Varney the Vampire: Or The Feast of Blood (A Ghoulish Spoof in Two Acts)

Varney the Vampire: Or The Feast of Blood (A Ghoulish Spoof in Two Acts), adapted and dramatized by Tim Kelly. 1990s? clip-bound softcover. 118 pages, very nice condition (fold on back cover).

A stage adaptation of the famous Penny Dreadful story. In this wild and clever spoof, a weary vampire Sir Francis Varney shows up at an inn in Italy. He plans to visit a haunted grotto and ask forgiveness from a lost love whose ghost is doomed to roam the landscape wearing a thin veil over her face. Varney forgets his mission and proceeds to snarl and snap at everyone in sight, especially an English damsel. Varney is shot, stabbed with a wooden stake and hanged. Still he survives! The action gets sillier and sillier (and funnier and funnier) as Inspector Balsadella seeks answers for the strange goings on. The tongue in cheek style is a howl, and there are many optional, corny stage effects as well as a zany cast of characters. Ultimately Varney manages to destroy himself.