CHARACTERS

 

VAN HELSlNG

Abraham Van HeIsing a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments. A man of medium height, strongly built.

 

DRACULA

A centuries-old vampire and a Transylvanian nobleman. Beneath a veneer of aristocratic

charm, the count possesses a dark and evil soul.

 

SCENE

The action takes place in a sitting room.

(VAN HELSING IS SITTING ON AN ARMCHAIR OPPOSITE HIM; THERE IS ANOTHER  ARMCHAIR, BUT AT PRESENT, IT IS EMPTY)  DRACULA COMES IN  AND STANDS  STILL. VAN HELSING STANDS TOO)

 

VAN HELSING

I didn't think  I would see you again after all these years.

 

DRACULA

You and  I will never be apart, my dear professor.

 

VAN HELSING

(SITS)

I shouldn't think so.

Sit down and make yourself comfortable.

 

DRACULA

(MOVES TO THE EMPTY ARMCHAIR AND SlTS)

It is not often we meet, but here we are again. Do you have your crucifix, the garlic and the wooden stake?

 

VAN HELSING

Why should I bring them here with me now?

 

DRACULA

They were part of your furniture, were they not?

(PAUSES)

The crucifix is a piece of carved wood.……

 

VAN HELSING

So, it is. Yet you are the parody of what is good in life. You make a mockery out of justice. You are the misrepresentation of justice. You are an insult to humans.

 

DRACULA

Maybe so, and still, the recruiting of the disciples never ends. Why is that professor?

 

VAN HELSING

Some people enjoy seeing others in pain and inflicting it more on them. One should never underestimate you; I mean, the amount of evil caused by people thinking they were doing the right thing is unbelievable. I realised that far more harm had been inflicted by optimistic people than by distrustful offenders.

 

DRACULA

 

Those who put power into the hands of an oppressor must not be surprised if it turns against them.

 

VAN HELSING

Power tends to corrupt power, while absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

DRACULA

Laws are like cobwebs that entangle the weak but are broken by the strong. Coercing is not an antidote; it is merely a therapy for the weak. Professor, you talk about evil; what you did to us speaks evil, too.

 

VAN HELSING

What do you mean by that?

 

DRACULA

All punishment is evil.  You've punished my disciples with grave methods, but that is not evil for you; it is a cure for justice.

 

VAN HELSING

One must fight evil with eviI.

 

DRACULA

AT last! I never thought that we would agree on something.

 

VAN HELSING 

No, I am not.   To overcome evil and wickedness, one must adjust to an unusual persuasion.  The only thing necessary for triumphing over it is for good men to do nothing.

 

DRACULA

Get the clever ones on your side, and you can get away with murder.  I do not overwhelm myself with greatness, but overcome good with evil.

I am strong, or even stronger, and will bear carefully over the frailties of the intelligent ones and overpower the weak. It is the way of living!

VAN HELSING

 

Do you mean you're living?

 

DRACULA

Yes. And, of course, the living of my followers. The conquest of the world will be complete by polluting all the women. I have used them as weapons in the war between you and us. And I shall keep using them until I have complete victory.  If only I could appropriate the means.

 

VAN HELSING

(INTERRUPT)

But …...

 

DRACULA

(IGNORING HIM AND CONTINUES)

It is the same logic generals use when their soldiers rape daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers of the losing troops. My female disciples will further assist me in undermining the present civilisation. The same devotees will transpose modern womanhood; they turn their children for nourishment rather than fostering them, squandering future

generations of citizens for food rather than allowing them to grow up and propagate the values of their culture.

 

VAN HELSING

I heard someone saying once that he first saw and met with communism and didn't speak because he wasn't a communist. Then came the Jews, and still, he didn't talk about it because he was a Jew.  Then came the homosexuals and lesbians, and he didn't speak of it either because he was heterosexual. Then came the Catholics, and he didn't talk at all because he was an atheist. Then they came for him, and no one was left to speak by then.

 

DRACULA

And by that, you mean? … …

 

VAN HELSING

Somebody else will stand against you as I did in the past.

 

DRACULA

Did you achieve anything? You won the battles but not the war. The war is still raging, and it has gotten worse.

 

VAN HELSING

I achieved what was good at the time. Everyone knows you know how abhorrent you are and how you manipulate the population with the promise of immortality. The only thing left is fear. Fear is fear —Unreasoning terror, which paralyses our culture. We must destroy evil. You are the form of incompetence. I won't be sorry then because I have done good by then, or someone else would. The lust for evil is not rooted in strength but in weakness. Evil cannot be filled with happiness.

 

DRACULA

Why don't you look around, my dear Van Helsing? Please tell me what you see. Who wants to be good, and for what?

 

VAN HELSING

I blame all of it on boredom. It is a widely unrecognised source of evil. Unfortunately, I must admit it, it certainly is. The absence of purpose is not A lack of things to do is the basis of nearly all of the monotone. People need meaning instead of sitting all day in front of a screen watching reality shows or playing graphically violent games on it. They have to do something else, and if they don't, they will pursue other pleasures; pornography is widespread and easy to get. Once it devours the senses, then it will seek evil itself.

 

DRACULA

You are moralising heavily now!  Remember, the man who fights for heights will live forever.

 

VAN HELSING

Under your leadership?

 

DRACULA

Why not? Who else is there other than me? I am a member of the aristocracy, a bloodsucking aristocrat living off the struggling peasants and their warm blood.

(LAUGHS)

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

 

VAN HELSING

I'd rather fight for something I want and not get it than achieve something I don't like and get it. The abusive words you are using are the foundation of a corrupt society. I distrust you; I always did. You produce a dessert of consistency around you and a rise of blood, too. The corruption of languages follows the way you corrupt us.

 

DRACULA

The unawareness of my world leaves one at the mercy of wickedness.  I am a liberating man from the humiliation fantasy known as integrity. The simplicity of people's minds prevents them from becoming more easily prey to a big capture rather than a small one.

 

VAN HELSING

I'm afraid I must agree with you. Every country has the government it warrants.

 

DRACULA

I came from a time when no middle class existed; we, the aristocrats, controlled the country's wealth. And while the world is on the brink of the twenty-fifth century,  my Transylvania is an underdeveloped third-world country that hasn't changed much in the past five hundred years. The great strength of a totalitarian power is that it influences those who fear it to copy it. Many people now think they are deliberating when, in truth, they are purely reshuffling their prejudices.

 

VAN HELSING

If freedom means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear. Prejudice is almost eliminated these days.

 

DRACULA

You are joking, are you not? Unlike your world, in my world, my disciples, or my followers, if you wish, come from everywhere, from any race, colour, or creed.

 

VAN HELSING

(EVADING HlS STATEMENT)

If thoughts corrupt a language, a language also corrupts thought. Injustice anywhere is a threat to morality everywhere, count. To ignore this evil is to become a collaborator. The evil power that you possess is your ultimate aphrodisiac.

 

DRACULA

What is wrong with sexual desires? The man was born to corrupt and seduce.

 

VAN HELSING

In your made-up laws, our laws dictate differently. We have good morals. Morality is the separation of objectives, choices, and actions between good or right and those who are evil and wrong. A moral code is a system of goodness and badness. Our morals are incredibly different from your morals, if you have some.

 

 

DRACULA

How can you be sure that you are right? You are saying that you are good people, so your moral conduct is the right one, and mine is corrupt, and the other way around.

A person who is cruel to his animals also finds it hard to deal with his fellow man. My followers and I can judge the heart of you humans by your treatment of animals.

 

VAN HELSING

Yet the inequality of rights and power progresses from that very source of belief. Every person like you who has power is encouraged to abuse it. Like dictators and priests who abuse children, do you want me to keep going? These are your disciples; they corrupt the very sense of innocent beings.

 

DRACULA

(GlVES A SARCASTIC SMILING SOUND)

well … .

 

VAN HELSING

I distrust all those who have the impulse to possess power.

 

DRACULA

What the person needs is a redeemer like me. I will give them a bath of blood to wash in, cleanse them, and make them immortal.

 

VAN HELSING

Undead! That's what you mean. They will no longer be alive but will be animated by a supernatural force.

 

DRACULA

You can call it what you like. What should interest you is that we have lived for centuries.

 

VAN HELSING

Do you believe what you are saying?

 

DRACULA

We'll? I'm here, am I not?

 

VAN HELSING

Yes, you are, and so am I! You have no right to make these innocent people your disciples. That is what you did and do.  You do not discuss it with them. Instead, you render them without their consent. The protection of a person is more sacred than the protection of his possessions. One of the most extraordinary delusions in this world is the hope that the evil among us will be cured by legislation. When I take one person under your influence, it would be as if you took everyone.

(PAUSES AND  REFLECTS)  

If I could save one life, it would be like I had saved my soul.

 

DRACULA

You elude yourself, professor.  No man is justified in doing good on the grounds of convenience. Righteousness always brings with it irresponsibility. There is no good or evil, as you kindly pointed out. There is only power.

 

VAN HELSING

Now, who is deluded?   Power takes the insolence from the thrashing of its victims. The evil that is in this world almost comes from ignorance.

While good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack the understanding of evil, one victim of yours is a tragedy, and a million victims are a statistic.

 

DRACULA

The lust for power in humans is the most fragrant of all their passions. I give them graciously, and they accept it graciously. Law? MoraIity? What do I care about law and morality? Haven't I got the power?

 

VAN HELSING

Yes, but only for the moment.

 

DRACULA

A moment, I had since decided to become one. I was born in December 1431 in the fortress of Sighisoara, Romania.  I am  Vlad Dracula, nicknamed Vlad the Impaler, who ruled Walachia from 1456 to 1462. I resided there all my adult life except for imprisonment at Pest and Visegrad in Hungary.

 

VAN HELSING

I know your story well. You suffered a serious loss when your enemy sent news to your castle that you had been killed.  Your wife, Elizabeta, flung herself into the river below the castle. I read that because she committed suicide, the church proclaimed her soul damned. You became furious with God for letting your wife die while you were fighting for his cause. You renounced God and the church, stabbed the crucifix on the dais of the chapel, and it began to bleed. In vengeance, you drank the blood flowing from the cross, proclaiming that you will be reborn after your death with all the powers of darkness at your command.

 

DRACULA

(LAUGHS)

You are right, but I had never heard such an enthusiastic voice say it before.  It is amazing what writers express themselves. But that was an accurate beginning of my kingdom. That is why I have the power; I rejected God.

​

VAN HELSING

Your truth is buried underground.  While it stays there, it expands, it congests, and it gathers such a dangerous might that on the day it bursts out, it devours the world; God bless us.

 

DRACULA

When they come, and it is not far away, there will be nobody to care.

 

VAN HELSING

You say that because you know well that leaders of today are weak under your eyes, because they fight eviI with eviI. They don,t fight it with moral standards.  If they do as  I tried to do with you, they will subdue it and not enhance it.  Once the soul has conceived wickedness, it can foster no good thereafter. You are so unpretentious that you share our beds and eat on our tables without recognising yourself.

 

DRACULA

The whole range of good and eviI is in every person. EviI is only a point of view. It is done without effort, it is the working of destiny; good is always the creation of virtuosity, isn,t it so?

 

VAN HELSING

I always thought there was no reason  why good couIdn,t triumph over eviI. The victory is a matter of configuration. Whoever fights eviI, should see to it that in the process one doesn't become eviI too, because when I take a good look into the abyss,  it always looks back at me.

 

DRACULA

The belief of eviI has been many and many years before  I came into existence.  It didn't start with the highly developed cultures; it started when Cain killed his brother and continued not only with the ancestor of brutality,  but also in the form of disguise, being the mask of good. The substance of the good, you talk about, was conveyed to eviI, that it drew itself all the hatred and resentment which throbbed good into its devotees so that at the end it could become eviI.

 

VAN HELSING

I only understand one thing.  No one who summons up the most wicked of those half-tamed fears which inhabit the human hearts, and the purpose to fight with them, can expect to come through the struggle unharmed.

 

DRACULA

EviI is aIways possibIe,  professor.  Not like goodness, it is eternally difficult to keep hold of.

 

VAN HELSING

I happen to think that the eviI doing of our time is prejudice. It is from eviI that other evils grow and multiply.  Apathy and eviI,  they work together. They are the same, and eviI desires it while apathy permits. 

 

DRACULA

When they come, and it is not far away, there will be nobody to care for.

 

VAN HELSING

You say that because you know well that today's leaders are weak under your eyes because they fight evil with evil. They don't fight it with moral standards.  If they do as  I tried to do with you, they will subdue it and not enhance it. Once the soul has conceived wickedness, it can foster no good thereafter. You are so unpretentious that you share our beds and eat at our tables without recognising yourself.

​

DRACULA

The whole range of good and evil is in every person. Evil is only a point of view. It is done without effort; it is the working of destiny; good is always the creation of virtuosity.

 

VAN HELSING

I always thought there was no reason why good couldn't triumph over evil. The victory is a matter of configuration. Whoever fights evil should see that in the process, one doesn't become evil, too, because when I take a good look into the abyss, it always looks back at me.

 

DRACULA

The belief in evil has been many years before I came into existence. It didn't start with the highly developed cultures; it began when Cain killed his brother and continued with the ancestor of brutality and, in disguise, being the mask of good. The substance of the good you talk about was conveyed to evil, that it drew all the hatred and resentment which throbbed well into its devotees so that at the end, it could become evil.

 

VAN HELSING

I only understand one thing. No one who summons up the most wicked of those half-tamed fears that inhabit human hearts and the purpose of fighting with them can expect to come through the struggle unharmed.

 

DRACULA

Evil is always possible, Professor.  Not like goodness, it is eternally tricky to keep hold of.

 

VAN HELSING

The evil-doing of our time is prejudice. It is from evil that other evils grow and multiply.  Apathy and evil work together. They are the same, and evil desires it, while apathy permits it. They both hate the innocent and the defenceless most of all. Apathy doesn't care if it's not personally inconvenienced. It is a glove in which evil slips its hand in. Everything bad starts from innocence.

 

DRACULA

In every person's heart, there is a demon, but they don't know what they are until that demon is provoked.

 

VAN HELSING

The belief that there is only one truth and one has it is the deepest root of all that is bad in this world. A resolution to avoid it is only known once the evil is so advanced that prevention is impossible.

 

DRACULA

I do not make imaginary evil when you know you have many real ones to encounter. Professor, now that you know the full power of evil, does it not make ugIuglinessem beabeautifulhiIe goodness is ugly and weak?

 

VAN HELSING

Not everybody is stupid. The only thing for evil to be in jubilation is for good people to do nothing. We think that small acts of goodness are useless, so we don't do them. We also believe that small evil doings cannot harm, and we don't refrain from them. Therefore, wickedness becomes so great that it cannot be concealed anymore, and the guilt within is so immense that it cannot be forgiven.

 

DRACULA

If humans are afraid of something good, they must have the opportunity to call upon evil and come to the rescue. Yet, let's suppose they struggle through goodness and then find that life is also dreadful. What do they do if water is something they cannot drink? Or if their home is where they don't want to live, or their very same character makes them unpleasant? Then, I'm afraid, they have played their last card and have no way out but only to join me.

 

VAN HELSING

I must admit that even though I might have some evil within as much as anybody else, some of the desires I get frighten me even when I don't give in to temptation; that scares me, too. I am no saint, count, far from it, yet I've always walked a straight line.  It's a mean line, straight and narrow, sharp as a razor, and cuts right into me when I have walked long enough. I feel I  am constantly bleeding on that line, and sometimes I wonder why I don't just step off it and walk on a broader road.

 

DRACULA

Professor, in truth, people aren't evil, and people aren't good. They live how they can, one day at a time. They come out of the dust and return to dust; whose fault is that?  I wonder. Not mine, that's for sure.

 

VAN HELSING

Evil lurks in man's heart, and you and your false pretences tend to bring it out for them. You have always been cruel, even when you thought you were devout. Now, you could somehow survive identifications and go on forever.

 

DRACULA

Don't you want to live forever, Professor van Helsing? The faithful one?

 

VAN HELSING

What for? I had lived enough to see sickness, tragedies, and death. I live my life, and I have nothing to complain about.  Others try to raise their children to protect them from the world's wickedness. Only to find they have raised a pack of innocents destined to blend with evil at any time.

 

DRACULA

The fact is that everyone is born with a free spirit.  The choice belongs to the person. I believe that what produces the very unusual world they live in is a world in continuous construction and, therefore, constant variation and insecurity. The fear of evil is a mere prognosis. True, I take advantage of weak people, but in the end,  I am giving a world where there are no worries, sickness, or emotions. I have no feelings, never get sick, and never worry. If the world drops, I wouldn't care a bit.

 

VAN HELSING

As you mentioned, it even started with the creation of man. A master of yours who tempted the first woman, and she fell. From then on, life became a struggle between good and evil. But because both exist, I don't choose to live them both. I chose the right path.

 

DRACULA

But there isn't a line between good and evil. If time is inaccurate, dividing life's foundation, the built-in structure between the most potent forces, is an illusion. If your beliefs don't teach you the difference between fact and illusion, then your beliefs are worse than useless.

​

VAN HELSING

It has been rightly said that nothing is insignificant; nothing is helpless in our world. A single action can disperse everything or save everything. There lies the endless similarity between what we are talking about. Good and evil. We should not do an immoral thing for moral reasons. The wicked are wicked, no doubt of it, and they go astray as they fall.

 

DRACULA

Professor.

(STANDS)

You and I tried to understand them from the very beginning of our lives.  I thought good was incomplete, while you understood that evil is often an instance more than a situation. One thing is for sure: we cannot change who we were then and what represents us now.

 

VAN HELSING

(STANDS TOO)

No, I cannot. What about you count?

 

DRACULA

What about me?

 

VAN HELSING

Will you still roam the earth for another century or more? You are immortal, after all?

 

DRACULA

And so are you, my dear Professor Van Helsing.

 

VAN HELSING

What do you mean?

 

DRACULA

We were created in 1897 by a man known as  Bram  Stoker, and now, we are between the twentieth and the thirtieth century. We are both alive and kicking; sometimes, we are represented as ourselves, and sometimes we become other characters, but also about us,  good and evil. We stay alive until nobody will read any more books; they won't watch us on television or in the cinema.

 

(THEY BOTH WALK OUT AS THEY DO SO, VAN HELSING SPEAKS)

 

VAN HELSING

Until then, count!

 

 

THE END