The Renaissance Theatre Co.’s annual adults-only Halloween show is back, bigger and bloodier than ever. This year’s Nosferatu: The Citadel summons audience members to the Great Covening, where they’ll leave the mortal realm and become vampires in this 360-degree production that takes over much of the Ren’s Ivanhoe real estate.
Nosferatu: The Citadel opens on Friday and runs through Nov. 7, with the VBar: The Awakening aftershow having already returned like a fell herald last weekend. It’s a home-grown, queer, spooky-season spectacle that draws crowds just as rabid (if not quite as large) as Halloween Horror Nights.
After 2025’s suck-sessful VBar opening weekend with Alaska (of “Your Makeup Is Terrible” fame), the Ren brought in Aquaria from RuPaul’s Drag Race to kick things off in fierce and fangy fashion this year. Running contiguous to Nosferatu, VBar features live music from The Bloodlines, dancers, and a host of rotating drag artists like Angelica Sanchez, Orusha San Miguel, Coco the Siren, Allegra D, Anesthesia, Beatrixx Oddity and more.
“If you’re not staying for VBar, you’re only getting half the story,” the Ren’s website warns.
Ren artistic director Donald Rupe says that the minds behind Nosferatu use VBar as a place to explore other stories in their vampiric worldbuilding.
“We’ve learned that Nosferatu is such a huge undertaking that it’s actually two different shows, and VBar and Nosferatu deserved their own opening nights,” Rupe tells Orlando Weekly. “VBar has live singers, multiple drag performances and dancers, not to mention all of the tech people. VBar is its own beast.”
After the Ren was (ahem) conDAMNED by the city of Orlando in 2025, this year’s immersive home-field return performances will be reminiscent of prior shows, but with bloody pride, pageantry and surprises all its own.
“You can expect the same scary, sexy, crazy adult vampire experience that we offer every year, but with an entirely new twist when it comes to the space and the plot and the story that we’re telling,” Rupe says. “We have tried to make it as detailed as possible.”
Rupe says that this year’s Nosferatu has been in the works since last year and that there are actually eight different versions of Nosferatu: The Citadel. As a fully immersive production, the audience’s participation factors into the show they experience. Those who attend multiple shows will witness more diverging plotlines than those who only attend one, according to Rupe.
“We have patrons who will absolutely come and see the show all eight times and discover secrets from different plotlines because you follow different characters throughout the experience,” Rupe says. “Other people who just see the show once will still get a satisfying experience; they just won’t get all of the details of every plot.”
Associate director of movement and choreographer Darian Payne says that rehearsals are four days a week, having started back in July. The choreography will feature styles ranging from hip-hop to contemporary and everything in between.
The Citadel, or the fortress of the Coven, will call back to the now-rich lore of the show, featuring elements from previous years. Payne says that those who have been to prior shows may pick up several references to past years.
“We’re continuing the stories of the Royals in the Coven and developing more of what their characters look like to give viewers a little more insight into some of their backstories,” Payne says. “Our biggest surprise is definitely the spaces that we’ve created.”
The blood-pumping production of both Nosferatu: The Citadel and VBar includes a strict dress code for all in attendance: all black everything. Before you sink your teeth into tickets, please note that the experience is for those over the age of 18 and that there is a no-cellphone policy for all performances. (Spoilers leaking out would be worse than garlic to these vampires.) Those who disregard the latter rule may be spirited away, quite possibly never to be seen again.
“Last year, we really didn’t get to finish our season,” Payne says. “So, I think we’re pulling a lot from what we had last year and just saying, ‘How can we make this bigger and better and the best return coming back into this space?’”
Tickets to experience Nosferatu are available now, but going fast. This is a campy and pulpy spectacle that is unique to the City Beautiful.
“Nosferatu was the first show that the Ren ever produced when we opened,” Rupe says. “We’re very excited to be back to our precious vampire show, and we’ve been working really hard.”
8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Sept. 4-5; Renaissance Theatre Co., 415 E. Princeton St.; rentheatre.com; $42-$66.
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This article appears in Sept. 2-8, 2026.