Mary Shelly‘s Frankenstein

What an interesting evening we had watching Chorley Amateur, Dramatic & Operatic Societies (CADOS) thought-provoking play “Mary Shelly‘s Frankenstein” written and adapted for the stage by Rona Munro which is based on Shelly’s famous Gothic Novel of the same name. I say 'thought-provoking' because the play asks lots of questions about human behavior and how we perceive and interpret that behavior and about our reactions to things we don’t understand. It looks at the fragility of life and sees Shelly’s story from differing points of view.

The action centers around eighteen-year-old Mary Shelly as she writes her famous Gothic novel and places the writer herself right in the centre of the action as she thinks about the realities of life and grapples with her thoughts and imagination, and the meaning and implications of what she was creating. Shelly wrote the book in 1816 to win a wager with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelly to see who could write the best horror story, it was then published anonymously two years later in 1818 when she was twenty years old. Her story is about a young scientist called Frankenstein who while carrying out an unorthodox scientific experiment gives life to a creature that we may call a monster. The monster then escapes from the laboratory, and frantically searches for his creator, as he wants to know who he is and why he was created. Unfortunately, he only finds cruelty and rejection with the result he becomes vengeful, bloodthirsty and very dangerous. 

You could say Mary Shelly was the narrator of the play, but I feel that would be an understatement. She talks to the audience about the story she wants to bring to life as she tries to make sense of her thoughts and wrestles with lots of questions, she talks about the consequence of a person's actions and about taking responsibility for those actions, she looks at obsession and how it can change a person and effect close relationships. 

This production was Rebecca Moran’s first directing project since she dipped her toes into directing (as Rebecca says) for Roald Dahl’s "The Witches" in 2017 as a member Chorley Youth Theatre and I am pleased to say she did an excellent job. Rebecca also had input from Emma Hardacre as Choreographer and Ryan Norse as Stunt choreographer. 

Taking on the pivotal demanding role of Mary Shelly was the talented Steph Threlfall who gave an outstanding performance by getting to the heart of her character while holding the play together. She highlighted Mary’s struggle to bring some order to her thoughts and the issues in her story, facing her doubts and fears  There was a power and intensity in how she told the story which added to the melodrama and highlighted the darkness of the story. Ashley McLoughlin as Victor Frankenstein captured excellently the man whose life starts to spiral out of control as he changes from a likeable happy young man with friends and family who love him to a tormented obsessive person who was determined to complete his work despite warnings from people close to him. He then tries to run away from the horrifying result of this obsession but is pursued by the creature/monster he brought to life. While his monster played by Jack Vardy expertly conveyed his characters decent into darkness while looking for vengeance, but he also showed the loneliness of his character as he searches for his creator/ father, wanting to be loved and belong, his performance was moving at times for example during the scene where he starts to bond with a blind man. At first this character was identified as evil, however as the play progressed Mary asks the question, what is a monster, who is the monster is it the person who looks like a monster or is it the person who created the monster and left him alone in the world, could it be that the people who labeled him and rejected him without knowing him are the monster, can a person be made into a monster?

This was quite a large cast and rather than miss someone I would like to say that they all played their parts well producing some good characters and supporting the three above principle cast members excellently. The rest of the cast included Alice Charnley as Elizabeth, Ethan Banks as Henry, Steve Catterall as Father, Charlotte Clipston as William, Donna Keller as Waldman, Anna Spencer as Justine/ Safie, Nicholas Peat as Walton, Rebecca Lomax as Agatha, Ciaran McGee as Master/Felix, Robin Brown as Peter and Emma Hardacre as Mother. Dialogue could be heard very well so the action could be followed which was very important in this play as there was a great deal of in-depth thought-provoking dialogue and we needed to hear the questions being asked.There was some good accents and good use was also made of the stage area by the actors.

There was one excellent Gothic looking set which was really atmospheric and very well designed by Paul Carr, scenes and their locations such as on board a ship or Frankenstein’s lab were created with the use of suitable props, which all worked nicely and was very effective, well done all the set builders, Stage Manager Amber Tabiner, Props and all the Backstage crew. Technical input was efficient and effective and had a major role in producing the right atmosphere on stage. There was some lovely period costumes overseen by the marvellous Sandra Dickinson which were just right for the setting, the era of the book and type of production  and along with the set design, props, sound and lighting also added to the authenticity of this very deep and atmospheric production. 

Congratulations to everyone involved with bringing this interesting thought-provoking production to the stage it certainly gave the audience lots to think about.

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