Dracula re-emerged, his control of Jonathan Harker strong, two of the trio allied against him — Doctors George Seward and Van Helsing — on the ground, incapacitated. Mina Harker gathered the strength to thrust a wooden stake into Dracula, though his demise seemed far from certain. The lights dimmed, a strobe flashed to one side of the stage, and an unsettling, pulsing buzz filled the air.

The action stopped, the actors in the King’s College production seemed unsure about the next line. Then a member of the production staff stepped between stage and audience and said “Follow me.” Everyone started filing out the door.

The strobe and buzzing were not part of the play. An automatic fire alarm had gone off in the George P. Maffei Theatre.

Actors in full costume — Dracula’s recently-slain wiv

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