Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

The story of ‘Frankenstein,’ Mary Shelley’s disturbing novel, is a cautionary tale about the consequences of defying the laws of nature and the repercussions generated because of our actions.  This production, performed by ACTion Community Theatre, on their 15th anniversary, has been directed by Matthew Bain and takes us on a terrifying, gothic journey but with a twist, this story is seen through the eyes of the author herself. 

The set was simple featuring large platforms which were rotated and repositioned to create the various locations of the story.  Our opening scene was a ship, complete with a projected rigging, a ship’s wheel and various ropes.  A captain and a sailor (good convincing performances from Tori Ramsey and Imogen Cawte) are on board the ship.  We hear the sound effects of the biting wind and icy mists billow across the stage. A ‘shape of a man’ has been spotted on the ice.  This is Victor Frankenstein (Bobby Giles) but before Victor can tell his story, the action is interrupted by the arrival of Mary Shelley herself (Niámh Carroll) clutching the tools of her trade, her notebook and quill.  

Mary Shelley warns us this is not a ‘horror story’ but in fact a ‘dark love story’ she then continues to narrate the action creating the story before our very eyes.  We quickly realise that Mary has no love for her ‘hero’ and in fact she is very dismissive of his plight watching curiously from the sidelines. 

Victor tells the captain his story, and we are transported to his childhood home and family.  Mary moves the characters in her story around the stage noting with sarcasm they are a ‘happy family’.  She invents a brother, William and a childhood friend, Henry, but Mary has sinister plans for them both, as she warns ominously a ‘storm’ is coming.  Throughout, Mary is the engineer of Victor’s traumas as from her pen would come happiness or despair and Mary delights in torturing Victor!

Victor’s mother is quickly dispatched, with Mary noting that she had written a ‘good deathbed scene’, but her death has a profound effect on young Victor who starts dabbling with the occult reading books about ghosts and demons.  I liked the way the back projections again matched the scene with windows for the house and the platforms contained all the props needed for the unfolding scene, such as suitcases, books and chemistry paraphernalia like test tubes.  

At University, Victor meets a Professor (Ben Cowan) whose controversial views and teaching methods, have resulted in all his students walking out bar Victor.  Mary is again watching and notes that ‘this is the moment’where Victor’s desire to defy God is seeded in response to the age-old question ‘why do we have to die’prompted by his mother’s death.  Again, I liked the use of projections representing a laboratory and the way the professor dresses Victor in rubber apron and gloves as he gets deeper into his experimentation with corpses of recently executed convicts.

Victor becomes increasingly more obsessive, neglecting his family, Elizabeth his childhood sweetheart and his friend Henry.  Henry comes to visit Victor and is horrified at what he finds realising his experiments involve dead bodies in his relentless search for answers.  

Mary wheels on an enormous, white chest noting that the ‘nightmare is almost here.’  She goads and eggs on the frustrated Victor until he finally pulls the switch setting the events in motion.  Victor has never stopped to think whether he should try to reanimate the dead, he is just obsessed with the need to do so, and this arrogance is one of the many reasons Mary despises him.

In an incredible special effect, we see the side of the box glow with a stark white light revealing the pulsing creature within.  The sound of a steady heartbeat also added to the whole horrific effect.  Then, like a newborn baby, bare chested and bare foot, the creature (Robeol Micheal in an incredible visceral performance) rolls out of the chest, twitching painfully, uttering a disturbing guttural sound.  The creature has stirred into life.   I was impressed with the prosthetics used for the creature especially a deep autopsy scar on his chest and facial scars. 

Initially, Mary is petrified of the creature, a vision created from her own nightmare, but she promises the creature a story.  The creature flees the lab of his birth taking Victor’s diary with him and Mary promises more horror. She relishes in twisting the knife deeper making Victor suffer more torment with every swish of her quill.    

In a harrowing scene, we discover William, Victor’s brother, has been murdered and Justine his nanny has been accused of his murder.  Mary scornfully notes that ‘her faith killed her’ as the innocent Justine confesses to the crime to receive absolution from the priest.  Justine stands on a box as Mary places the noose around Justine’s neck as she steps off the box. 

We then see the creature’s point of view calling himself a ‘most miserable creature’ who blames Victor for creating and then rejecting him.  But it is not Victor who has created the monster but Mary herself.   She saves the creature when Victor tries to shoot him, freezing the action and pocketing the gun.  Mary then addresses her audience, like the storyteller she, is asking mischievously, ‘Are we sitting comfortably?’  then closes her book.

Special mention to the ensemble who took on various parts to tell Mary’s story representing the people moving in and out of Victor’s life.  Everyone worked together to ‘stitch this monster’ together with their own stories to tell and they did very well to work around Mary as she berated and criticised them.  Notable parts were Anne Stephenson as Justine, who delivered a powerful performance in the execution scene and Jack Lawton who performed well as William, the brother condemned to die from his first creation. I also liked Matthew Livingstone as Victor’s friend Henry.  Lauren Paul as the childhood sweetheart was another lovely part as she dictated her letters to Victor, sharing some nice interactions with him.  

Bobby (a newcomer to the group) played Victor Frankenstein as an obsessive driven man traumatised by his past thirsting for a solution to the mysteries of death.  His hollow look as he realised the terrible price of his curiosity was very well done and with each new atrocity, he moved closer to the edge of insanity.  His scenes with the creature were good as he tried in vain to fight against him not realising that is fate was in another’s hands.  

Robeol was wonderful as the creature acting with his whole body, creating the shambling walking corpse and bringing it to life.  His stiff movements suggesting the stitched-on limbs and his twitching head movements indicating a head that wasn’t originally his.  You really felt his pain and anguish in his need to be loved and his agony as Victor destroyed his soulmate was palpable.  I loved the creature’s painful journey, as he learned the meaning of words like a wide-eyed innocent child with Mary by his side shaping and scribing his story.    He even learns love through the family he meets including the blind woman Petra who cannot judge him like others.   The creature wants to be loved so his jealously of Victor prompts him to destroy everything he loves to punish him and Robeol showed this simmering but controlled anger beautifully.   We always had a sympathy for the creature realising he wasn’t bad just written that way.

 

Niámh as Mary Shelley was wonderful (another newcomer to the group) engaging the audience from her very first entrance.  She played with her characters with the vindictiveness of a petulant child playing with dolls in a dolls house to be cast aside at will.  I was very impressed with her facial expressions as she rolled her eyes like a Gen Z teenager sarcastically taunting her characters.  I loved her nervous energy as she moved around the stage scribbling furiously, a silent observer of events but the controller of the narrative.  Her scornful treatment of Elizabeth was very good even pushing her at one point and calling her ‘weak’, knowing exactly what fate she had had in store for her.  Her interactions with the creature were excellent switching from fear to a deeper understanding of his character.  Niamh smashed through the fourth wall challenging and taunting the audience and the sheer volume of lines she delivered was incredible. 

Costumes from Grace Freeman were in keeping with the Victorian style story.  I liked Elizabeth’s pure white dress identifying her innocence, the bloody torn shirt of the creature as he committed more murders or was beaten and attacked, and the black as pitch velvet dress of Mary Shelley.   

The set was used well becoming a laboratory, a ship and Victor’s house by seamlessly spinning and rotating the platforms.  I was particularly impressed with the use of atmospheric lighting (Thomas Gall) creating the gothic backdrop, the projections and the sound effects.  Elizabeth’s murder was shown as a chilling black and white film, as her bloody, lifeless body was dumped at Victor’s feet.  Props such as trolleys covered in blood-soaked sheets and a hangman’s noose, all added to the realism and the special effect of the creature’s illuminated chest was simply stunning. 

Congratulations to Matthew Bain and Producer Grace Freeman, for bringing this terrifying nightmarish gothic drama to life.  The audience was spellbound and gasping in sheer horror as the dreadful story was presented.  I was very impressed with your overall vision for the show and the characters you helped to develop.  You should be very proud of the achievements of everyone involved in the production.  I was also delighted to meet Matthew before the performance and invited to meet the cast after the show.   

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