Review: Imitating the Dog’s Frankenstein (Touring)

Saturday, 17th February 2024 at Leeds Playhouse.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

This latest show from Imitating the Dog offers a key departure from the company’s usual approach: having no live cameras on stage. It does however maintain a characteristic cinematic quality in a bold and intriguing production.

Billed as “inspired by” Mary Shelley’s brilliant novel, this take from co-artistic directors Pete Brooks, Andrew Quick and Simon Wainwright follows a couple as they come to terms with a pregnancy – a narrative which is cross-cut with excerpts of Shelley’s novel interrupting at intervals. As the couple argue over bringing new life into a troubled world, our actors suddenly flip into impassioned interactions between Shelley’s characters, reflecting on love, rejection and what it means to be human.

As a two-hander, this is clearly impressive and challenging work. Georgia-Mae Myers and Nedum Okonyia give excellent performances, handling the ordinary domestic scenes, the epic nature of the Shelley excerpts and the prominent choreographed sequences with a perfect blend of tenderness, intensity and heartbreak. Casper Dillen’s choreography cuts through the unsaid, giving the couple a means for expressing their frustrations with movement that shifts between combative tension and tender connection.

The seamlessness of movement and performance from our actors doesn’t extend to the overall structure of the piece though. While Shelley’s narrative is also fragmented, the cross-cutting between this modern couple and Shelley’s heightened characters isn’t always coherently linked. Ultimately, this complex structure means that the angst of the couple in relation to the life they have created is constantly interrupted in ways which don’t give us enough space to invest more fully in their situation. As I sat trying to engage with the overwhelmed mother only for her to disappear briefly into Shelley’s Captain Walton, I couldn’t help feeling that the connections to Shelley’s words would have found more power if the cast were larger and other actors allowed us to maintain meaningful focus on the couple.

Ambiguities are many too, as it’s inevitably difficult to avoid playing match-up: where are Shelley’s characters in the modern story? Is the unborn child representing the monster, or is it the unloved stranger, or both, or neither? Which of them echoes the monster’s doomed companion? Is their relationship itself as doomed as Victor and Elizabeth’s? Perhaps the connections were never intended to be too close or clean, and having ambiguity does lead to great engagement and a sense of challenge, but even if the concept relies more heavily on thematic or abstract connections, it feels like a better sense of cohesion between narratives is needed.

Imitating the Dog’s thrilling multimedia approach is still very central here, despite having no on-stage camera work. Projections (Davi Callanan, Alan Cox) emphasise the sense of instability at play, depicting a developing foetus in the womb, fires and storms and unnervingly abstract visuals across a wide cyclorama and various screens within Hayley Grindle’s set design. Andrew Crofts’ lighting underscores the instability with stark, strobe and flashing lighting, allowing the production as a whole to tap into gothic, domestic and sci-fi visuals in turn – and always delivering the striking cinematic quality we expect from this company.

This Frankenstein offers an intriguing approach to finding fresh and updated connections to literary classics, and it finds power in excellent central performances. It’s likely to be a challenging watch for those expecting a neater adaptation, but the production nicely demonstrates the bold possibilities of new work “inspired” by established texts.

Frankenstein is at Leeds Playhouse until February 24th 2024 – more information and tickets can be found here. The production then tours until May 2024.