Dramaturgical Guide

In the 18th and 19th centuries, parts of New England experienced what historians now call the “vampire panic.” As tuberculosis spread through rural communities, families sometimes exhumed the bodies of deceased relatives, believing the dead were draining life from the living. In responses to fear, grief, and limited medical knowledge, several bodies were disinterred, staked, decapitated, and burned.

By invoking the New England vampire panic, My Carmilla grounds its supernatural story in a real historical period of hysteria and scapegoating. When communities confront unexplained suffering, they often seek a visible culprit. A “monster” becomes a convenient vessel for collective anxiety. My Carmilla invites audiences to consider how moral panic transforms private grief into public persecution.

Discussion Question: What happens when fear demands a body to blame?

Vampire-type creatures are a global phenomenon. Former humans turned undead bloodsucking predators appear not only in Eastern European folklore, but also in South and Southeast Asian traditions, African cosmologies, and cultures of the Americas. These figures often reflect anxieties about disease, hunger, sexuality, and social transgression.

By adapting the Victorian gothic novella as a folk horror story within a broader lineage of vampire mythology, My Carmilla reframes vampirism as part of a much older and more diverse symbolic language. The vampire becomes a figure of transformation, at once feared and desired, destructive and regenerative. Rather than presenting vampirism as inherently evil, the play asks what societies project onto those who live beyond normative boundaries.

Discussion Question: What fears or desires does the vampire embody in different cultures—and what might that reveal about our own?

From Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire to HBO’s True Blood, queer subtext can be found in nearly all vampire literature. While most early authors steered clear of overt references, Le Fanu’s Carmilla stands apart with an explicitly same-sex romance.

Vampires represent intimacy, knowledge, and break from society’s rules. In her desire for Carmilla, Laura experiences both passion and repulsion. She resents Carmilla for awakening these feelings while also envying her freedom and fearing the transgression she represents.

Discussion Question: What aspects of vampire lore might resonate with common queer experiences?

My Carmilla explores colonialism as a pattern where the powerful take what they want from others and discard them once that value is gone. This dynamic shapes relationships throughout the play, raising questions about who holds power and how it is sustained.

Carmilla’s pre-Christian, feminine-coded power is rooted in ritual, intuition, and connection to the natural world. It exists outside patriarchal systems including 19th century science, religion, and militaristic force. Rather than offering clear opposing forces, My Carmilla suggests that these systems can overlap. Acts of resistance may also reproduce the very dynamics they oppose, revealing how cycles of power and domination persist.

Discussion Question: In what ways do characters resist and uphold colonial dynamics in order to obtain or keep power?