Cruel Britannia: After Frankenstein

Kristen Smyth has ventured into the difficult territory of presenting painful and challenging experiences to an audience. She has wrapped the torturous Thatcherite skinhead, drug and club culture and the experience of identity discovery and transitioning in the cloak of our common understanding of the making of a monster as depicted in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. The fundamental question of who the monsters are is deeply explored in this searching and poetic text. The Director, Cohan has offered a purity of vision which supports the text’s life.

This could easily have become a ‘poor me, look how cruel life is’, pathos driven dirge. While there is pathos, the presentation of the characters is far from pathetic. There is no requirement for the audience to approve or love the character of Ruby/Frank. Perhaps, there is a wistful request for understanding and partisanship.

Kristen Smyth carries the show with ease. She moves between Frank and Ruby and in an out of other characters using the physical space and voice and stance with energy and commitment. Frank is a domineering, nasty piece of work, and then there is Ruby who is just trying to exist and holds her place in the world through the remembered touch of fabric in her mother’s wardrobe.

The space is dominated by a white pattern on the floor and silver foil covered ‘rocks’. All of the space is used effectively to hint at a much larger world. The lighting helps to create space and mood and the music recalls the ‘80s. There was a nod to David Bowie whose androgynous presentation opened a small space between male and female in popular culture. The play hints at some of the broader, and sometimes, violent cultural tensions for people who don’t fit easily into the dominant paradigms.

Kristen Smyth’s words and acting carry the audience through a consideration of monsters which ends with the conviction that one of them is certainly not Ruby.

Ruth Richter

Photographer: Mark Gambino.