The world premiere of ensemble member Kevin Douglas’ “Untitled Vampire Play” at Lookingglass Theatre Company can’t decide if it wants to be a parody or make a serious point, so it tries to do both and ends up throwing in too many hastily developed plot lines to be fully satisfying. Called a “romantic-comedy-meets-horror-story” in the press releases, it starts off in rom-com territory and segues into a meditation on the inability of humans and vampires to co-exist, which could be considered a metaphor for … oh, so many things.
Still, putting aside the soulless title, there’s plenty to enjoy in the Lookingglass production ably directed by Devon DeMayo, cleverly designed and cannily performed by actors who give it their all. Humor is the main source of energy and stems from several circumstances, starting with vampires trying to behave like normal beings. (Try brushing up on vampire lore if you are rusty.)
The opening, which could be a Second City skit, sends up a classic dating situation. Dom (Jordan Anthony Arredondo), a bartender and aspiring historian, is bringing his girlfriend of four months, Val (Courtney Rikki Green), home to meet his parents, police detective Alicia (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams) and compulsive joker Louie (Kareem Bandealy), for the first time. But he’s waited until the last minute to divulge a crucial bit of information: Val is a vampire.
Not surprisingly, the dinner is a disaster just waiting to happen. The folks don’t take Dom seriously and, when Val waits to be invited in (as vampires must), they think it’s a joke but play along for a time because they love their son. Louie keeps making bad vampire-themed dad jokes, and both parents ask inappropriate questions. The scene is cringe-worthy but also very funny.
Another facet of the humor emerges when Val returns to her apartment, which scenic designer Alyssa Mohn has imagined as a Gothic-looking tower flanked by colorful neon tubes framing the Chicago skyline. She shares the apartment with Rose (Jin Park), her younger “sister” and progeny, an avid gamer who settles in for the day in one of the two coffins that rise from the floor.
Val is trying to be a better vampire: drinking blood only from the medical bags she brings home from the hospital where she works the night shift, refraining from hunting and doing yoga. She also wants Rose to do the same, and Rose has to comply unless she can get Val, who made her, to release her.
Then, Roderick (Walter Briggs), also Val’s progeny, shows up and throws everything out of balance. An old-school vampire sociopath who relishes hunting, he goes on a killing spree, seducing younger sister Rose into joining him, resulting in detective Alicia being assigned to a case she thinks involves a serial killer and treating the audience in the first couple of rows to some fake blood spatter.
Hard on Roderick’s heels is Lance Van Helsing (Bandealy), descendant of the famous vampire hunter of Dracula’s time. (The script lists him as Lance Tardis-Helsing, perhaps a reference to Doctor Who’s time-traveling spaceship that resembles an English telephone box.) Looking weary and tossing his mane of graying hair, Lance turns out not to be up to Roderick, who swears to Val he’s changed but is, of course, lying.
Besides all the dysfunctional vampire family drama, Val has to deal with a more basic issue. After centuries of falling in love and having it not work out, she feels she’s finally found her forever mate in Dom. She’s ready to turn him into a vampire so they can be together … well, forever.
But Dom is adamantly opposed to the idea. He wants to live out his natural life with Val and is prepared for her to go on after that without him. No matter how much she tries to convince him that she loves being a vampire, he has no interest in the disadvantages, from not being able to go out during the day to seeing the people he loves grow old and die.
The meet-the-parents scene actually introduces this irreconcilable difference, and it is rehashed several times before fate finally takes a rather abrupt hand. The denouement could be very poignant but somehow isn’t. Dom and Val’s grand passion for each other comes across as bloodless.
In truth, Roderick is my favorite character in “Untitled Vampire Play” and it would be fun to find out more of his backstory. But I’m drawn to iconoclastic vampires with wicked senses of humor and a penchant for speaking truth to power, so I prefer sardonic Spike over brooding Angel in “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer” and Eric Northman over anyone in “True Blood.”
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