š·š·š·š· š· – 5 stars out of 5. Plus a clap of thunder!
The Cellar, Pleasance Courtyard, Venue 33, Edinburgh. Then the Billesley Pub, Birmingham B13.
The Birth of Frankenstein.
The Power Trio – Jamie Patterson, Calum Pardoe and Teryn Gray.
Frankenstein is one of the most popular books in the world and has never been out of print since it was first published. Itās given rise to innumerable films, tv series, other books and spinoffs.
So I wasnāt really expecting much from Maverick Theatreās offering āThe Birth of Frankensteinā which opened this week at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. As with most Fringe shows, itās an hour long without an interval. And what is there new to say about Frankenstein?
As it happens – an awful lot! This is really the story of Mary Shelley. From the early gruesome death of her Mother to the final showdown with the monster she has created, we are treated to a theatrical hour of tragedy, high emotion, horror and, perhaps the overriding message of the pieceā¦ love. I wouldnāt normally expect to be emotionally moved at the end of a play about a monsterā¦ but judging by the sniffles I could hear from around me, I wasnāt the only one.
Itās written by Robert Lloyd George and āadaptedā (whatever that means) and directed by Nick Hennegan and they are a team that was able to rather cleverly condense almost 100 years of international history into an hour last year at the Fringe with āWinston and Davidā. That was about Lloyd Georgeās great-great grandfatherās mentoring of Winston Churchill and was similarly moving, because like this show, the central character is a young woman.
There is no doubt that Mary Shelley (nee Godwin) was from a privileged background – the daughter of two radical thinkers. And letās face it, most of the population of the UK were unable to read or write back in the early 1800ās. But the glory of this production is how it presents the three main characters, Mary and Percy Shelly and George Gordon, Lord Byron as characters we can still identify with.
And goodness, the actors are good. Teryn Gray (an American, although youād have NO idea from her accent) is mesmerising as Mary Shelley, her mother Mary Wollstonecraft, the fifteen year-old virginal victim of a vampire and Maryās firecracker step-sister, Claire. She can brilliantly change character in a beat and is completely and convincingly sexy, silly and insecure depending on the character. Callum Pardoe has a great presence and creates just enough sympathy for the decadent, self-obsessed, sexual predator Lord Byron to allow us, even today, to like him. And then his masked portrayal of the monster is heartbreaking, even more so underscored by the original music of Robb Williams.
Jamie Patterson brings an attractive sympathy to the free-love and fatally boat-loving Percy Shelley. We even forgive him for his infidelity. The early love scene between him and Mary is a theatrical tour de force. Moving, emotional and actually erotic with no more than a theatrical dance and hand movements. He is hilarious as the Doctor Polly Dolly, in a āman talkā with Byron. And then heartbreaking with his final speech.
There are some very clever and subtle theatrical devices too. Apart from the three principal characters, Dr Polidori, young Claire, Victor Frankenstein and the monster are all represented by prop items hung on a hat stand at the rear of the tiny Cellar stage.
This is really what the Edinburgh fringe festival is all about. Brilliant actors, a moving script, great music and movement all crammed into a tiny fringe venue. This is a new birth for the story of Frankenstein. It is emotional, funny and stimulating. I think Mary Shelly would approve.
Billie Andrews.
Nick Hennegan's Bohemian Britain 