Edward Gorey's Dracula: A Toy Theatre

This ingenious toy theatre is based on Edward Gorey’s set and costume designs for his award-winning production of Dracula, which ran to nearly a thousand Broadway performances. Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel took place in the wild Carpathian Mountains, London and rural England, and various places in between. But the Dracula for which Edward Gorey created the set designs reproduced in miniature here compresses the action to one locale: the sanatorium of Dr. Seward, near the town of Purley, somewhere in the English countryside. Gorey’s signature crosshatch, exquisitely detailed drawings set the perfect mood for the three rooms featured in this set—which also includes his costumed characters and stage furniture (a tomb, a bed, two rugs, and a couch. You can put it all together with very little work and just a little bit of tape, to act out your own vampire story with satisfaction.

Edward Gorey

Artist and author Edward Gorey (American, 1925–2000) is beloved for the boundless imagination and sharp humor exhibited in his more than 100 published works. Gorey was also a set and costume designer for innumerable theater productions, including a staging of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, for which he won a Tony. He had a profound affection for literature, film, ballet, and animals. Cats and other odd creatures appear in many of his crosshatched illustrations. His humorously unsettling drawings of vaguely Victorian innocents facing unfortunate ends became familiar to a wide audience after appearing in the opening credits of the PBS television series Mystery! Gorey’s Cape Cod home, a veritable cabinet of curiosities, is now a museum celebrating his life and work.