Theater Review—

A ‘Frankenstein’ That Is Not For The Kids

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — There are some excellent acting performances in the current Sherman Players production of Frankenstein, adapted from Mary Shelley’s novel by Brian Feinstein. In what is definitely not a Halloween show for the kiddies, Mr Feinstein has turned Shelley’s horror story about a man-made monster who eventually destroys his creator into a philosophical speculation on metaphysical issues: Do tragic results negate noble intentions? And, is it possible for a creature without a soul to be capable of virtue?

Although most people assume “Frankenstein” is the lumbering monster with the prominent facial scars, the name is actually that of the brilliant young scientist who dreamed of using his technical skills to create a perfected version of humanity.  Dr Frankenstein’s infamous plan included shocking a corpse back to life with galvanic electricity, and then in the role of “master,” supervising its moral and intellectual development.

Traditionally, the monster breaks free of the laboratory before the doctor is finished with his project, and goes on a violent rampage, eventually leading to the destruction of both master and his creation.

Explaining that Mary Shelley meant her work to be a metaphor for the disastrous excesses of the French Revolution, Mr Feinstein does not kill off the monster — called The Creature — in his adaptation.

Instead, he has him spend the formative years of his development in a Benedictine monastery, under the protection of a kindly abbot who schools him in the values of discipline and unselfishness. An explosion of murderous rage propels him into the French Army. There, during the Napoleonic Wars, The Creature finds a natural home as a brutal captain, who is free to slaughter innocent civilians simply because they are “enemies.”

What makes the show work is Feike Dykstra as The Creature. Mr Dykstra’s monster is seen first as Paul, a gentle and bewildered novice in the monastery who idolizes the abbot who has taught him everything he knows. He is then see as the enraged and embittered captain who, having learned that the soul is a gift bestowed by God at birth to make men human, is determined to wreak revenge on a world which has forever cut him off from this possibility.

Mr Dykstra’s powerful interpretation turns The Creature into an understandable and sympathetic creation. He is matched by John Taylor as the Abbot, Brother Peter, whose sense of his own moral frailties leads him to extend genuine compassion and acceptance to the “orphan” of mysterious origin.

Sandy Hook resident Seamus Mulholland also gives a strong performance, as the amoral ordinary soldier Grau, who first appears as a terrified hospital inmate in an early scene which establishes Dr Frankenstein’s ambitions, and allows the author Feinstein to get in some savagely funny digs at the medical profession’s insensitivity to patients.

In the role of Victor Frankenstein, Steve Manzino looks good but is a bit too one-dimensional to convey the power and anguish of the idealist who, like Mr Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, is finally confronted with the awful consequences of his great plans and aborted actions.

There has been a lot of effort put into this production, and there is much here of interest, but it is for adults, not children.

(Sherman Players will continue to present Frankenstein on Friday and Saturday evenings until October 30. For ticket details or reservations, contact the Players’ theatre at 860/354-3622.)