CONCEPT

In a post-WWII scientific climate dominated by physics, only in the 1990s did biology have a comeback. People started to care about what it meant to be human, rather than who could build the biggest particle accelerator, and so having Victor as a driven 90’s scientist that is able to ride that wave of excitement about the historic Human Genome Project made complete sense to me. We’ve taken the classical gothic setting and re-rooted it in the grungey, gothic and industrial landscape of Kurt Cobain loving, cigarette smoking 90’s Ingolstadt.

Rosanna Suppa [Director]

THE CREATURE

My preparation began well before entering the rehearsal room. Over the summer, Rosanna and Emma both sent me lots of information to help me start work on the Creature’s physicality and vocals. For example, I watched videos of stroke victims learning how to speak again, car crash victims taking their first steps of recovery, and a woman moving a baby’s limbs about while it slept. All of this was to help me convey the experience of being born into an adult body with the mind of a child. One of my first rehearsals was the birthing scene, and it was so interesting and also difficult trying to completely forget how to use my body, and then starting all over again. We soon learned that stretching was a good idea before these rehearsals!

Toby Marlow [The Creature]

REHEARSAL PROCESS

After consulting speech therapists, videos of recovering stroke patients and even the odd animal vine video here and there - this production will provide a truly entrancing depiction of the human’s progression and development in its most stripped back form. Over the rehearsals we’ve workshopped characteristics of the human condition in microscopic detail; from the instinctive reflexes we have as newborns, to consonants that take the longest for us to get the hang of, to how we react upon hearing Oasis for the first time - everything that makes us human has been stretched out, stared at for a good long while, and concentrated into this mesmerizing performance.

Emma Blacklay-Piech [Assistant Director]

TECHNICAL

Frankenstein is packed with technical challenges, including a set that needs to transform the ADC stage from a junkyard laboratory to city backstreets to a country cottage to a grand house to the alps, working water pipes and fire! It’s been really exciting to see Harry Stockwell and Sheanna Patel design and plan an incredible set that can realise all these crazy ideas. We also have a props list that includes retro electronics, a placenta and a sack large enough to fit a person in, resulting in an interesting search history for our Stage Manager. I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s going to be unbelievably cool, with a fab lighting design and awesome soundscapes to create lightning, snowstorms, and that all-important 90s soundtrack.

Eleanor Mitchell [Producer]