Details

Rescued near the North Pole, a dying Victor Frankenstein tells a British explorer Captain Robert Walton, an incredible tale of his cursed life. The eldest son of a wealthy Swiss family, Frankenstein is sent to University in Ingolstadt, where his brilliance and thirst for knowledge are soon clear to all. He develops an obsessive quest to create life and bestow it on an inanimate being, which he has constructed from the corpses of many experiments; something which horrifies even himself. When he succeeds in animating his creature, he is appalled by what he's done and hides from him; the creature disappears, only gradually does it become apparent that in creating this being, then rejecting him, Frankenstein has brought about the doom of all those who are dear to him. A story told, a life ignited, the legend created... A nightmare begins. 1816, the year without a summer, a volcanic ash cloud fills the European skies and during a lost weekend on the dark shores of Lake Geneva stories of fear and horror are told by candlelight. One of the stories born that dark weekend was Frankenstein. Following Proteus re-imagining of Bram Stoker s Dracula for the stage, comes their version of Mary Shelley s classic gothic tale of the ultimate act of creation spiralling out of control. This version blends the novel with the story of the book s creation during the infamous weekend shared by Mary Shelley, Percy Shelley and Lord Byron. Created in Proteus unique style, fusing physical performance, circus, film and music, this is a Frankenstein that holds the mirror up to our modern anxieties concerning human genetics, cloning and the revenge of nature. Age 12+

Cast/Performers

Lee Garrett, Mary Rose (Mary Shelley), Elizabeth Lavenza, Paul Huntley-Thomas (Lord Byron / The Monster), Steven Jaan Pilman (John Polidori / Henry Clerval)

Creatives/Company

Book by: Mary Shelley
Company: Proteus Theatre
Adapted by: Mary Swan
Director: Mary Swan
Design: Sam Pine
Music: Paul Wild