A vessel trapped in the frozen Arctic ocean miles from the shore, takes on a stranger. The woman warns of an imminent attack from a creature of superhuman strength. The Captain, Ralf Wile (Francis Redfern) is determined to defend his cargo, as this horrifying tale emerges.
In a Rose original production, Ciaran McConville’s gripping rewrite of Mary Shelly’s Gothic Frankenstein is one for the information age and its darker than ever and just as terrifying.
We saw with Orwell’s 1984 being re-made for Broadway and the Westend recently, an audience could draw comparison into what is happening in today’s politics. McConville has made Shelly’s Frankenstein relevant to today by bringing it into the 21st century. Is the monster a scapegoat? There is an elemental battle of good and evil within all of us.
Directed by Lucy Morrell the show runs at the Rose Theatre in Kingston from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th of February.
The cast, who are all alumni of the Rose Youth Theatre, really bring this play to life. Eleanor Clark gives a memorable performance as the Creator. As a scientific experiment, she plays God in creating this ‘creature’.
Anna Pryce’s depicts The Creature and is truly impressive. She contorts her body in the beginning of her performance. When she escapes into the public, she initially learns from the people around her. They however become afraid of her and she is cast out. Shunned by the people she interacted with and by her creator she seeks revenge and all hell breaks loose.
I am always eager to see the Rose Theatre’s impressive staging at performances. True to form Philip Connolly’s set does not disappoint here. The lighting and tangled wiring gives the staging a more modern yet gothic feel.
‘I was both one and zero, creator and destroyer, disease and cure, God and monster.’
The Creature [Frankenstein retold] runs at the Rose Theatre in Kingston from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th of February.
