Blood Countess at the Strand Theater

The regional premiere of Blood Countess written by Kelleen Conway Blanchard and directed by Erin Rileyopens at the Strand Theater and runs through Nov. 14, 2021. As part of Free Fall, a limited number of tickets are offered to the public free of charge. To claim your free tickets, use the code FREEFALL21 at checkout. 

The life of Countess Elizabeth Bathory- the historical noblewoman accused of bathing in young girl’s blood so she could live forever young becomes a supernatural tale both creepy and creepily funny in the hands of the playwright of Kelleen Conway Blanchard. Bathory, the Hungarian Countess fabled to be one of the inspirations behind vampire lore, is rumored to have killed anywhere from 60 to 600 young woman and bathed in their blood to preserve her youth. This fictional account follows the countess from her happy marriage to the fierce warrior Ferenc to her conviction and death bricked up within the walls of her castle. Along the way it explores her possible motivations for the gory and sadistic murders of which she stands accused. Landing solidly on the dark side of dark comedy, Blood Countess still employs plenty of Kelleen Conway Blanchard’s trademark humor and linguistic gymnastics. This historical horror story is filled with dead birds, headless soldiers, eel pies, and pailfuls of blood