Photo credit: Lottie Dance
The latest production from the female-led South West company WhimsiCo, Mary’s Frankenstein is a fresh take, written and directed by Lottie Dance, blending two world-renowned stories: Frankenstein and its creation. It is said that on a holiday to Switzerland on a stormy night, Lord Byron challenged his companions to a ghost writing competition to while away the hours and so Mary Shelley (at the time Wollstonecraft Godwin)’s legend was born. Unlike the fantastical afterlife her monster has endured, this version of the tale focused resolutely on the examination of what it means to be human that Shelley searingly wrote 210 years ago.
The production seamlessly moves from re-enacting Shelley’s text to the imagined events of its authorship, drawing parallels between all those present on that trip to the characters within Shelley’s imagination. This is done, yes, by doubling (or even tripling) actors for multiple parts but is achieved through their excellent physical characterisation in each role; appearance and costume for most barely changes but the audience are never left wondering which character the actor is embodying. Whilst for some of the actors their monologues prove challenging, and it isn’t until the second act that they find their stride, the performances are still engaging and the story compelling. Charlotte Spiller’s Mary, the only actor to play one character, holds her own puppeteering the rest of the action.
This is supported by atmospheric lighting, orienting the audience immediately in Mary’s story of her life using clever techniques, such as the birth of the creature through a simple white sheet. The production leans towards gothic rather than gore and has an original score by Brodie Marshall which, in most places, elevates this mood but does occasionally veer into cliché.
Frankenstein remains more relevant today than ever with exponential technological development fostering the same fear and imagination as electricity in Mary Shelley’s age, yet this production does not focus on this element at all. Perhaps, making an even bolder statement that it is the human at the centre of it all which, even today, remains the most compelling part of the story.
By lacing in scenes of Mary and Percy’s romance, Byron’s cruelty to Mary’s step-sister Claire, and Polidori’s desire for Byron’s approval (and even Byron himself), this retelling is firmly placed in the lens of the heart rather than the mind. Using the real lives of the “Romantics” and Liam Green’s articulate portrayal of the creature, Mary’s Frankenstein asks what it takes to create a monster. In Shelley’s tale, Green’s creature and Laurence Tuck’s creator are both unable to find peace, spiralling into the destruction that results from isolation, but in Dr Frankenstein’s case (and for this production Tuck’s Byron) this is clearly presented as one of their own making and implied a greater sin for it.
Lottie Dance’s adaptation is a gentle retelling of Frankenstein and its embellished but faithful creation story and a great way to spend a chilling winter’s night.
*** Three stars
Reviewed by: Courtney Priday
Mary’s Frankenstein plays at the Rondo Theatre in Bath until 14 November, with further info here.