Mary Shelley’s tale is one where pieces of beauty are brought together to make something questionable. It’s a suitable metaphor for this Black Eyed Theatre production.
The staging overreaches and overbears the story, whether it’s the incessant percussion (like a child with kettle drums for Christmas) or the puppet creature – well-made but fussily requiring three people to operate.
The biggest weakness though is Ben Warwick’s Victor Frankenstein: his two-hour traffic is a feat of endurance rather than artistry. Elation and wretched misery are delivered in the same register, gambling through with little depth or character.
Louis Labovitch’s rasping voice of the creature shows more range, and Lara Cowin, Max Gallagher, and Ashley Sean-Cook make a reasonable fist of the minor characters.
The piece needs more discipline and more time, and less desperation to impress – then it might really come to life.
