all you can say for yourself, Captain?
(Pause.)
I’m leaving now.
SEWARD
Back to your room?
(Pause.)
HARKER
I know Carfax Abbey.
SEWARD
Carfax Abbey?
HARKER
Where the count sleeps. I visited before leaving for Transylvania. I dusted the cabinets.
Disposed of some vermin. It is in such disarray. I warned him when I saw him at Castle
Dracula, I said, “My friend, the place is a mausoleum. It’s where dust goes when it dies.”
He found that very amusing. More amusing than I thought it actually was. Such a fit of
hysterics, I thought I must join in laughing, and so I did. My cheeks tightened. My eyes
watered…I know where he sleeps.
SEWARD
How long have you known?
HARKER
I’ve been a coward, Doctor Seward. I think I’ve known the answer the entire time, but
just couldn’t…
SEWARD
What will you do?
(HARKER grabs SEWARD’S axe, holding

it like a man who means business.)
HARKER
After I have finished this task, I am leaving. Please. Don’t look for me. Don’t try to find
me. Just let me live the rest of my life in peace.
SEWARD
What will you do?
HARKER
I might return to the sea. Be a merchant. I don’t know. I have grown to hate the feel of
stable ground. And you?
SEWARD
My place is here. One day it will bring me joy again.
HARKER
Good. That’s very good.
(Long pause. The men regard each other.)
Goodbye, Jack.
(HARKER exits.)
SEWARD
Vermin…vermin…so much vermin…
(LIGHTS CHANGE. PLACARD reads

“Happiness.” SEWARD sleeps in a chair.
Sound of HARKER screaming off stage.)
(SEWARD stands with a jolt. He turns to his

desk. A moment. Something rustles. He
listens. He knows what’s coming. He moves
to the bourbon. A cloaked figure stands in
the window.)
SEWARD (Contd.)
I wondered if you would show yourself.
(The cloaked figure waves its hands.)
CLOAKED FIGURE
Let me enter.
SEWARD
Drink?
(SEWARD pours two shots of bourbon.)
CLOAKED FIGURE
I do not drink…bourbon.
SEWARD
More for me, then. That…scream. Was that…was that Harker?
(No response.)
I see. Well, will I be seeing him again? Should I ready myself for that encounter? Very
brave of him going over to Carfax Abbey with only an axe. It struck me after he left that
it might have been better to wait for sunrise and burn the whole damn building down.
But. Hindsight is what it is, don’t you think?
CLOAKED FIGURE
(Beat.) You cannot keep me out forever, doctor. One night, I will call you in a dream, and
you will hear –
SEWARD
Sorry, I thought offering you a drink was enough.
CLOAKED FIGURE
Come again?
SEWARD
Come freely. Go safely. And leave some of the happiness you bring.
CLOAKED FIGURE
You invite me, Jack?
(SEWARD nods. CLOAKED FIGURE

enters. Drops cloak, revealing that it is
MINA. MINA enters carefully and
approaches SEWARD. SEWARD holds the
shots of bourbon. Before he drinks, he

regards MINA, as if to say, “do you mind?”
MINA pauses; she considers, and then
waves as if to say “oh, go ahead.”
SEWARD takes the shots and readies
himself.)
SEWARD
There are far worse things than death, Mina.
MINA
Are there? Do you honestly feel that way? (Beat.) If you thought that, you wouldn’t have
condemned me.
SEWARD
I wanted to see you again. I needed something familiar… something I could never un-
know. So. Will Harker rise? Will you two have your happily-ever-after at last?
(Beat. MINA regards him. SEWARD

smiles. Just a little. He moves toward his
chair.)
Good, good. That’s all. That’s all very good. So. Come freely, go safely, and leave some
of the happiness you bring.
(SEWARD sits in his chair. Closes his eyes.

Leans back. MINA moves towards his neck.
Come freely, go safely, and leave some of the happiness you bring. Come freely, go
safely, and leave some of the happiness you bring. Come freely, go safely, and leave…
(BLACKOUT. END OF PLAY.)

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God’s Madmen

(or, Time without the Devil)

John Patrick Bray

Inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Run time: 75 minutes

(LIGHTS UP on a placard on an easel. “God’s Madmen.” SEWARD enters, dusts the

(He looks around, obviously nervous.)

(A rustle. Gentle, blue light fills the room.

(COUNTESS gives him a bizarre look.)

Have I mentioned I talk too much?

(She smiles. A moment. She sits with him.)

And he has you down here? Cleaning?

(She puts her feet in his lap. He reacts.)

(Pause. She kisses him. He moves into it.

(Pause. She looks at him. He looks at her. A

Well, when in Romania.

(He allows himself to be taken. She kisses

(He looks at her. They are both covered in

(He affectionately touches her nose leaving

(She affectionately touches his nose, also

(She gives him a bloody kiss. They continue

(SEWARD opens his journal.)

(SEWARD places a jar in front of

Does that seem like the sort of thing I’d do?

(Sound of thunder. RENFIELD reacts.

Is there some other reason, Renfield?

(RENFIELD moves away from the

(SEWARD opens the jar. RENFIELD

(RENFIELD shakes the bottle. The

Disposing the vermin.

(Seward sets up a couple of shots of

(They raise their glasses.)

(SEWARD goes limp.)

(RENFIELD leans in close to SEWARD.

(RENFIELD moves his mouth very close to

I am very good at cleaning up vermin, sir. Very good.

(He forces it into SEWARD’S mouth,

(RENFIELD stands. He regards

(DARKNESS. The Sound of a storm.

(CAPTAIN and MATE are thrown. Both

(CAPTAIN withdraws his gun.)

(MATE leaps away. CAPTAIN fires after

(THE STORM stops. LIGHTS are normal.)

(A shadow moves across him. He fires. He

(SEWARD enters at the end of the speech.

(HARKER giggles as COUNTESS straddles

Are you sure?

(COUNTESS bites HARKER again. He

(MINA shakes her head no. She is fighting

(SEWARD approaches her.)

I could write a paper about…ahem…

(He kisses her. She does not react. It is as if

(SEWARD reacts. A moment.)

(JONATHAN screams off-stage.)

One night. We can both talk to him in the morning.

(She exits. HARKER freezes. COUNTESS

(COUNTESS exits. The wind opens the

(HARKER smiles, and moves weakly and

(HARKER looks at the blood on his body.

(COUNTESS gives him a severe look.)

What will happen to the child?

(He nods. She leans near him.)

(She bites him. He lets out a scream. He