THE COMMUNIST DRACULA PAGEANT – World Premiere
by Americans, for Americans, with
hallucinations, phosphorescence, and bears

by Anne Washburn – directed by Anne Kauffman

          “With the exception of rumor, everything here is fact; apart from all the very colorful bits, it is imagination; this is how we create a history.”
          “Something is dismounting the horse of history, which has been ridden hard. Something has leapt to the earth and is striding towards us. You can hear the horse's heaving breath, and footsteps on the icy ground.”
          — The Communist Dracula Pageant

          It is 1989, and one of the most vicious Eastern European regimes of all time is on trial.
          And it is 1976, and Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, at the height of their powers, mount a pageant to celebrate the glory of the Romanian nation.
          And it is the fifteenth century, and Vlad Tepes – the original Count Dracula – steps out of the dark mists and swings his cape about him. He looks around him and his eyes gleam red.
          The Communist Dracula Pageant is a wild and offbeat romp through the web of Romanian myth and history, drawn from the imagination of one of this country’s most lauded young writers. Our own election season provides the perfect backdrop for the premiere of this theatrical satire on the forging of a national identity, and the power of a president to rewrite the news.