FRANKENSTEIN at St Peter’s Church Crypt

★★★

“There are also some really beautiful and sinister pieces of physical theatre”

It’s a dark and chilly night in Hoxton and we have come to church. After a quick safety briefing, we are ushered down a perilous staircase and into the crypt. When we reach the bottom of the stairs, we enter a different world. The crypt has been dressed to look like a Victorian pub/brothel and the Victorian Gothic dress code (which I realised after the fact) makes it hard to tell who’s audience, and who’s performing. It is totally immersive.

After some introductory general old-timey improv, the play begins proper. It’s a reworking of Frankenstein, focussing on his early life and family. Much of the story is the same as the original, but with the crucial difference that the corpse he reanimates is his mother. It’s a fascinating idea, she is both his mother and his child, though this is only lightly explored. The changes to the original story seem a little random, and occasionally quite repetitive, but it does make it feel fresher.

This play is immersive, meaning there are multiple scenes at once, and theoretically the audience can wander between them. It takes a bit of time but soon the audience feel comfortable following the sound of the most interesting room. A classic problem with immersive theatre is feeling like you’re missing something in another room. I confidently strode into a room, where crucial action had been taking place throughout the show, only to find myself (and several uncomfortable audience members) trapped watching a man rearrange a table. But the play is carefully constructed so you cannot miss vital moments, and missing some of it is part of the fun.

“The changes to the story sometimes bring an original flair, but many feel predictable and some feel completely random”

Nicholas Benjamin’s directing was impressive. The logistical side of things was executed really well, with audience shepherded from space to space and most of the scene transitions flagged fairly naturally. He played the role of Robert Walton, which allowed him, as narrator, to move us around without disturbing the main action. This is a play which is primarily focussed on world building, and an ambitious vision, which it does execute well, especially in terms of the set design, which is evocative.

Unfortunately, the script, devised by Benjamin and the cast, was a bit all over the place. There’s a chaotic mix of improv, quotes from the novel, and original dialogue. The changes to the story sometimes bring an original flair, but many feel predictable and some feel completely random.

An absolute shining element of this piece is Nadia Lamin as Viktor’s Mother/The Creature. Her performance is arresting and disturbing. A moment where she is writhing and contorting across the room is made all the more horrifying by the intimacy of the space. Piers Mackenzie as William Frankenstein (Viktor’s younger brother) is also very strong, consistently using his natural comic timing to bring laughter into the space.

There are also some really beautiful and sinister pieces of physical theatre, created by movement director Chris Evans. These are performed to Nick White’s Victorian style reworkings of pop songs, something which seems to be increasingly popular, perhaps since Bridgerton. This works well for the live songs, which are exciting and energetic, but feels a bit inconsistent when it is recorded, perhaps because so much of the show is condensed into the space, and this suddenly takes us out of it.

The immersive element is well executed, and worth a visit for that alone. The story itself is a bit weaker, but it is an enjoyable experience overall.

FRANKENSTEIN at St Peter’s Church Crypt

Reviewed on 4th October 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Roj Whitelock

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Kate | ★★★★★ | September 2023

Rhythm Of Human | ★★★★★ | September 2023

Strategic Love Play | ★★★★★ | September 2023

The Brief Life & Mysterious Death Of Boris III, King Of Bulgaria | ★★★★★ | September 2023

Frankenstein

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★★★★

“it is the storming performance of Cameron Robertson’s Creature that will live in the memory”

Tilted Wig presents a telling of Mary Shelley’s classic Victorian novel adapted and directed by Séan Aydon. The story begins in a lonely wooden hut somewhere in the cold frozen wilds. A starving traveller bangs on the door and is admitted by the scared and suspicious person living within. There is palpable tension in a scene almost devoid of dialogue. Both strangers have a story to tell but it is that of Doctor Victoria Frankenstein that we will see acted out before us.

The cabin moves away to reveal the Doctor’s laboratory. The set (designer Nicky Bunch) is a minimalist masterpiece. Shelves with a myriad of illuminated jars containing who knows what, skulls in cabinets. A half-tiled wall resembles that of the morgue or the asylum. Dominating the rear of the stage is a huge window like that of a church or cathedral. Doctor Frankenstein (Eleanor McLoughlin) and her assistant Francine (Annette Hannah) are about to complete an audacious experiment – the creation of life – by conducting an impending lightning strike into a mismatch of body parts and organs.

We are introduced to Henry (Dale Mathurin), a physicist sickened by the gooiness of biology, and Victoria’s love interest. But there is little spark between the two characters and it is hard to believe in their romance. The dialogue is stilted and some attempts at humour don’t land. Victoria’s sister Elizabeth (Lula Marsh) – feminine, colourful and vivacious against Victoria’s androgenous, drab, and dowdy – arrives unannounced and then as quickly departs.

The audience awaits the introduction of the Creature to lift the production above the pedestrian. Cameron Robertson is outstanding, bringing the Creature to life with a great deal of twitching, moaning and gurning. We feel his pain. With the help of excellent make-up and prosthetics (Missy Brazier), he is repulsive to look at and Robertson commands the stage, his movements deliberately awkward and clumsy with a drop of the shoulder and a twisted gait. A number of jump-scares add to the power of the storytelling.

Elements of the Gothic are seen in the extended flashes of lightning through the large window (lighting Matt Haskins), but this production skilfully avoids any slide into cliché or shtick. An eerie soundtrack of music and electronics (composer Eamonn O’Dwyer), reminiscent of a film soundtrack, heightens the tension at key moments.

This adaptation is set in pre-war Germany and there are sufficient mentions of master race ambitions for us to understand the writer’s suggestions. There are sinister undertones in the speech of Dr Richter (Basienka Blake) which are shown in her open disgust of Francine and Henry. The actor shows off her vocal versatility too with a role and accent so different to that of her earlier appearance in the wooden hut. A powerful scene between the Doctor and Francine raises the question of responsibilities with McLaughlin and Hannah’s performances reaching a new level of passion and earnestness.

Mary Shelley’s story is passably narrated in this two-hour adaptation. Much of the work falls on the competent but overly fastidious Eleanor McLaughlin as the Doctor but it is the storming performance of Cameron Robertson’s Creature that will live in the memory.

FRANKENSTEIN at St Peter’s Church Crypt

★★★

“There are also some really beautiful and sinister pieces of physical theatre”

“The changes to the story sometimes bring an original flair, but many feel predictable and some feel completely random”

FRANKENSTEIN at St Peter’s Church Crypt

Reviewed on 4th October 2023

by Auriol Reddaway

Photography by Roj Whitelock

Top rated shows in September

Frankenstein

Frankenstein

FRANKENSTEIN at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

★★★★

“it is the storming performance of Cameron Robertson’s Creature that will live in the memory”

FRANKENSTEIN at the Cambridge Arts Theatre

Reviewed on 3rd October 2023

by Phillip Money

Photography by Robling Photography

Previously reviewed at this venue:

Frankenstein

Frankenstein