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Disclaimer:
The reviewers' opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of TheatreLouisville.org. |
Reviews The Bullitt County Theatre Company
Written by T.S. BROWN, BILL BREUER, and JOHN HETZEL Bill Breuer, Producing Artistic Director
Reviewed by Cory Vaughn Entire contents are copyright © 2009 Cory Vaughn. All rights reserved. It's the second weekend, and the transitions are still rough and the production design betrays the tiny budget, but Bullitt County Theatre Company's impressive new adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has undeniable potential. The script, by Bullitt County Theatre Artistic Director Bill Breuer, Guest Director John Hetzel, and the production's star, Tim (T.S.) Brown, is not only a very faithful adaptation, but also a meditation on some important themes that the Hollywood versions forgot Frankenstein is the third consecutive Halloween-themed show I've had the pleasure of reviewing in as many weeks, and is the deepest and most relevant of the classic horror stories. Writing in the midst of the Industrial Revolution in Europe, Shelley was perhaps one of the first authors of popular literature to deal frankly with the inconvenient ethical questions posed by progress in technology. Watching the play, I found myself wondering what Shelley might have thought about Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, about Stanley Kubrick's films A Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, about Andrew Niccol's screenplays for Gattaca, The Truman Show, and Sim0ne, about the H-bomb and chemical warfare, about Facebook and Twitter, about YouTube and Global Positioning Systems and that cloned sheep Dolly. Technological advances have given us a more convenient and comfortable lifestyle, but with this comes an increased responsibility on the part of the user. Both Shelley and Carson, and to a lesser degree Kubrick and Niccol, have made the argument: just because technological advances have made it possible, does that mean we should do it? Not all technological advances are necessarily for the betterment of mankind, and some could in fact be to its detriment, and the enduring reason why Frankenstein remains a potent vision of horror, as far as I'm concerned, is that Shelley's 1818 argument against well-meaning scientists playing God with our destinies has proven strangely prophetic. Victor Frankenstein was never intended to be a mad scientist. As portrayed here by Kent Carney, he is a return to Shelley's ambitious but irresponsible anti-hero, motivated by the loss of his parents to seek a scientific way that mankind can triumph over death. Don't even bother looking for Igor in this version, either. This time, Victor's partner-in-crime is Patrick (John Heffley), the Frankenstein family's Scottish doctor, so disillusioned by his powerlessness over death (he failed to save Victor's mother, or his own wife) that he seeks refuge in the priesthood. He now spends most of his time giving last rites to the same doomed souls who were once his patients. Patrick is a new and interesting character created expressly for this adaptation to provide a theological counterpoint to Victor's self-assumed mission. The debates between Victor and Patrick on the morality of their reanimation experiments, and what to do with their Creature (Brown, exceptionally good) once it has been successfully brought to life, have eerie echoes in today's ongoing dialogues about cloning and stem cell research, among other things. The first act drags a little, I'm sorry to say, with the momentum of Victor's experiments broken far too often by less compelling and all-too-familiar scenes dealing with Victor's alienation from his somewhat vapid adoptive family. These include his fiancée Elizabeth Lavenza (Jenn Trow), her sister Justine (played on Thursday night by Hannah Corbett), and his childhood friend Henry Clerval (Ben Gierhart). Justine is another character invented for this new adaptation, but unlike Patrick, who was put there for thematic reasons, she doesn't ring true, and the storyline created for her is entirely unnecessary, although I don't think it's the fault of the actress. The Henry storyline has also been altered slightly from its original trajectory, but much more satisfactorily, resulting in an obvious nod toward the abortion and stem cell research parallels. I, of course, suspect that the majority of patrons will come expecting to be terrorized by Frankenstein's Creature, and they won't be disappointed, although the actual appearance of the Creature is delayed until Act Two when, much like the Creature itself, the drama begins to come to life. What may surprise you, however, is just how sympathetic the Creature is as presented here. In the end, the Creature, not Frankenstein himself, becomes the voice of and stand-in for humanity. The climactic scenes in which the misguided monster confronts his creator, dripping with Biblical quotes and symbols, play as a powerful metaphor for the often uneasy relationship between God and mankind; after all, what does one say when meeting one’s creator? Bullitt County is one of those theatre companies of modest means who manage to do rather good work in spite of it. The stage and the budget don't seem to be very conducive to the multiple settings this story requires, so most of the scenes taking place anywhere other than the Frankenstein residence are presented in-one, in front of the closed curtains. Excellent makeup (by Ruth Chowning), effective sound effects (by Jeff Kulas) and lighting (by Amy Pace and Kyle Austin), and an eerie score by Kulas and John Hetzel make up for it, as do fine performances by all three leading men and several of their supporting actors. Bullitt County, I found out, specializes in world premieres; a script premiered there earlier this year, The Faerie’s Kiss, has already been picked up for publication, and a company in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, is already set to mount this production of Frankenstein next year. This, then, may be the closest thing, outside of ATL’s Humana Festival, that we have to a Playwrights Horizons or a Public Theatre, where new works can be seen for the first time on a regular basis and often go on to bigger and better things; Joe Papp would be proud. You have two remaining opportunities; go for the thrills and chills, and you may come home talking – and thinking – about so much more.
FRANKENSTEIN
Remaining Performances:
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