Renfield Review

From the moment Corin Rhys Jones came screaming onto the stage in a straightjacket, we knew we were in for one hell of a show, and he certainly delivered in spades. Renfield is an award-winning one-man play which fleshes out the back story of Dracula’s unfortunate devotee.  

Opening in the asylum where Renfield has been confined, the show takes us through his childhood, then on his travels towards Transylvania and back to England, his bloodlust growing and his methods of satiating it becoming more outlandish and experimental. 

Rhys Jones is following in some pretty prestigious footsteps – the list of actors who’ve portrayed Renfield include Dwight Frye, Roland Topor, Tony Haygarth, Tom Waits, and more recently Nicholas Hoult - yet he steps up the plate with panache, embodying a character who manages to be both canonical and original.

Rhys Jones’s delivery is intensely physical – using the whole space and the assistance of a single chair, he throws himself about, re-enacting the story (including an unexpected amount of gyrating), and even into the audience, at one point yelling “absinthe!” in the face of an unsuspecting attendee. His presence is completely gripping; there was an electric silence from the audience even during the dramatic pauses. 

The dialogue feels authentic to Stoker’s writing style yet is gruesomely cinematic. The audience noticeably winced as Renfield described in excruciating detail the delight of eating a spider, a mouse, a fox. The audience is led through this escalating bloodbath until they truly understand why, to Renfield, ‘The Blood is the Life’.

This is theatre in its truest form, albeit not for the faint-hearted. You don’t want to miss this vivid and vivacious show – you just might not want to bring your nan.

Cherry Doyle