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Sean-Michael Wilkinson, left, and Jay Wade co-star in “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
It is the summer of 1816, and in a villa in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, along with Shelley’s lover Mary Wollstonecraft and Byron’s lover (and Mary’s stepsister) Claire Clairmont, and their friend John Polidori, are telling each other scary stories, and trying to top each other.
It is Mary’s turn, and as she tells her story — a long, intense tale that takes place in various locations, including Ingolstadt (in Germany), Inverness (in Scotland) and the Orkney Islands — she and the other four take on roles, as if they were mounting a play. Shelley is happy to play the central character, Victor Frankenstein, calling him “rakishly handsome” and “an endlessly compelling hero.”
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Sean-Michael Wilkinson in “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
Of course, we all know by now — more than 200 years after Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (she married Percy in late 1816) published her novel “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus” — Victor Frankenstein doesn’t turn out to be much of a hero. His decision to play God, turning a collection of inanimate body parts into a living, breathing creature, has disastrous consequences.
That said, the Creature (capitalized since he is a nameless person) in this production is more than just a monster. Don’t go into this expecting to see something like the Boris Karloff version. Yes, this Creature has a gruesome look, and moves and talks awkwardly. But he is also sensitive and articulate, very much of aware of who he is, and afraid of what his fate may be. This 2019 version of the Mary Shelley story — written by David Catlin and directed, here, by The Shakespeare Theatre’s artistic director, Brian B. Crowe — puts a very human spin on the myth, both by making the Creature so much like us, and by tying everything in to the tragedy-filled story of Mary’s life.
The production has a very dark, Gothic look (set design by Sarah Beth Hall, lighting design by Andrew Hungerford, sound design, including some spooky effects, by Ariana Cardoza). You won’t jump out of your seat in fright, at any point. But “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” is still creepy and chilling enough to makes seasonally appropriate (i.e., suitable for those who celebrate Halloween).
It may not be scary, per se. But it is certainly unsettling.
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From left, Jay Wade, Neil Redfield and Brooke Turner in “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.”
Amber Friendly plays Mary Wollstonecraft and becomes, in the story Mary tells, Elizabeth, who is both Victor Frankenstein’s sister-via-adoption, and his love interest.
Sean-Michael Wilkinson is Percy Bysshe Shelley and Victor; Jay Wade is both the witty, sexually aggressive Lord Byron and the brutish Creature.
Brooke Turner plays Claire Clairmont and takes on several roles in the story-within-a-story, including the mother of Victor and Elizabeth. Neil Redfield is both John Polidori (close friend to the four others at Lake Geneva) and Henry (close friend to Victor and Elizabeth).
Given that Catlin is really telling two stories here — one about the Creature and his creator, and one about a group of friends who happen to be well educated writers — it is not surprising that the conversation often seems very poetic and intellectual. Mary calls the Creature “the most hideous phantasm of fluid and flesh.” And when she and the others talk about her story, they bring up big questions from the realms of philosophy and theology that have usually only been implied, in the Hollywood versions.
“How can this patchwork of parts have a soul?”
“Doesn’t the soul come from heaven, from God?”
“Maybe it comes from suffering.”
And when Victor admonishes the Creature for the damage he has done with his “hideous hands,” the Creature responds: “Who made these hideous hands? God at least made Adam in his own image. Adam was loved by his creator. Not Adam am I, but Satan … but Satan at least had fellow devils to cheer him. I am alone.”
Can we sympathize with a monster? In the deeply philosophical, morally complex “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,” we certainly can.
The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey will present “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” at its F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre at Drew University in Madison, through Nov. 16. Visit shakespearenj.org.
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