Coffins, vampires and blood flying everywhere aren’t what you might normally expect from a night out in west Suffolk.

However, the Conservatoire East’s production of Dracula at West Suffolk College was all this and more.

Charlie Bedingham was a magnificent Dracula, strutting about and speaking in a booming Transylvanian accent that sent shivers through the audience every time he appeared. And he was so clever at appearing from nowhere that we kept looking around us, a little afraid he might materialise from underneath our chairs.

He was ably supported by Aaron Lockwood as Jonathan Harker, Leanne Martin as feisty Mina, Adrian Seeley as Van Helsing and the always convincing Paris Moulds as tragic Lucy Westenra. Other standouts among the level two and three performing arts and level three musical theatre students were James Ingram as a quite revolting Renfield and three vampires Kira Brophy, Abigail Profitt and Chloe Elder who floated about with ethereal menace.

Production values were very high. The use of sound and video clips were quite brilliant and added to the overall horror of an already terrifying show.

My chair felt a bit uncomfortable by the end – the show was a good two-and-a-half hours with an interval – but Dracula I’m glad to say at no point appeared from under it.