Frankenstein: a modern monster of a play

Here we go back to basics, using the narrative structure of the novel as conceived 'in a waking dream' by the 19-year-old Mary Woolstonecraft while living with Shelley and his friend Byron, among others, in Switzerland.

So it's flashbacks and flashbacks within them filtered by writer Lisa Evans (a Bill and Casualty veteran as well as an award-winning theatre writer) through the medicated dreams of a modern 'monster' in a psychiatric hospital.

Named Mary, of course, and trying to make sense of her experiences through absorbing herself in horror stories.

It sounds heavy stuff.

And it is, an attempt to look at what is an important historical text through 21st century experience.
It's enthralling, but won't be attracting the same punters who'll be flocking to see the touring production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal later this month.

But there are moments of superb, heartstopping theatre, a wonderful set that is virtually another character in the show, brilliant sound, lighting and effects and, above all, star performances.

The Royal's artistic director, Laurie Sansom, has recruited Scott Graham and Steven Hoggett of the frighteningly inventive franticassembly to work as movement directors.

There are gripping segments where the narrative is carried by choreographed sequences. The drama becomes dance, elegant and spiky by turns.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the performance of Richard Winsor as the monster.

His skills as a dancer bring an extraordinary physical contrast to the monsters we are used to - think Peter Boyle in the Mel Brooks comedy version and the Putting on the Ritz number.

There won't be a more effective entrance on any stage in the world this year than the monster's arrival at the Royal.

People literally jumped out of their seats at that moment.

There's an equally effective but more subtle touch when the monster's newly-created companion is thrown into the sea by Frankenstein and seamlessy turns into the hospital patient self-harming under a shower.
This role is movingly realised by Georgina Lamb.

As well as the monster mother Mary, she also plays the Frankenstein servant accused of killing the family's youngest child she is caring for - another fascinating insight into the psychology underpinning the narrative.

The least satisfying thing, for me at least, is that such a physical show somehow comes across as a brainteaser, the ideas thrown up by the young author's Romantic sensibilities filtered by Enlightenment rationality turning it into a cerebral exercise.

Frankenstein with his mother

But that is perhaps the very strength and weakness embodied in the original text, which is faithfully caught in a production I won't forget in a hurry, even if it appealed more to my intellect than my emotions.
Let me now if you think I've misjudged the show on this point.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is on until March 15, with matinees on Thursday and Saturday. It runs just over two hours plus a 20 minute interval. Box office 01604 624811 or book online at www.royalandderngate.co.uk.

You might like to visit franticassembly.co.uk before you go and a look at wikipedia's Mary Shelley entry is a worthwhile pre-show read.