Nosferatu

A castle, a house, an asylum. It’s the place where it all happened. The home of Nosferatu, an immortal creature whose existence spans across centuries, who cannot die and is as undying as her memory of endless killing. Those who cross paths with her must face that which is unspeakable within themselves.  First there is Harker, who travels to the castle belonging to a mysterious countess, only to find herself imprisoned. Then there are Lucy and her mother, as well as Mina, a doctor, and Renfield, a patient. These people are all bound to Nosferatu and to that place of countless terrors. Caught in their memories, the time axes merge, forming a medley of atrocities. What parts of ourselves are unspeakable? How can we fight them?

NOSFERATU is Australian director Adena Jacobs’s second production for the Burgtheater, following THE TROJAN WOMEN. Using powerful imagery and a poetic sensibility, she explores that intangible fear that manifests itself in Nosferatu, then and now. The text by author Gerhild Steinbruch is interspersed with quotes taken from Bram Stoker’s DRACULA. Jacobs gives the characters from the novel a fresh, new treatment and allows them to converge in a traumatised landscape.