This clever riff on Dracula isn’t quite the panto its title implies – but it’s colourful and irreverent all the same. In a camped-up variant of Stoker’s universe, Countess Dracula is a pantomime dame, regal and fabulous to the tips of her comedy fangs. Anyone she bites becomes a panto character too, which is inexplicably seen as a bad thing. When the eloquent but hapless Jonathan Harker shows signs of infection, it falls to limelight-hog Van Helsing to lead the fightback.

The pantomime motifs wax and wane depending on how many people have been bitten, but the comic characterisation shines brightly throughout. The voice work is particularly good: Harker’s brightly British and blithely naïve, Van Helsing mangles his vowels with commendable consistency, and Igor (yes, Igor from Frankenstein) is sing-song and laconic at the same time. Writer-director Mackenzie Galbraith has packed the script with sneaky humour, alongside the requisite groan-worthy puns. The liberated Lucy has a nice line in innuendo, while Mina and the Narrator are earnest in their roles yet somehow make it clear that they’re in on the joke.

Considering the huge liberties it takes with the concept, the storyline is surprisingly faithful to Stoker’s original. At times, in fact, Galbraith might overestimate how familiar we’ll be with the text: several apparent in-jokes passed me by because I didn’t know the novel well enough to catch them. And some judicious pruning might help keep the energy high; the parade of Lucy’s rejected suitors builds to a good visual gag, but felt sluggish compared to, y’know, the vampires.

Of course, any panto needs a baddie, and it’s here things get a little confused. I’m firmly on Team Dracula – who wouldn’t cheer a character so sassy and sarky? – but the plot suggests we should really be rooting for the insufferable Van Helsing. I suspect there’s some deliberate subversion here, but they don’t fully commit to it, and without clearer signalling of who we should boo the panto sections lose some shape.

But if we accept that it’s a comedy about pantomime rather than a pantomime itself, Gagula has plenty of bite. The jokes land visually, verbally and conceptually, while Finn Bender’s Dracula has the grandeur from which legends are made. Stay alert to catch all the humour, be ready with your best panto cheers… and just like Harker, you’ll find you have something to write home about.