Frankenstein: Some Assembly Required. Photograph by Tashi Hall.
Frankenstein: Some Assembly Required sounds appealing; a chance to visit one of Fremantle’s heritage-listed buildings while experiencing immersive theatre and art from emerging theatre group, Feet First Collective. The atmospheric space and use of the six rooms at the Moores Art Building (usually an art gallery) was an outstanding feature of this performance by the recently established WA company led by director Teresa Izzard, although ‘some assembly’ implied more adventuring with Shelley’s original text.
The use of shadows and the sound of movement throughout this creaky, eerie 1869 building with its barred windows and huge doors perpetuates the sense of discovery as the audience becomes ‘part’ of the cast. The performance uses a wedding reception as a microcosm of the characters’ lives. Atmosphere is present from the beginning as the doors clang open and bang shut on this windy night, allowing Elizabeth (played by Zoe Hollyoak) and Victor Frankenstein (Andrew David Sutherland) to be welcomed – the visceral ​memory of Victor’s cold white hand that shook mine stayed throughout. The small group and forced intimacy of pre-theatre nibbles allows us to easily fall into wedding guest roles and we are given things to do other than follow the stage manager’s cues of moving from room to room. Master of Ceremonies Declan Brown has been expertly cast in this role – half jollying us along, half concerned about the peripheral action at odds with a celebration – but key to the notion of the meaningless in rituals that we may remember as significant. We were soon traipsing up the stairs to hear William’s (Victor’s brother) violin performance.
This 200 year old favourite about early science experimenter, Victor Frankenstein, bringing a half human/half monster to life shows the extent to which Mary Shelley’s story successfully conjures our obsession with creating life. Her 1817 text is developed to explore more of Victor’s family relationships. The core idea of being rejected because of how you appear is more apt than ever before in this age of designer clothes, status symbols and media messaging prioritising the young and the beautiful, and the director’s intentions mention the ‘paradoxical nature of the human condition as simultaneously meaningful and meaningless’. The youthful, attractive cast and some beautiful objects that hung around us as part of the art exhibition/room scenery did not allow for much of the ugliness to be explored.
The director’s experience with movement through Laban/Bartenieff training is on display with fantastically choreographed fight scenes and the ‘bringing to life’ of the Creature (played by Haydon Wilson); a stunning set piece worth the entry ticket alone. Wilson is the star of the show in many ways but his commitment to the peculiar physicality of the creature, and his arched, almost double-jointed contortions as he comes to life are as compelling as they are horrifying. As we watch Wilson bounce down the stairs he embodies his Creature’s outsider status. Zoe Hollyoak’s performance was also strong, and as audience members stand less than a metre away from her in her ultimate scene as Elizabeth, her distress and passion are totally convincing.
The argument between Elizabeth and Victor on their wedding night was almost too close to the bone with realism intruding into what is a type of magic realism performance with the actors freezing or facing into the walls to indicate Victor Frankenstein’s internal meanderings. Jessica Moyle as Justine, playing the bride’s Maid of Honour, has a starring moment when she sings atop the desolate tree trunk; stunningly haunting. She is shown to be much more than the Maid of Honour in a clever textural interplay. Bubble Maynard plays Mary the housekeeper and keeps the crowd engaged with her friendly performance.
The lighting design by Dana Ioppolo was incredibly effective and created its own bleak world along with the masterful set design by Olivia Faraone and Olivia Tartaglia. The hanging of branches and bunches of flowers bring the outside into this cavernous space whilst the stunning Christ-like set of wires and hanging cloths for the bringing to life/killing off of the female creature scene was monumental in performance, movement and art design. Scattered dead leaves, a huge base of a tree trunk, jagged tree branches barely hanging down into the vast space make the main room a favourite location. Sound by George Ashforth is integral to creating mood and there is nary a wrong note.
Shards of mirrors and empty frames create visual questions as they reflect back and show off emptiness as part of the art exhibition/performance set. The interesting array of objects – empty suitcases, clothes and lights hanging down – speak of departures and loss of relationship. The breaking down of the body is almost seen happening in the embodiment of the Creature, but as we know, small errors on our own bodies are hugely magnified – so what hope can there be for the distorted Creature to receive acceptance from us, as his Creator withholds his, culminating in the tragedy of internal wasteland? Feet First Collective say they take risks and this debut work is full of risks – both physical and metaphorical – and this re-imagining of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is on the whole successful. Certainly as a theatre-goer the encouragement to do more than just sit passively is an energising inspiration.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Frankenstein: Some Assembly Required
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Director and movement coach: Teresa Izzard
Exhibition Set and Costume Design by Olivia Faraone and Olivia Tartaglia
Lighting design by Dana Ioppolo
Sound design by George Ashforth
Dramaturg Finn O’Branagain
Performed by Zoe Hollyoak, Andrew David Sutherland, Haydon Wilson, Declan Brown, Bubble Maynard and Jessica Moyle.
Moores Art Building, Henry Street, Fremantle
28 October to 6 November
Exhibition 29 October – 6 November 2016
