PREMONITORY shadows are cast across the entrance to the building that houses, according to the wrought iron sign above the doorway, the “Aberdeen Asylum for Women”.

There Mina Murray (aka Mina Harker) – the most prominent female character in Bram Stoker’s famous story of the terrifying vampire Count Dracula – is banging on the door demanding entry.

So begins Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning, Morna Pearson’s marvellously innovative take on the great vampire myth for the National Theatre of Scotland and Aberdeen Performing Arts, in association with the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry.

Directed by Sally Cookson, this stage adaptation has the triple distinctions of being largely set in Aberdeenshire, told from the perspective of a female protagonist, and performed by a cast of entirely female and non-binary actors.

The National:

In a theatrical world in which there are still far too few lead roles for women, the considerable amount of cross-gender casting involved in this production is welcome indeed. Liz Kettle’s tremendous rendering of Dracula, in particular, reinforces the, surely unarguable, case for casting women in lead roles that have historically been considered male.

By turns spine-chillingly ruthless and intelligently witty, Kettle’s vampire glides around Kenneth MacLeod’s remarkable metal set (all stairways, ramps and platforms) with a compelling otherworldliness.

Indeed, as the story of transcontinental vampirism unfolds, including the violent demise of Ailsa Davidson’s unfortunate Lucy Westenra, the production employs lighting and video technology to excellent effect. These smartly wrought interventions enable the set to stand in for such places as the corridors of Dracula’s Transylvanian castle and the rocky coastline of Aberdeenshire.

A dramatic musical score by Benji Bower and an appropriately supernatural soundscape help Cookson’s production to achieve its consistent and unerringly Gothic atmosphere. Indeed, despite the tensions between narration and dialogue that occur inevitably when transposing a novel to the stage, the production is impressively well paced throughout its more than two hours.

For lovers of the horror genre there are some powerful set piece representations of key moments of violence, from blood sucking to vampire killing. Pearson’s script also has a nice line in neatly comic references to the distinguishing features of a vampire, from their lack of a reflection to their supposed fear of garlic.

The National:

There is, throughout the play, a feminist revulsion at the patronising, outrageously constraining misogyny of Victorian society. From Maggie Bain’s Dr Seward to Natalie Arle-Toyne’s Van Helsing, the sexism of the male characters is lampooned mercilessly.

Where the adaptation really comes into its own, however, is in the motivation of Mina herself. Danielle Jam plays the hero with an energetic intellectual and moral dissatisfaction with her social position as a woman.

Ultimately, she finds herself confronted with a proposal from Dracula that is both fantastically clever and sharply persuasive, in both personal and political terms. It would be driving a stake through the heart of the play to disclose the outcome.

Suffice it to say that Pearson’s conclusion is a suitably original ending to an enthralling and brilliant adaptation of Stoker’s famous novel.

Touring Scotland and England until October 28: nationaltheatrescotland.com