The other day I was happy to “succumb to the darkness” yet again for a revisit to Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu”, this time with members of the “Nosferatu” gang, fellow actors in a stage production of “Nosferatu” in which I played the demented Renfield almost twenty years ago.

Tatiana Grey (second from right) organized the reunion. Emily Hartford and Ned Massey joined us.

Here we are in a photo taken in the way back when during our “Nosferatu” stage run. At right is Matt Cody, who was going to join us for the movie reunion, but had to cancel at last minute.

Which meant we were missing our own erstwhile Nosferatu.

Eggers’ movie (and Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake) and our stage adaptation were closely inspired by F. W. Murnau’s 1922 classic silent horror “Nosferatu”, itself a famously copyright flaunting version of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”. However there are elements in Murnau’s “Nosferatu” classic that distinguish it greatly from Stoker’s “Dracula” – most importantly the elevation of the heroine’s importance to the story. These carried over to the current movie as well as our stage version of “Nosferatu”.

Another Murnau specific element is use of shadow as an extension of the vampire, employed to famous effect in this still. Evocative shadow play is also beautifully employed in Eggers’ film, with Oscar nominated cinematography by Jarin Blashke. Light and shadow, black and white, were important elements of our stage version too.

Or should I say stage versions, as there were several, with the play evolving over several productions. We first performed in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza arch. Yes, you read that right. There is a long vertical room up in the top part of the arch – a windowless space that assisted rather evocatively in setting the mood for a bare bones but imaginative staging of the transcribed original screenplay of Murnau’s silent. Intertitles and scenario descriptions became our play text.

When the production moved to Manhattan, playwright Stanton Wood wrote a more traditional script based on the old screenplay and our adaptation.

We also performed that production at the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Here are a few production stills. The full cast was on stage at all times, becoming narrators and elements of the environment when not in character. Sadly I could not find any of pics of me as Renfield. According to critics my Renfield was “grotesque and tragic” and “the only believable Renfield I have ever seen”. In Murnau and Eggers “Nosferatu” the character is called Knock, but in our stage version, like in Herzog’s 1979 film, we resorted to Stoker’s names for the characters.

Second from right is Paul Daily. He, Emily and I were the only cast members who performed in every iteration of this Nosferatu, from Grand Army Plaza to Manhattan to Massachusetts. Paul now lives in Indiana, which was a better excuse to miss the Nosferatu movie reunion than Matt’s work deadline… 😉

Back to the movie. I enjoyed it even more the second time around. The first time my strong awareness of how it related to both the original Murnau film and the Herzog remake had me clocking the differences and homages, which can get in the way of total immersion. I have that experience with pretty much any adaptation of a well known original source – doesn’t keep me from enjoying good adaptations, but I tend to enjoy them even more on their own terms the second time around. Such as with Eggers’ “Nosferatu”, which draws you down into a waking nightmare more completely for its full running time than any other film I can think of. Succumb to the darkness indeed!

Finally a word about the music Robin Carolan composed for Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu”. Like the movie, the score is a deep dark descent into a seductively disquieting dream. I just had to update my popular “Sighing Strings of Cinema” post for it.

Scored almost exclusively for strings, with subtle assist from some percussion, the music is full of scary, shivery, screechy, groaning string effects designed to unsettle you at your core. But there is also much mournful beauty, as showcased at length in the elegiac “Daybreak”.