THE Dreaming's regular writer, Scott Harrison, promises "possibly the most faithful adaptation to date" of Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.

From tomorrow on a whistle-stop Yorkshire tour, the York company injects new blood into Dracula and cast alike. "Dracula has been a favourite work of Scott's for a long time and one of the things he wanted to do was to keep the story as close to the original as possible," says director Lee York.

"We really do think this is the closest there has been. Audiences will recognise not only characters and scenes but the dialogue too. Whereas previous adaptations have done things like making Mina and Lucy sisters to make it easier, we won't be doing that."

Lee has brought new blood into The Dreaming ranks. Only Aidan McCarthy, in the role of Van Helsing, and Kirsty McIntyre, who plays Mina, have performed previously for the company. Enter Gareth Rubin as Dracula, Paul Toy as Dr Seward, Alistair Reith as Renfield, Peter Barton as Arthur Holmwood and Holly Janowski as Lucy, with writer Harrison as Jonathan Harker.

"It was a very deliberate choice," says Lee. "We'd worked with pretty much the same core of actors over four shows, and though we were very happy with the work they'd given us, we wanted to freshen things up. We knew what kind of performances we'd be getting from the old cast and it wasn't as scary, I guess, as when we started, so that's why we've opened it up to new talent. That was something we said we'd do when we began the company: giving a chance to new actors."

Dracula, The Dreaming Theatre Production Company, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 7.30pm (box office 01904 621756); The Shire Hall, Howden, Sunday (01430 432510); Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, October 29 and 30 (01765 643199); Bridlington Spa Theatre, October 31 (01262 678258).

Updated: 09:56 Friday, October 22, 2004