Frankenstein and puppets prove to be a perfect match.
Just like the
mad scientist who animates dead material, puppetry brings inanimate
material to life. The skeletal, sinewy monster, truer to the Mary
Shelley’s original vision, is far creepier as a lumbering near life-size
construction, its artificiality evoking a nightmare in a way person
could not. PHOTO BLOG
“Frankenstein” opens tonight at 8 p.m. in the Eva Marie Saint Theatre in the Wolfe Center for the Arts on
the Bowling Green State University. The show continues Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees
Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. The show continues April 3, 4 and 5 at 8 p.m. and April 6 at 2 p.m.
The production, directed and designed by Brad Clark, revives a much
maligned figure in the popular imagination. The stock figure of the
large, green hulk with bolt through his neck figure has been stripped
even further of dignity and pressed into service for all manner of
foolishness from starring in a sitcom to selling cell phone service.
The monster has been stripped of meaning just as the monster in the
story has been stripped of his own sense of self-worth. Clark and crew
have brought back Shelley’s compelling tale, which was at once a
harbinger of the horror and science fiction to come and an evocation of
primal folk tales.
The terror unwinds within a frame. The crew of a ship locked in the ice
on a North Pole expedition finds Victor Frankenstein (given voice by
Sarah Coon), and the scientist tells his fantastic tale to the captain
(Zachary Robb).
Frankenstein was created in a fit of hubris by the young scientist, who
is bored with what he sees as the mundane pettiness of modern science.
He’s taken instead by the grand vision of alchemists and early natural
philosophers where science, superstition and spirituality brewed
together into heady visions. But as soon as Frankenstein brings his
creation to life, he is repelled by it, and flees, leaving it to its own
devices and he believes quick demise.
The monster, though he doesn’t see himself as that yet, thrives. The
creator (voiced by Laura Oliver) is inquisitive and sensitive. He
respects all life – he’s even a vegetarian, but soon learns hate when he
is rejected by mankind despite his learning and kindness. Those he
encounters see his ghastly exterior, not his inner self. The monster
seeks his revenge on his creator by attacking those Frankenstein loves.
His vengeance is depicted in stark detail — this is why the production is not deemed appropriate for
children.
Frankenstein’s
tale plays out in a complex, multimedia stage that makes maximum use of
the black box venue’s flexible space. The audience is immersed in the
atmosphere.
Clark uses three types of puppets. The principal action is depicted by
large Japanese-influenced figures on sticks controlled by puppeteers,
shrouded and clad in black Victorian garb. Indonesian-influenced shadow
puppets and hand puppets are used for several other scenes. Especially
effective is the scene where Frankenstein’s academic dissatisfactions
are dramatized as two shadow puppet professors (Baxter Chambers and
Sarah Maxwell) bicker.
Clark also projects period illustrations of places, and as Frankenstein
works first on the male creation and then a bride for him, period
anatomical drawings.
Recorded music and sound effects heightened the mood.
The
result is to free the story and its characters from the accretions of
misuse, and to reveal the story anew as a morality tale of man playing
god to ill effect, or maybe even an alternate version of Genesis.
However the viewer interprets the story, one has to be awestruck by the
handiwork of Clark, who like Frankenstein, animates the inanimate, only
in his case to laudable effect.
Puppet play
What: “Frankenstein”
Who: BGSU Department of Film and Theatre
When: tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.; April 3-5 at 8 p.m.; and
April 6 at 2 p.m.
Where: Eva Marie Saint Theatre in BGSU Wolfe Center for the Arts.
How much: $7 to $12. Visit www.bgsu.edu/arts
or call 419-372-8171.