A Bite Out of Minimalism: Timothy Griffin’s imaginative
adaptation turns Stoker’s most chilling chapter
into a voyage of dread, myth, and mind

In 1897, Bram Stoker published a gothic horror novel called Dracula and in doing so introduced to the world a character that has fascinated and terrified humanity for over a hundred years and counting. As of 2025, Dracula is the most portrayed literary character in media, with new adaptations apparently appearing on almost a weekly basis. City Lit & Black Button Eyes has added to this tally with its world premiere of Strange Cargo: The Doom of the Demeter, a new adaptation by Timothy Griffin, arriving just in time for Halloween. Rather than adapt the entirety of the novel, he has focused on Chapter 7, known colloquially as “The Captain’s Log”; the log in question is only about a third of the already very short chapter, but I suspect that of those who’ve read the novel, very few will have forgotten it. Thirty years after the fact, I remembered enough about it to identify a character in the play that was not in the original narrative.

Jennifer Agather, Nathaniel Kohlmeier

In front of a fine set, a grizzled captain warns us of things to come; for the main action, scenic designer Ruby Lowe has crafted a portion of a ship; the helm holding court at the center with a portion of the deck below. The sails are cleverly positioned to conceal entrances and exits—crucial to the narrative—and are also used imaginatively as canvases for the projection. Joe Griffin’s sound design and DJ Douglass’s projections do most of the heavy lifting here in terms of atmosphere. The storm scenes, in particular, are beautifully rendered.

Brian Parry

Strange Cargo tells the story of the voyage that brought Dracula to England on board the Russian cargo vessel, The Demeter. As Captain Gorodetsky prepares his ship to sail, he is approached by an oleaginous old man, Yorga. Yorga is there to make sure his cargo—boxes of earth, for botanical research—are correctly stowed. He throws a wrench in the works by insisting that he be allowed to accompany the boxes. After much argument, the captain yields, and Yorga is allowed on board, to sleep in the hold.

Once The Demeter is on her way, things get increasingly grim. The crew is overcome with malaise and dread, and crew members keep disappearing. Meanwhile, Yorga drives the captain to distraction with his need for conversation; teasing and provoking him with—to the captain’s mind—blasphemous observations about Christianity and God.

Jennifer Agather, Alex Albrecht

“The Captain’s Log” is memorable because in a baroque, gothic novel devoted to excesses of emotion, lust, appetite, and desire, it is an anomaly: a small masterpiece of minimalism. It confines itself to short declarative sentences with the barest digressions and is a deeply unsettling read. The reader knows what is happening, the characters do not. Aside, I’ve often wondered how much creepier the chapter would have been if the reader knew not the reason for the disappearances.

Alex Albrecht, Brian Parry

Timothy Griffin’s adaptation takes advantage of the fact that the source material gives you no explanation of the disappearances to craft something of a whodunit. He also fleshes out individual characters and gives them backstories, some of which are more effective than others, but his master stroke is in the introduction of Yorga, who isn’t mentioned in the original narrative—there’s a neat bit of dialog that smoothly reconciles this addition with the source material. Through Yorga’s chatter, Griffin introduces folkloric, mythological, and religious motifs into the script. A delightful shadow play with puppets tells us the story of Demeter, Hades and the kidnapping of Persephone, and the Greek origins of the seasons on Earth. The resurrection of Osiris and its parallels to Jesus also feature here. Elsewhere, the paranoid sailors fear that the tall thin man they see is a “klabautermann”, a friendly invisible spirit that only becomes visible when a ship is doomed. The nautical life is also nicely portrayed, using old-fashioned time-keeping using bells; the language is on point even if they like saying “forecastle” a bit too much (I kid, I kid). He even throws in a sea shanty sing-a-long; repurposing “Dink’s Song” for one of the loveliest moments on stage (it’s anachronistic, but so what).

Brian Parry, Alex Albrecht

Ed Rutherford’s direction is brisk and efficient. The pacing is sometimes a bit off but that might also be an issue with the script which is occasionally a bit too enamored with its cleverness, meanders, and gets a bit repetitive in the second act. He gets fine performances from his entire cast, although Brian Parry as Captain Gorodetsky and Herb Metzler as Yorga pretty much steal the show, as would be expected. A special mention to Alex Albrecht as tortured chief mate Basarab, and Cameron Austin Brown who provides a great deal of comic relief as the Turkish ship’s hand, Munir.

The full crew of The Demeter

Strange Cargo has its issues to be sure, most of them with the ending (although the opening monologue doesn’t quite click either), where there’s a little too much explanation when some ambiguity would have been more effective. The climactic scene where individual actors tell of the fates of other characters in the novel works better in concept than in practice, even if the writing for the Renfield and Lucy parts is wonderful. And the big reveal which involves some stunning puppetry by Jeremiah Barr is too rushed to truly make an impact. But I can’t be too cross with a show that’s this imaginative, intelligent, and well-acted.

Come for the scares, stay for the lore. Bram Stoker, who incorporated a considerable amount of European vampiric folklore—even as he invented his own—into the Dracula mythos, would have approved.

photos by Steve Graue

Strange Cargo: The Doom of the Demeter
City Lit/Black Button Eyes co-production world premiere
City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
ends on November 23, 2025
for tickets, call 773.293.3682 or visit City Lit

for more shows, visit Theatre in Chicago