Photo: Ed Waring
Inspired by the writing of Mary Shelley
Co Directed by Andrew Quick, Peter Brooks and Simon Wainwright
An Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse Co Production
Quarry, Leeds Playhouse
Frankenstein was written over two hundred years ago by the nineteen year old Mary Shelley. The themes of the book have resonated through the centuries as we humans continue to grapple with the concepts of birth, life and death and what it essentially means to exist. Inspired to compete with her husband Shelley, the poet Byron and John Polidori to write a horror story, she wove together a story of a creature formed from the gruesome parts of cadavers stitched together and sparked into life by the principle of galvanism. The full tragedy is that this creature willed into life is destined never to be loved by his creator Frankenstein. This new rendition by Imitating The Dog splices together this Gothic romantic masterpiece with a story where a young couple grapple with coming to terms with a pregnancy and its implications in an uncertain world.
Photo: Ed Waring
This latest production by Imitating The Dog is a creative departure from their work of recent years as they abandon their trademark use of live camera projections used so effectively in work such as Night of the Living Dead–Remix, Dracula:The Untold Story and Macbeth. This new work blends story telling with digital technology and movement. The result is visually glorious as Video Designers Davi Callanan and Alan Cox make every use of the strikingly simple set design by Hayley Grindle. The staging comes alive as violent weather patterns erupt across the stage, snowy blizzards and terrifying thunderstorms encompass the characters and beautifully compliment the radio broadcasting of the original text. There are other gems as set props illuminate with video images such as embryos, sonograms and birds that are reminiscent of a Damien Hirst installation or a Victorian laboratory.
The overall impact is highly effective as it allows the drama of Frankenstein, the claustrophobia of Walton’s ship and the beauty of the polar landscape to come alive. Composer James Hamilton has created a glorious score that weaves through the piece and creates a perfect alchemy with the rest of the staging. The score also brings additional powerful to the taut, muscular performances of the two leads. The choreography by Casper Dillen has an urgency and desperation that channels that of Victor Frankenstein and his Creature while also illustrating the push/pull of the young couple deciding what to do regarding the pregnancy.
Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia give their all to this production. Utterly invested in the characters they bring to life from the book and in the modern day embodiment of a couple wrestling with a momentous decision in an uncertain world. It is frustrating that the naturalistic dialogue employed for the modern setting seems to get lost when in translation when up against the writing of Mary Shelley. On occasion some of the parallels drawn, such as between the Creature and the shouty man outside the couple’s flat can seem heavy-handed and unnecessary. The couple come alive during the movement sequences but perhaps would have benefited from stronger dialogue to give them more depth so that ultimately an audience could care and invest in them as much as with the characters in the book.
There is much to enjoy in this production and the themes of Frankenstein will remain relevant as it continues to astound as to how Shelley’s vision of a man sewn together from discarded body parts and galvanised into life could ever be fully realised in anything but our imagination. Yet two hundred years on we think nothing of using defibrillators to breathe fresh life after a heart stops beating and use organ, body and skin implants to give loved ones hope and a new lease of life. Imitating The Dog have used their unique set of components and galvanised their own vision of Frankenstein and it seems to be a pretty successful rebirth!
Live Art Alive 