Lord Dracula - Brian Hayles

Category: Full Cast, Horror, Radio Productions
Language: English
Keywords: Brian Hayles Dracula

Written by Brian Hayles
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

As the condemned struggles, the executioner pushes the stake inside his body. With a brutal, but very quick move, the stake is inserted in such a way as not to kill;  it is designed to punish, invoke terror and much, much later, death. It has been reported that sometimes it would take several days for  the person to die, with the wooden stake inserted in the pelvis (or the posterior) area and its top touching the back of the spinal cord or exiting the mouth …

This play is not about Bram Stoker’s gothic creation, but rather the historical 15th century Romanian ruler Vlad III Tepes, known as Drakul / Dracula - ‘The Impaler’. Nevertheless, Brian Hayles takes the opportunity of stitching onto the historical Dracula all the attributes of vampirism - rejuvenation through blood-sucking, sleeping in coffins, etc. - so lovers of blood, gore and sexual titillation will not be disappointed …

Approx. 85 minutes. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Saturday Night Theatre 27th April 1974.

Vlad Dracula ruled a united Wallachia from 1456 until 1462, when the then King of Hungary, Matthias Corvinus (who was also of a Wallachian nobleman lineage), fell out with him and invaded Wallachia. After a dozen years as Matthias’s prisoner in Buda, he was again reinstated as the ruler of Wallachia. The price of Vlad’s freedom was his conversion to Catholicism and he would now be the fearsest of the King’s champions, plus he had the King’s sister as a wife. A wish granted to Vlad by the King was that Father Benedict Estagen should serve as his witness before God.

When Father Benedict was young and filled with pride for truth, he had travelled the villages of the land with Father Emmanuel,
preaching their faith boldly. One day, word reached them to attend Lord Dracula at his court at Tirgoviste. They came bravely, for they knew the horrifying reputation of the man but he greeted them most courteously. When Lord Dracula asked them what his people think of him, Father Emmanuel replied that they say all manners of good things. All men hold him in honour and affection and that there is no man that does not call him noble. He then asks Father Benedict who told him the truth: that they call him tyrant and that he is renown only for his violent cruelty. Vlad rewarded the honest monk for his integrity and courage and impaled the sycophant for his dishonesty.

Now, Father Benedict begins to write a chronicle of the year 1476, at the command of the King of Hungary and his ecclesiastical
superiors, who resolve him of the evils that he has witnessed. The story begins at the mighty castle of Tirgoviste, where Father Benedict served as chaplin and chancellor to the Prince of Wallachia and Transylvania - the most cruel of men yet once the most just of rulers. Known now and to the future of his more legendary names: Vlad Tepes, The Impaler, and of a more darker meaning still, Lord Dracula.

Cast :

Vlad Tepes - The Impaler : Kenneth Haigh
Father Benedict Estagen : Nigel Stock
Melitsa, a Witch : Diane Orkin
Lord István, Vlad’s son from his first marriage : John Rowe
Brother Jakob : Gareth Armstrong
The Lady Ilonia, King of Hungary’s sister and Vlad’s Second Wife : Heddy Nicholas
Captain Ferenc : Don Henderson

Also appearing : George Woolley, Betty Malet, Patricia Green, Graham Rigby, and Philip Barber.
Directed by Anthony Cornish in Birmingham