Frankenstein

Based on the original gothic horror novel written by Mary Shelley, Frankenstein has been vividly reimagined by writer and director Christine Davey, working together with Skin of Our Teeth to coincide with this year’s VCE Drama component.

Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus (1818) was written on a whim in competition with poets Lord Byron and Percy Shelley (her lover) whilst on a summer holiday somewhere near Geneva in Switzerland - an epistolary novel written as a series of letters with three interweaving narratives and perspectives. Mary Shelley’s parents were progressive social thinkers and her mother Mary Woolstencroft (who died eleven days after giving birth to her) was a writer and an advocate of women’s rights.

Davey has developed a scintillating and challenging piece of feminist theatre. Shelley’s Frankenstein addresses patriarchy and its oppression through wealth and class; they are central themes in the novel, like the play. Davey’s creature (Tessa-Marie Luminati) is female, beginning the show with projectile disgust of the male gender. Doctor Frankenstein (Graci Lynch) is an overcompensating “mad” scientist who takes liberties with himself and excuses his misogynistic snobbery as a righteous privilege, similar in vain to the original character, including his insipid infatuation with the devotedly repressed Elizabeth (Taylah Broad).

Davey and an ensemble of eight exceptionally talented women have conjured up Dickensian -like characters including one of the three narrators, Captain Robert (Lauren Atkin). The Epic theatre methods allow loose connecting scenes and the direct address of feminist issues. The performers are raw and distinctive yet come together in choreographed body and voice sequences that offer visual texture, sound, and comical contrariness. Snippets from popular songs are liberally utilized to reflect on female stereotypes include “Barbie Girl’ (Aqua) and “I Feel Pretty”. 

The play explores the good and evil dichotomy, weaving in quotes from the novel; Woolstencroft’s writings on equal rights and bits of Milton’s Paradise Lost - whereby a questioning of the power of God and his creation of man are early indications of female suppression.

It was great to hear thought-provoking questions from the VCE students in the after-show Q&A forum. They too were challenged and inspired to address the problem of female stereotypes in our modern new world.

Flora Georgiou

Photographer: Darren Gill