MARY Shelley’s marvellous creation has, and not without obvious irony, taken on a life of its own over the years. Frequently used solely as a shorthand for raging zombies and black-eyed shadow lurkers, it’s always useful to be reminded of how pioneering it was and how much depth it contains.
And we get more than just a reminder here – not least because Mary Shelley is on hand to guide us through the book’s nascence, development and considerable intellectual message.
Speeding us through from Switzerland to the Arctic via forest cottages and Scottish hideaways a young cast bring the now familiar tale and its less well-known backstory to life.
In Jack Ives’s hands the monster is no bolt-necked, stumbling giant. Instead we’re given a character as rounded and emotion-filled as any other, It’s a fine performance balancing the gentle and the explosive with excellent physicality and nothing cliched.
As the science student turned creator, Adam Turner’s Dr Frankenstein blends an unstoppable drive for discovery with a realisation of the consequences such discoveries can bring.
Holding the whole production together Elysia Sully as the writer herself is a revelation. Confident and assured she encounters the story’s twists and turns almost as we do and the moments of grave humour and creative impatience are little gems.
The staging of this show is one of its main successes. Under Kathy Buckingham-Underhill’s direction the action is swift and smooth and there are no delays. All scene and furniture changes are handled by the company and usually performed within the action.
Simple furniture, some mobile painted flats and a series of back projections augmented by a bold use of colour in the lighting design is all we get but it’s enough and its versatility means new configurations are constantly served up.
Rona Munro’s script keeps pace with the events of the novel but, thanks to the clever placement of the author in her own story, allows a strong sense of its moral stance to come through. Those who create are, we gather, responsible for their creations and abandon their obligations entirely at their peril, and our own.
The depth and scope of a novel in a very sharp, very slick stage show is an achievement in itself.
Visit talismantheatre.co.uk for performance and ticket details.
