Clever show reanimates Frankenstein's monster

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

The Flanagan Collective

Theatre Delicatessen

Wednesday, October 26 to Saturday, October 29

As the radical thinkers discuss the possibility of life without God, Mary (Veronica Hare) imagines a man-made man, animated by science.

Frightened by her own idea, she tries to forget about the monster — but Percy (Holly Beasley-Garrigan) eggs her on and Dr Frankenstein’s creature is born.

Soon afterwards, Percy dies in a sailing accident and Mary is left alone with the godless abomination she has conceived.

Will the creator nurture her imagined offspring to term? Or will she abort it, an unloved mistake?

Would the monster even go so easily? Or would it haunt her nightmares until its destiny is fulfilled?

We already know the outcome — Frankenstein is Mary Shelley’s most-read novel and widely held to be the first ever science fiction story.

But the birth of the book was almost as fraught as that of her children, three of whom soon died.

This play is not a straightforward adaptation of that novel, but weaves Mary’s fact and fiction into one tale, exploring the origins and impacts of each.

The monster and the book become the same — each stalking its creator as Hare flips back and forth between playing Mary and Dr Frankenstein.

At the same time, Beasley-Garrigan alternates between the monster and Percy’s imagined ghost.

I’ve written before about how much I like the Theatre Delicatessen, so I was excited for this wandering show which explores the building top to bottom.

The action starts in the cafe, before Percy leads the audience down into the barely-lit basement.

Guided by just a few lamps and torches, the party winds between steel shelves and along echoing corridors.

It’s the perfect setting for a Hallowe’en tale, causing hair-raising unease as the actors pop in and out of view or stomp noisily behind the scenes.

Footsteps and voices reverberate around the huge rooms as she who is onstage shouts to she who is off somewhere, in the darkness.

It’s largely family-friendly and seldom outright scary — tense, without being terrifying.

In fact, it’s a rather heart-warming biography of a pioneering author and feminist, who triumphed against tragedy and society to found a whole genre.

Fans of that genre should enjoy a performance which cleverly evokes its first characters, while throwing the lamplight on their godmother, often in her own words.

For tickets and more information, visit www.theatredelicatessen.co.uk.

The show then moves to York from November 3 to November 26 — see www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.