Vampires and Valentines

A dark tale of vampiric infatuation, based upon Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla in words and music.

An alternative to the Valentine narrative, set by candlelight in the Great Hall.

Specially adapted for the Castle by Graeme Hobbs.

Laura – Gemma Aukett
The Book – Graeme Hobbs
The Music – Dafydd Roberts and John Whatling

An oupire is a type of vampire that originated in Slavic folklore. Unlike traditional vampires, oupires are said to be living beings who have been cursed or possessed by evil spirits. They are often depicted as having pale skin, glowing eyes, and the ability to shape-shift into animals. Oupires are also said to have a weakness to sunlight and can be killed by a stake through the heart or decapitation.

Carmilla is an extraordinary novella, with a characteristic of its writing being that the book itself seems to have an unconscious which know more about the motivations of the characters than they do themselves. This led to the book, Oupire, in which strands of text, excised from the original, weave around each other and tell the tale in the two voices of the narrator and the book. Here, those voices are presented against a background of appropriately eerie music. More about the book can be seen here.