The Forces of Evil
Dracula – Paul Cooper
Renfield – Dominic Mattos
Una the Vampire – Susy Rothe
Dua the Vampire – Antonia Custance-Baker
Tria the Vampire – Andrea Watts
The Crew of Light (The posh idiots)
Jonathan Harker – Philip Scott
Mina Harker (nee. Murray) – C Howdle
Lucy Westenra – Ruth Weyman
Abraham Van Helsing – Thomas Reynolds
Lord Arthur Holmwood – Miles Gould
Dr. Jack Seward – Gareth Smith
Betty Summers – Cat Harris
The Services of the Almighty
Sister Maria – Gill Conquest
Sister Sledge – Jaqueline Greenwood
Sister Act – Andrea Watts
Sister Agatha – Natasha Ahmed
The Undead
Director – Benjamin Parker
Producer – Andrea Watts
Stage Manager – Robert Spolander
Technical Wizard – Richard Owen
The Details…(in alphabetical order)
Gill Conquest – Sister Maria
When not dancing (childishly), singing (badly) and grinning (manically) her way through the vageries of life, Gill likes to spend her time digging up old things. With discoveries so far including a sheeps tooth and a “possible post hole” she is well on her way to becoming a respected archaeologist, although slightly lacking in the beard department (but she’s working on it). Gill discovered CULES in a bizarre accident of fate involving the Model United Nations, something of which she’s far too ashamed ever to speak…
Paul Cooper – Dracula
Paul Cooper wonders if his acting thus far with CULES has been perhaps a little lifeless, even soulless, and is thirsty for this opportunity to sink his teeth into fresh virgin territory; he intends to play it with a straight bat, for much is at stake. Without a shadow of a doubt his previous roles, including a wolf, a king and a grandmother simultaneously, and a Friar Lawrence with a penchant for drawing blood, have left him feeling drained and increasingly long in the tooth. Remember: blood is thicker than water, so always dilute to taste.
Miles Gould – Lord Arthur
This is Miles’ fourth Edinburgh show: in the last one (The Three Musketeers) he was stabbed through the lung, beaten up, and poisoned, before being resurrected only to be stabbed again; in his second show he died half-way through of dehydration; in his first, he merely died on stage. This year, as dashing Lord Arthur, can he make it alive to the final curtain? [Hint: no.]
Cat Harris – Betty
Cat’s mother once remarked, “Darling, you’re one of those people that the government worries about.” She can usually be found asleep or having lost something. She is often confused with Gill Conquest, but the rest of the time simply confused.
C Howdle – Mina
Despite intending to spend her student days studying law, an evil fairy enticed Cath into the gin-quaffing, pun-making, punt-lazing world of OULES after only three days at Oxford. Although Cath nobly struggled to break free, OULES overcame her in the end by making her their president. She has directed several plays, acted badly and done every job in the average theatre, thankfully not all at once. She also contributes the occasional bad pun to a script, and regards her being cast as the pure and innocent Mina as a very bad joke on the part of the director.
Richard Owen – Technical Wizard Man
Richard spent the majority of his Oxford degree in some theatre or other normally doing something with lights. He hopes people call it “designing” because he certainly does! He was supposed to be in the Engineering Department studying Engineering and Computer Science, which has nothing at all to do with OULES. Richard has vaguely become involved with OULES and has acted in four plays, playing two butlers, a prince and an evil side-kick (if you can call it “playing” when you miss one performance because of an exam, one because you are too hung over and the third you end up repeating your lines after someone offstage has prompted you!). He is currently spending most of his free time trying to Direct. Probably starting your directorial career with a Scout Gang Show is not the greatest of plans! He also enjoys writing about himself in the third person.
Dominic Mattos – Renfield
Dominic’s last two years at Oxford have mostly been spent getting into the skirts of matronly older women. Indeed his life ambition was realised when he played the Dame in the OULES panto “Aladdin”. Some think, he peaked too soon. However he has overcome this stigma by going on to write and direct for OULES as well as serve them in the capacity of Vice-President. Dominic maintains that the small amount of “serious” acting he does in Oxford is also in essence “light entertainment” – the comic elements in “Macbeth” are often grossly overlooked. This is Dominic’s first trip to Edinburgh. He once ordered socks online from a shop based in Edinburgh. The possibility of actually visiting the shop fills him with unimaginable and inimitable excitement.
Benjamin Parker – Director
Ben Parker will be directing Dracula. He has served CULES and later Two Shades of Blue as a director, producer, scriptwriter, and actor. Of course, the output of this prolific dramaturge is too great to be confined to Light Entertainment productions alone, and he has also appeared in plays with the Chameleons (a North London drama society), and, as president of the Pembroke College Cambridge Winnie-the-Pooh society, his deep and moving portrayals of Piglet and Christopher Robin brought tears to many an eye. He produced “The Three Musketeers” at the Edinburgh Fringe last year, and his recent on-stage roles include the title role in “Lord Arthur Saville’s Crime”, and Rathbone King in “Dick Whittington and his Wonderful Cat”, which played to an audience of 2300 in North London this Christmas. He has previously directed many plays, including The Wizard of Oz, Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, and Peter Pan, and unfortunately also has a propensity for making terrible jokes.
Thomas Reynolds – Abraham Van Helsing
Tom Reynolds is from Swansea and is a student. He has long harboured a niggling wish to go on stage and help deliver hilarious puns to an adoring crowd. This wish went sadly unfulfilled until he spotted a poster for OULES. He went along to rehearsals at the start of his third year and did two of their marvellous plays… and now he gets to go to Scotland… cool!
Susy Rothe – Una the Vampire
Susy’s mum and her entire family is from Transylvania (she’s not kidding!) They went there for a month when she was 9 but the only blood sucking creatures she encountered were mosquitoes…….. Since joining CULES she has been involved with three plays: Producing Peter Pan as well as acting a hyperventilating Crocodile, Ariadne with a rather loose toga, and an ever whining Cinderella. She is currently working in a lab making herpes viruses. No questions asked.
Philip Scott – Jonathan
Philip Scott has finally been convinced to stop standing like Peter Pan, and (he hopes) gained the air of the well-to-do (if unfortunate) solicitor whose services Dracula has enlisted.. It has been said that Philip is hopless at learning lines and getting organized. This is a utter and complete truth, and the production would have been doomed from the start if it were not for the persuasive powers of the marker pen and it’s fated path towards our poor actors’ forehead.
Robert Spolander – Stage Manager
New to this company, Robert places the blame, sorry the credit, for being part of the production firmly at Ben Parker’s feet. Having directed Ben; joined him onstage in lavish gowns and roped him into being part of his crew it is now time to return the favour. Robert has stage managed on four previous occasions but this is first visit to Edinburgh. No stranger to the bad puns he has co-written six pantomimes for The Chameleons Amateur Dramatic Society and will direct his fourth such production (Aladdin) in January. Robert is quietly confident he may have seen a script by opening night!
Andrea Watts – Producer / Tria the Vampire / Sister Act
Andrea is training to be a lawyer. However, despite this she is admirably capable and organised. She also wrote the majority of the script, an adaptation of Dracula which opens up avenues of hereto undiscovered comedy, and which probably has Bram Stoker spinning in his grave. If making bad jokes were a crime, she would currently be doing at least ten years at Wormwood Scrubs.
Ruth Weyman – Lucy
This is Ruth’s first visit to the Fringe and she’s already far too excited about it; a recurrent problem which has led her unwittingly into acting, writing and even directing for OULES in the last two years. Ruth likes to think of herself as an English student, but spends far more time sewing, singing and playing around in theatres pretending to be a real techie. She still attempts to deny that her role as Lucy is typecasting.