FRANKENSTEIN
“We remained trapped in the bind of observing horror while recognising the apparition as a manifestation of our own dark dreaming.”
“this story of obsession and carnage is portrayed with the beauty and finesse that puppetry makes possible.”
PRODUCED BY TERRAPIN THEATRE FOR A PREMIERE IN THE PEACOCK THEATRE (2004), A SEASON AT THE VICTORIAN ARTS CENTRE (2005) AND BY JESSICA WILSON FOR THE FED SQUARE PUPPET FESTIVAL (2006)
CONCEPT: Jessica Wilson, Colin Sneesby & Anne Thompson
TEXT: Colin Sneesby
DIRECTOR: Jessica Wilson
PUPPET DESIGN: Graeme Davis
SET DESIGN: Greg Methé
COMPOSER: Ben Sibson
LIGHTING DESIGN: Phil Lethlean / Daniel Zika
PERFORMERS: Melissa King, Colin Sneesby, Kirsty Grierson
An obsessive man, the woman who loves him and the monster that keeps them apart.
In a world where reason rules, some things are confined to the darkness below. To a place where passions live and the dead awake. A place where monsters are made.
Mary Shelley's haunting story has continued to fascinate film makers and artists for nearly 200 years. Out of a very rational and well intentioned world, Mary gave birth to the enduring figure of a great ugly monster. As her monster is a product of the time in which she lived, this version of Frankenstein is also a product of our time. We are living in a time where the construct of rationalism is beginning to fray at the edges. Even though we have never lived in a rational world, we still don’t have a framework to understand ‘irrational’ acts. The great failure of our own imagination as a society is that we often lable that which we don't understand as ‘monsters’. If we continue to aspire to being ‘rational’, ‘reasonable’ and ‘universally good’ then we limit the possibility of meeting our own monsters and lose the possibility having a better grasp on what makes the monsters we fear.
Using bunraku puppets and a staircase as the set, the tragic story is told with the voice of Elizabeth, Victor Frankenstein's neglected fiancé. It is a richly visual story of human desperation; the tragedy of the poor monster; the sadness of Elizabeth; and the desperate struggle to be loved.
"The production re-enacts the horror of the Monster as he takes his first breath and proceeds to snuff and sniff his way through torment to oblivion after killing Elizabeth, whom he loves, and Victor, his creator"