Carmilla

A Play in One Act

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Approx. 75 minutes

One set

Cast of nine

(3 men, 5 women, 1 either)

Period (late 1930s)

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Available via Amazon

Rights available via Off The Wall Plays.

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Review by Going Rampant.

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Violence, racism, adult themes

 Based on the 1871 vampire classic by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, but updated to the era of the Third Reich.

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Carmilla tells the story of Laura, a girl of English/Austrian parentage who in the wake of World War II wishes to emigrate to the UK.  A legal officer wants to hear more of her story, clearly suspicious of why she was never interned as well as the friendship between her father and a now-dying war criminal.

Laura explains how her lonely life was one day forever changed by a mysterious visitor.  As war and oppression grew ever closer, so too did Carmilla and Laura, despite the sudden rash of local deaths of young women, all seemingly of exhaustion.  Laura herself begins to suffer (or enjoy) strange dreams about her new friend.  Soon enough a portrait is found, of a Countess from two centuries ago--who looks exactly like Carmilla herself!

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All this comes to a violent conclusion when her father's friend Colonel Spielsdorf, now a member of the SS, arrives half-mad and looking for Carmilla, insisting she is a monster.

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Carmilla: A Play in One Act has had multiple productions across the country.