Danielle Jam has never forgotten the thrill of her first experience of the smell of greasepaint and being transported into another world.
The Aberdonian was just 10 when she watched a friend play one of the ugly sisters in the pantomime Cinderella at a local drama group. And she marvelled at the way he looked as if he was having so much fun; smiling and laughing in a collaborative tableau.
Danielle soon joined the same group and freely admits she became ‘hooked’ on performing. She also joined Aberdeen Youth Music Theatre and her involvement in amateur shows and school productions intensified her passion for acting.
This is her biggest venture so far
Nothing has changed since these early days, but her lustre has grown, whether appearing on television or becoming a regular with the National Theatre of Scotland.
And now, she will take on a leading role in a thrilling new adaptation of Dracula by acclaimed Scottish playwright Morna Pearson, directed by Olivier award-winning Sally Cookson, which is being brought to a variety of venues across Scotland and England by the NTS later this year in a unique co-production with Aberdeen Performing Arts.
Set in a psychiatric hospital in Aberdeenshire in 1897, Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning places the main character at the centre of the action, trying to escape the horrors she has experienced, retelling her encounters with the most terrifying of beasts: Dracula.
It’s a bold enterprise which is replete with Elgin-born Pearson’s trademark humour, theatricality, and penchant for the strange, the shocking and the grotesque. The production celebrates the novel’s gothic horror origins while, in a radical twist, it allows audiences to view the story through the eyes of Mina Murray and the patients.
Original novel had north-east roots
For many years, Dracula has been associated with Whitby and Transylvania, but recent research suggests that Aberdeenshire played a significant part in shaping the structure and atmosphere of Bram Stoker’s famous novel, and in particular Slains Castle, which features an octagonal room like the one described by the author in the seminal work.
And, as you might imagine, given the source material, Danielle, who is currently touring with NTS in Kidnapped, is relishing the opportunity to get her teeth into this new part.
She says: “It’s a new perspective, it’s being told from the point of view of my character, Mina, and her experience with this creature who is free from physical danger, death and societal constraints, and how that influences her at her lowest point.
“I am really looking forward to how it’s going to look onstage especially with the horror elements and the challenge that’s going to bring as an actor.
“I first saw Sally’s work in Aberdeen and read Morna’s plays at university. So I feel incredibly lucky to now get to work with them both and start the tour in my home city.”
The stage is in her blood
The stage is in Danielle’s blood – she relished studying Shakespearean, Greek and Restoration plays while she was a student at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.
And while Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning doesn’t have its world premiere at His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen until the start of September, as the prelude to touring in Glasgow, Stirling, Inverness, Dundee, Edinburgh, Coventry and Liverpool, there’s no doubt she is savouring her involvement in this eagerly-awaited production.
Indeed, her schedule is like her name: jam-packed. And one suspects it is only going to become busier in the future.
