The Victorian Age is popularly remembered as a time of stiff propriety and rigid morality. Academically, it is viewed as an age that gave birth to our own in many ways.

A concentrated urban population lived in poverty while the middle-class barons of industry built their empires on the bones of the old world. Women began to awaken in the Victorian Age, shedding their corsets and subordinate roles as the Women’s Suffrage movement began to take form. And Dracula was there.

No character in literature has been portrayed, misinterpreted and reinvented as many times as Dracula. Most people are more familiar with the Hollywood image of the blood-sucking ghoul made popular by Bela Lugosi than the Bram Stoker original.

But this Halloween, Ames will be treated to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s production of Mark Godden’s “Dracula.”

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet premiered “Dracula” in October of 1998 as a roadshow in every Canadian city with 200,000 people or more. Now the company is bringing the show south of the border for the first time.

“We designed it in-house, but it was definitely designed to be a touring production,” said Greg Klassen, publicity manager for the Royal Winnipeg ballet. “It plays well in large theaters and can adapt to extremely small theaters, which is appropriate to a shape-shifter like Dracula.”

Unlike its Tinseltown predecessors, this version goes back to Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” for its inspiration.

“The interesting thing about the production is that Hollywood has done such a job on Dracula that we have the wrong impression of what he is,” Klassen said. “If you go back to the original text, Dracula isn’t particularly monstrous; he is a well-dressed Victorian gentleman with a dark side.”

It is this dark side that has endured for over 100 years. Klassen said that, when properly deconstructed, the story of “Dracula” is really one about two women.

The first woman is Lucy, the typical Victorian woman, easily swayed by the seductive vampire. She represents the Victorian woman enslaved by the will of man. The second is Mina, the new woman of the coming 20th century. She is pursued by Dracula but overcomes his will literally and symbolically, showing women the possibilities of freedom in the future.

“It doesn’t go over the top with a goofy villain running around in a cape,” Klassen said. “It is much closer to original text and anticipates the new woman of the 20th century.”

By stripping the schlock and turning back to the original text, this Canadian production allows “Dracula” to reinvent itself as the classic tale of psychological terror Bram Stoker intended audiences to contemplate as more than a one-dimensional spook.

“The thing that I think is really interesting about Dracula is that in the beginning he is really creepy,” he said. “But by the end when he is dying, it’s uncomfortable because you don’t want him to die.”