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Count Dracula" was adapted for the stage by Ted Tiller in 1971 from Bram Stoker's Victorian novel of gothic horror, "Dracula". It borrows from the earlier Balderston/Deane play, the most famous of "Dracula" theatrical adaptations, on which several films and many stage productions have been based. But Tiller's play is tightly constructed and entertaining in its own right. And the Count Dracula character is thankfully more sinister than envisioned by Hamilton Deane. It's a good adaptation with engaging dialogue and a menacing villain that hold the audience's interest.

Tiller places the action in England of the 1930s, in the living quarters of Dr. Arthur Seward on the premises of the Asylum for the Insane, of which he is the resident psychiatrist and chief administrator. The set is a living room (or parlor) with arched ceilings and stone columns that reveal its gothic origins, large French windows, a fireplace, furnishings, and several entrances and exits, including a secret panel. All but the play's last scene take place in this room. The last scene takes place in a crypt.

In this version of the Dracula story, Dr. Seward is a psychiatrist living at his workplace with his spinster sister, Sybil, who is harmlessly and slightly "touched in the head." Seward's ward, a young woman named Mina, is also there and has recently become ill with sudden bouts of lethargy and symptoms of anemia. All of the characters are brought together when the Seward's invite Mina's fiancée, a young architect name Jonathan Harker, Professor Heinreich Van Helsing, a rare disease specialist and friend of Seward's from abroad, and Count Dracula, a Transylvanian aristocrat who has recently arrived in England, to dinner. Upon seeing Mina, Van Helsing realizes the cause of her illness and tries to convince Jonathan and Dr. Seward, who aren't inclined to believe in vampires. By Act 2, all are convinced that Dracula is preying on Mina, but their attempts to hold him at bay are frustrated. In Act 3, the men confront Dracula and attempt to detain him until the sun rises, which will bring his death. Again, they are foiled. So they follow Dracula to the crypt in his home and attempt to destroy him there. 

There isn't time to develop any characters in a 3-act play, so Count Dracula is unlikable from the beginning. He is rude and sarcastic, so the audience has no trouble thinking him a predatory menace. In this play, Dracula possesses the powers of hypnotism, transfiguration (into a bat), and the ability to produce fire. His inability to survive sunlight or cast a reflection in a mirror are his limitations. All are used to propel the story forward. The character of Sybil is both an enabling device for certain actions and comic character. Her vanity and jealousy make her simultaneously empathetic and annoying. In the hands of the right actress, Sybil can capture the audience's interest and draw them in. The other characters are more or less what you would expect, except that Arthur Seward is middle-aged, even though he is a composite of the novel's Arthur Holmwood and Dr. Seward, who are both young men.

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