The story has been adapted and developed from Mary Shelley’s 200-year old classic by the Feet First team especially for this production.

The performances are 80 minutes without intermission. They take the audience through the ancient, innermost rooms of Fremantle’s iconic Moores Building with its Contemporary Art Gallery at 46 Henry Street, Fremantle. The voyeuristic audience members are required to stand, walk and climb stairs (on several occasions) during the performance, as they move from one intimate location to another.

Please note that the Moores Building does not have wheelchair access to the first floor.

The performances are at 7.00 and 9.00 pm, nightly until 6^th November. The numbers for each performance are strictly limited so booking is strongly advised.

The scene is the year 1800, in Frankenstein’s Gothic family home. There are several rooms used for this presentation, all of them have been carefully furnished with antiques. Towards the end of the performance, we arrive in a cold forest. Exhibition, set and costume design by Olivia Faraone and Olivia Tartaglia, with costume construction by Bianca Roose and Hannah Miller. Props by Kelly Fregon.

     On arrival, the audience are guided into a large, old-fashioned dining room, furnished with quality antiques even including a Grandmother clock. On the large dining tables are flutes of wine and an array of nibbles (generously provided by Moore and Moore Café). Two young girls in cream silk dresses, mingle with the assembled guests, introducing themselves as the bridesmaids. They are Mary (Bubble Maynard) and Justine (Jessica Moyle) relatives of Victor Frankenstein (Andrew David Sutherland).

     Into the room strides Henry (Declan Brown), Victor’s manservant. He is dressed in top hat and tails. After warmly welcoming us to the Frankenstein home, he tells us that we are guests at the wedding of Victor and Elizabeth Lavenza (Zoe Hollyoak). The doors from the street open and the happy couple enter.

     The lights flicker, there is loud clash and Victor appears to go into a trance. Time for the wedding party seems to stand still. The reception takes an evil turn. The lights return to normal and the warm, convivial atmosphere returns to the celebration. Strains of a violin – being played rather poorly – can be heard from upstairs. Victor invites us to join the happy couple and watch his young brother playing the violin.

     We pass into the master bedroom with its tasteful décor of drapes and furnishings. Soon we venture into Victor’s eerie laboratory, where we observe the pathetic sight of The Creature (Haydon Wilson) with numerous wires attached, he is strapped onto an operating bench.

     As the story progresses, the lonely Creature begs for a true companion and friend – a female friend.

The Director and movement coach, Teresa Izzard, has been nominated for prestigious awards, including an Equity Award, for her previous productions. Teresa, who is an inaugural member of the Australian Directors Lab, is assisted in the directing by actor and TV personality, Bubble Maynard. She has further dramaturg advice from the admired playwright, Finn O’Branagáin.

Because of the number of room used, the lighting and sound had to be operated remotely with instructions from the stage manager, Georgia Smith or her assistant Kennah Parker. This unusual prompt system worked perfectly, with all of the lighting cues (Lighting Design, Dana Ioppolo) and sound effects precisely cued (Sound and AV Design by George Ashforth).

Thanks to the vocal coach, Donald Woodburn, the cast delivered their lines in a style compatible with the era. The Creature – Haydon Wilson – was magnificent as he portrayed a poor soul attempting to achieve co-ordination of movement and speech; he really grabbed your heart and sympathy.

Unlike the clunky, mindless cinema monsters, this creature had an exceptional brain and could sum up those around him. Sutherland’s Frankenstein was disturbing as we watched his bipolar, schizophrenic tendencies. Hollyoak was strong as the heartbroken bride, coping with her new marital world. Master of Ceremonies, Henry, had a joie de vivre that contrasted perfectly with the turmoil. Sensitivity was brought to the play with the beautiful, caring bridesmaids doing their duty and protecting the bride.

The visual and auditory effects of the laboratory were clever, inventive and thoroughly disturbing. Who was really the monster? Could things have ended differently?

This play was fresh, innovative and succeeded on so many levels. Possibly draining and disturbing for the actors, but thank you, it was worthy your suffering. Congratulations.

The 70-minute performances of this Renegade / Harriet Roberts co-production can be seen in the main theatre of the Blue Room, James Street, Northbridge commencing at 7.00 pm each evening until Saturday 30^th April.

There is a single row of chairs around this ‘in the round’ set.

The set, designed by Cherish Marrington, comprises a 3-metre, circular platform, raised about 15 cms off the floor. It is patterned with old Gaelic symbols; this is seaside shack of the fisherman. Stage managed by Meabh Walton.

White gauze is draped towards the centre of the ceiling. Thin strips of polythene hang from the roof, and with the clever lighting (designer, Joe Lui) the overall effect is of realistic icicles and snow – very appropriate for the north of Scotland. The lighting temperature changed with the mood of the script.

        The lights rise to show a creature (Cherish Marrington also designed the costumes), with fur on its shoulders, long clawed fingers and a thin skin that showed the bone structure and blood vessels beneath. It is a Selkie (Yilin Kong). She is slithering and undulating her way around the beach, stalked by a fisherman (Kynan Hughes) who is carrying a towel. He is trying to wrap and protect the creature that is shivering and distressed.

      Back in the house, a young girl, Rónnad (Ella Hetherington) is waking up. Immediately she starts searching for something that she has lost, but she is interrupted by the fisherman (Paul Grabovac) who found her lying on the beach after a storm.

      The lonely fisherman took her to his home and is now trying to get some strength back into her frail body. It is a long time since he has enjoyed company in his house. He tries her with various foods, but she has a penchant for fish.

      This is a sad tale of deep love and affections that appears doomed from the start, but can adoration overcome the problems?

 

O’Branagáin’s tale was first released to the Curtin Uni theatre students about 6 months ago, allowing the author to see how the script worked on stage. Playwright, Finn, has made small changes to the dialogue for this presentation.

At the Hayman Theatre in Curtin, it was beautifully performed as a simple tale. Now, the much-admired director of this show, Joe Lui, has further developed the story, giving it a clever, second dimension; this is a flashback that looks at what happened weeks earlier, whilst the main story is being enacted centre stage. The result is skilful and intriguing, but possibly a little too ingenious and complex (?).

As with all of Joe Lui’s plays, the soundscape includes specially composed music coupled with complex sound effects. This show ranges from thunderous storms to soft – almost inaudible – sensitive melodies.

Talented choreographer, Laura Boynes, has been given a wonderful pair of gifted dancer to direct. Kynan and Yilin seem to float across the stage as though they were frolicking in the ocean. Yilin gave a heart pulling performance as she lay exposed to the elements twitching on the beach, you could feel her suffering. Ella and Paul, who have had numerous acting nominations over the years, added greatly to the depth of this unusual tale.

An exceptional show of movement, love and deceit.

Finn was a finalist in the Youth of the Year award for Northern territory, and Scott has been a poetry finalist four times – twice in the World Cup.

The 70-minute performance can be seen in the main Blue Room Theatre, 53 James Street, Northbridge at 7.00 pm every night, until Saturday 13^th June.

The Auslan interpreter, Christy Filipich, is available on one night only, Thursday 11^th June – and the very best of luck Christy with the Finnish story!!

Desmond Tan designed the set; it comprises a dozen, 60 cms high, black cardboard, snow-capped mountains standing on the floor. The rear wall depicts a massive mountain range. The symbolised flight of snow geese were flying past; these ‘birds’, the scenic Alpine houses and trees, were made by Crystal Lim, Tonia van der Helm and Michael Cassells. Further visual effects were projected onto the wall. Lighting designer was Joe Lui and Tom Hogan composed the creepy music.

      On entering the auditorium, the audience receive a warm welcome from the two beaming performers. Finn is dressed in a classic little black dress, Scott in a grey suit and shirt, with a checked bow tie.

     Within seconds, you become aware that Finn is the sensitive, precise storyteller and that Scott, with a cheeky grin, will not let accuracy come in the way of a good yarn.

     Scott starts the tales, gleaned from around the world, which cover many millennia. He began with ‘Homer’s Iliad’, I quietly cringed having studied it in Latin, at school for 3 years, but now, smiles came to all the faces. Scott carefully picked out the relevant highlights of the stories, and added his own irreverent slant to the whole tale.

      The zany couple explain how, by Chinese whispers, the stories have changed over the centuries. Finn gave us a beautiful rendition of a story from Mesopotamia, rapidly followed by a gory vampire saga from the cinema.

      Scott, with perfect diction, related the Finnish folk myth, Kalevala. This was 1,000 pages of folklore crammed into about 6 minutes of rapid-fire monologue. The complexity of the script, the numerous story threads, the pace make this one of the most memorable orations that I have ever seen, it must have taken weeks to learn.  Both performers used their bodies to enhance the vivid descriptions of the heroic stories.

WA’s admired writer / director Jeffrey Jay Fowler, along with writer and WA’s Queen of the stand-up comics, Andrea Gibbs, mentored the stars and writers of this show.

Towards the end of the show, Finn confided that Scott Sandwich might not be her partner’s real name, thank goodness, as Google’s Urban Dictionary describes Scott Sandwich as a link between peanut butter and a posterior – too much information? You should read the dictionary! We never did find his real name.

This storytelling is unique; you have never seen the like before. The raconteurs have picked fascinating tales, and with a little poetic licence, produced a really fun night, with smiles guaranteed.