Frankenstein

The Creature dancing with his vision of his bride. Photo credit: Mike Kwasniak

Review by Andrew Clarke


Mention the name Frankenstein and those of us of a certain age immediately have a vision of Boris Karloff lumbering out of the darkness, arms outstretched, mute and looking far from human.

Go back to the novel on which this outstanding updated performance is based, and you realise that Frankenstein is not the name of the monster – as Universal Films would have you believe – but the family name of his creator Victor; a young prodigy who sees possibilities in connecting the fields of biology and electricity.

In Nick Dear’s play, wonderfully reinterpreted by directors Gemma Mayes and Johnathan Williams, it is clear that Mary Shelley’s story is all about the horror of irrational prejudice. Victor Frankenstein’s ‘monster’ is shunned because his creator was not skilled enough to create a pleasing face to present to the world.

At first, the creature stumbles about like a toddler, trying to maintain its balance, unable to speak coherently. Victor is terrified at what he has created and turns the creature out onto the streets, where the locals beat and even stone him, driving the nameless monster out into the countryside.

Eventually, the creature stumbles across a cottage in the woods, where a blind man who resides there, with his son and his young wife, befriends him and over the next year teaches him to read. Through their discussions we come to realise that this so-called monster is a person of great intellect. Unfortunately, the blind man’s son is just as prejudiced as the townsfolk and drives the monster away.

It is at this point that we find that the concepts of anger and resentment start to build within the creature who goes looking for his creator only to be betrayed yet again.

Victor Frankenstein (2nd right) with his household. Photo credit: Mike Kwasniak

The staging of this epic tale is breathtaking. It is both abstract and lyrical. The movement is, by turns, stylised and then grippingly realistic. The dance sequences and general movement were expertly choreographed by Kathryn Clements which, in conjunction with the lighting and set design, gave Frankenstein’s 19th Century Switzerland a wonderfully atmospheric otherworldliness.

The Creature, athletically played by Xander Ridge, was incredibly relatable. He was a wounded person with whom it was very easy to empathise. His energetic performance managed to be both awkward and incredibly graceful. As his creature grew, he started to bound up and around the rocky landscape, swinging from bars representing the branches of trees, leaping up makeshift staircases of tumbledown rocks.

In comparison, James Hatton did extremely well to imbue his shallow, vain Victor Frankenstein with any semblance of decency. You admired his genius despite his callous disregard for everyone about him – even his long suffering fiancée Elizabeth, played with great dignity by Rose McBride, was considered as an irritant foisted on him by his family.

Very quickly you saw that Elizabeth was a person of great intellect and compassion and could have been a perfect partner and provided an emotional balance to the cold-hearted, ambitious Victor. But, shockingly, he appears to be unable to see the intellectual or emotional virtues in her character and dismisses her as nothing more than a distraction.

There are some truly challenging ideas and themes in the play, which deal with man’s inhumanity to man, the arrogance which can come with genius, and the way that someone who is driven can become a monster themselves – all of which are treated with great insight by the directing team and the young cast.

The stylised nature of the production with the fantastic set and lighting all help to bring the audience in. The ensemble is also uniformly good, with some talented young actors and dancers making the Frankenstein household, and the world beyond, come to life in an engaging way.

There are also welcome moments of humour which help lighten some of the darker moments, providing some added texture to this complicated tapestry of a play. Finlay Clench and Isaac Mott as the two Orkney Islanders helping Victor complete his experiments on that storm-tossed rocky outcrop know how to deliver some well-timed comic dialogue.

Woodbridge School has a well-earned reputation for delivering some outstanding school plays and Frankenstein continues this run effortlessly.

I, for one, can’t wait to see what they make of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night next February.

Frankenstein, was on stage at Seckford Theatre on November 20-21, 2024.