Playhouse presents ‘Frankenstein’
The Pine Island Playhouse presented its newest play this weekend, “Frankenstein.” The 75 to 100 people in attendance at the premier Friday evening were in for a surprise when director Nichole Pichon explained that she decided to present the play, not as Hollywood modified Mary Shelley’s book, but to stay true to the book as Shelley wrote it. In the original version, Victor Frankenstein was not a mad scientist with a god complex but a scientist intent on doing good for humanity.
Hollywood also altered the creature by making him a “monster.” Shelley portrayed the creature as a sympathetic character and presents his side of the story as a lonely being rejected by society. As he grows larger he also grows angrier and in the end begins killing, finally killing those closest to Victor, the heartless creator that abandoned him.
“The Hollywood adaptations took all of the horror and very little of the emotion from the piece,” Pichon said. “I wanted to present this play as Mary Shelley did when she wrote the book almost 200 years ago.”
The play begins with Robert Walton, an explorer aboard his ship in the Arctic, writing to his sister Margaret. In the world of play-writing the method is called “introductory frame narrative.” As the audience listens to Victor’s story, so does Walton; as Walton listens, so does his sister through Walton’s letter.
In one of his letters Walton describes that his ship is stuck in the ice when Walton and his crew witness a strange event. As he looks out over the ice, Walton and his crew see a gigantic man being pulled on a dogsled. The next day they discover a smaller man desperately ill, adrift on the ice. Walton writes to his sister that he brought the man aboard the ship where the man told the most remarkable story. The man’s name is Dr. Victor Frankenstein. As Dr. Frankenstein relates his story, Walton writes it down. As the story progresses, scenes moving the story forward are recreated.
The cast included 19 actors with Ty Newman playing two parts. The central character is, of course, the creature who was played excellently by Ronald Arceneaux. He managed to get every emotion into the play and from the audience. Arceneaux’s acting skills (remember this is an amateur production) manages to convey the profound sadness of the creatures life. In one moment the audience sympathizes with the creature but in the next he performs some terrible act and the audience is horrified. In the second half of the play the creature shocked the audience by strangling a child.
In the course of the play, the creature murders several people close to Dr. Frankenstein, including Frankenstein’s new bride. Near the end of the play, Dr. Frankenstein dies aboard the ship. In the final scene, Walton discovers the creature standing in mourning over Frankenstein’s body. Instead of the creature celebrating Dr. Frankenstein’s death his misery is only increased. The creature vows to kill himself on his own funeral pyre so that the world will never know of his existence.
This production was by far the company’s best one yet. The set didn’t require many changes as earlier productions. The costumes were excellent and the acting was superb and Pine Islanders are fortunate to have productions of this quality on the island.