Dr Frankenstein

What a fascinating choice of play for Canberra Rep’s “Power and Passion” season. Rather than the masculine-based original novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, this new re-telling has changed Victor into Victoria. This play premiered in England last year and it is good to see recent reinterpretations, especially one as well-structured and eloquent as this.

Victoria Frankenstein (played perfectly by Jenna Roberts) must deal with her ambition, intelligence, innovation and conscience as she moves from university student to renegade researcher, with the consequences of her experiments having reverberations right into her own family.

Michael Sparks plays the Creature, giving the Creature both menace and pathos. Emily Pogson plays Justine, full of faith as well as youthful mischief, and her development through the play is truly touching.

The set (designed by Chris Zuber) is atmospheric, rotating from a cosy household to a chilly laboratory, and later on, the chill fills the Frankenstein house with Gothic-style window frames at the side. The music composed for the play by Matthew Webster is some of the best incidental music I have heard recently, and adds considerably to the grief and menace.  Lighting design (Chris Ellyard) and sound design (Jenna Golab) work seamlessly with the action and the set, heightening moments without overdoing it.

This play is both fascinating and horrifying, even to one who knows the original story well. Thoroughly recommended.

Rachel McGrath-Kerr