Monstrously Good - Frankenstein

It is hard to believe that Mary Shelley was just 21 years old when she wrote Frankenstein and, more than 200 years on, theatre company Imitating the Dog has breathed stunning new life into this timeless classic.

I absolutely loved this modern re-telling of the 1818 novel, said to be among the earliest examples of science fiction, and was gripped from start to finish by this beautifully crafted two hander, created by Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright, and featuring talented acting duo Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia.

However, if you are looking for a monster with two bolts coming out of its neck, you will be sadly disappointed but, if intelligent, thought-provoking theatre is your penchant, then this production will stimulate the grey matter in spades.

Not unlike The Woman in Black – another ‘horror’ play with just two actors (and a ghost!) – Frankenstein somehow delivers a scientist, sea captain, an entire crew, a monster and a young 21st century couple struggling with the challenges of becoming parents: barely a soul on stage and yet your senses are alive with fear and anticipation.

Set and Costume Designer Hayley Grindle’s electrically charged backdrop with neon strip lights suspended from the ceiling – thank you Lighting Designer Andrew Crofts - worked brilliantly with Davi Callanan’s wonderfully eerie videos, which almost implied the birth of something abnormal. You were not comfortable with what was happening.

This was most definitely a collaborative, symbiotic production where any element, had it been missing, would have diminished the performance which, for me, was seamless, although one couple in front did not return after the interval: their loss.

On the one hand two actors re-tell Shelley’s original tale through the use of narrative from the original novel. We are in the wastelands of the Arctic, something eerie, unhuman like, is stalking the ship which is static and frozen in ice. Terror pervades the theatre. What is this thing? Deformed and unhuman in size?

The sound and video projected snow is brilliant and builds the atmosphere like a compromised dam, waiting to crack.

And then the mood changes. We are back in modern times; the parallel is striking. A young couple facing the dilemma of becoming parents and bringing something to life they had not planned. This is their ‘creation’ whilst ‘Shouty Man’, the disruptive character they continually see from the window, is their modern equivalent of Victor’s monster.

Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia flip between characters with well-rehearsed dexterity but I cannot conclude without mention of Casper Dillen’s brilliant, almost violent choreography, representing the struggle with life. Superb and so well done.

Accompanied by an ambitious multimedia plot Shelley’s Gothic tale is put under the microscope as the production interrogates the novel’s themes of fear and anxiety, posing the question: ‘What is it to be human?’.

Captivating and mesmerising, this is a play that delivers on the promise.

Frankenstein
Leeds Playhouse’s Courtyard Theatre
Until Saturday Feb 24th
Book on: 0113 213 7700 or online at www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk