Creator: Magic Circle
Mary Shelley’s classic tale, brought back to life by an immersive production inside a London crypt, promises to be a theatrical Frankenstein all its own, and like the monster made by that mad doctor, there are more than a few sharp edges to be wary of.
The venue itself being a crypt does much to lend atmosphere to this adaptation, with excellent props and ambiance throughout, but that’s where much of the good ends. With this foundation in place, the show goes on to tell an under-cooked story that features quite a few misguided changes to the original, failing to offer a fresh or compelling narrative while also robbing itself of much of the original’s fascinating themes. Little is left to either empathise with or turn over in one’s mind.
The great exception to this is the strong physicality present in many scenes, delivering blows and screams that echo in the tight space of the crypt, selling the emotional stakes of these moments quite effectively. The actor playing Victor Frankenstein’s mother, the talented Nadia Lamin, epitomizes this by stealing the show in the moments where her character is hanging between life and death, completely owning the night’s few captivating moments.
But outside of this, the play reaches few highs. The fragmentary nature of this form of play is strangely ill-suited to its original story that entirely revolves around Victor Frankenstein himself, with the moments shared between the other characters simply never amounting to anything of significance. A majority of the cast are dead by the end of the play and rather than deepening the tragedy of the story their deaths feel contrived and arbitrary. Even the theatrical conceit of Frankenstein narrating his life story in a bar fails to achieve anything noteworthy and only muddies the waters further.
This show can be enjoyable at times but is constantly stumbling in one way or another, and though it delivers on production values, this effort ultimately supports a narrative that never, unlike Frankenstein’s monster, sparks to life.
Runs until 14th October 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Enthusiastic but clumsy
