Frankenstein in Love: Excellent Performances but with Fustrating Staging
Frankenstein in Love makes the astute observation that few audience members can be as sick as the author. Playwright Clive Barker, author of Hellraiser and Candyman, offers his unique sense of gory humor in this mix of political intrigue and heart wrenching moments: literally. Will Act for Food presents Frankenstein in Love, one of Barker’s earlier works, with excellent performances but frustrating staging.
El Coco (Brian Dongarra) leads a rebellion in a fictional South American country, a monster with apparently communist leanings and a desire to be human. During the revolution, the secret laboratory of Dr. Joseph Frankenstein opens releasing the mad scientist’s horrifying creations. Amid the chaos and horror, El Coco manages to find love and maybe some humanity.
Barker’s script, while too severely edited for this production, remains harsh, funny, and captivating. For a play with this many references to eating babies, it’s always awkward when you want to laugh, but that’s one of Barker’s strength. Unfortunately not enough of the humor came across, especially during emotional moments which are taken too seriously. The heaviness of Barker’s material, with a barrage of religious and political themes, is always best with your tongue in your cheek. The edits themselves leave some of the themes shallow and obscure, so pushing the absurd would have been helpful.
Overall the actors make excellent use of the material. Veronique (Emily Bach), El Coco’s insane love interest, was a joyous manic to behold; Maria (Claire Tuft) provided consistent comedic relief as the ghostly narrator; Dongarra’s El Coco provided an excellent performance of physicality portraying a creature with limbs of different minds. Though you might forget you’re in South America as the actors featured an uneven collection of accents, ranging from Spanish to German to Cockney, sometimes all in the same actor.
The appearance of Dr. Frankenstein (Lawrence Garner) feels underdeveloped, due partly to script edits and to the monotone performance by Garner. Garner’s Freudian-eque philosophizing grates the ears in just the right way, but never moves or builds to anything, becoming a bland background rather than a deep hypnosis. The creepy mad scientist never comes across: creepy old man maybe.
Make up design by Amanda Fox deserves high praise, being a very small production with extremely high quality. Being able to see the actors so close gave the makeup, costumes, and props a starting and well-deserved role.
The staging, however, fails to take advantage of excellent performances and material. When entering the black box theater, chairs are lined up around the room and also put in a circle in the center of stage. The play takes place between all the chairs meaning there is no good seat in the house. You either have to turn around to see what’s happening behind you or stand up to see events on the other side of the room. Most frustrating, many emotional events occurred low on the ground preventing half the theater from appreciating the performances – and at one point leaving us out of the joke. With the actors moving around so much, you dare not extend your legs – there’s a constant fear you’ll be the one to trip an actor or worse, have fake blood dripped on you. The experience makes the audience work for their entertainment.
The inventive staging itself adds nothing to the production. The circle of chairs in the center leaves little room for actors and becomes wasted space. Instead of having a play to watch, those seated in the center have to stare at other audience members sitting only a few steps away.
Frankenstein in Love is a unique theater experience, regardless of its inappropriate staging. Even this early in his career, Barker weaves a horrifying and funny yet poignant story and any fan of his work will quickly recognize his style (and who knows when another production of Frankenstein in Love will come along). Fans of the macabre might find this an enjoyable foray into Barker’s world. The frustrating staging (and gory subject matter) should give more casual theater goers pauses, but if you have the stomach, for blood and moving your head, Frankenstein in Love is an enjoyable play.
