The director has broken up the scenes by lights fading black. This is an element of tragedy – leaves the audience wondering and awaiting for something more dreadful to happen. The slow blackouts also indicate the time passing by, which gives clearer understanding of the timeline to the viewers. As the days, weeks go by, the monster develops his intelligence and the acknowledgement of the world.
The stage in the Regent’s School Pattaya is based on Shakespeare’s theatre in London, ‘The Globe’. About 2/5 of the stage is surrounded by the audience and the set up of the auditorium is Elizabethan theatre, including one stair case on left and right. The lights were placed in the middle and in the two sides of the ceiling, surrounding the stage. The stage itself is rather small, but very suitable for this play, because it did not require too much space. When we first entered the hall, nobody was concentrated on the stage, because the play hadn’t started yet. From the very beginning of the play actors made good use of the area that they were given: they walked amongst the audience and interacted with them. This efficiently grabbed the attention of the viewers and made them feel more involved, as well as showed the director’s unique style and space use.
Throughout the whole play, the set was quite simple, symbolic and naturalistic. There was more than one set throughout the production. The changes were handled by the actors within the scenes (when smaller adjustments took place) and between the breaks (in case when the set changed completely). The set of the first scene consisted of a cage (multi-functional), two stools, a machine (which was multi-functional – also used as a table) and a bucket. All the items were satisfactorily spaced out.
In the beginning of the play, the cage seemed very simple, but as I further examined it had many uses in different situations. It was used as laboratory equipment, where they carried out an experiment with the monkey. Elizabeth, Elizabeth’s father and Frankenstein wanted to kill the monkey with the machine and bring him back to life. But unfortunately they failed. The cage was also used as a prison, when Frankenstein was captured and accused for the murder of the laundry lady. But the main application of this item was cage itself where they kept and created the monster. The machine symbolized the futurism of the play as it was full of electricity and represented high technology. Whereas the costumes and the basic views on life in the play, suggested a rather historical set. Further in the play, the machine had another sub-use – a table. The set combined with the props created a good image where the action was taking place. It was very clear to the audience that stage was meant to be a laboratory. The general colours of the set were grey and white, which created a rather cold feeling towards the play and suggested that all the surrounding and action is going to be concentrated on science. Contrasting with the colours, the set included wild animals.
The lighting was provided from three different directions. They were set out in the middle and on the two sides of the stage, so that the audience couldn’t actually notice the illumination source. In addition some extra lights were supplied from the back of the auditorium to give some better light to the audience in order to be see the action on the stage in a clearer way. All through the play the colours as well as the focus and direction of the light on the stage changed. This drew the audience’s attention on the main action, wherever it occurred on the stage.
In the beginning of the play, the spotlight is on the narrator. The rest of the lights are off. This highlights the narrator and the audience focuses on her.
There is also the flashing lightning used to create an impression of storm, during the creation of the monster. ‘Storm’ creates a frightening and terrifying atmosphere to the audience. It emphasizes the fact that bringing a dead body alive is against human nature and should not be done, because usually during storms terrible accidents happen and it always has negative effects on environment.
Special colours of the lightning were used during the play. All of them created a different impression on the audience. The red light was used when Elisabeth had a dream. The futuristic colour suggested that she was hearing and envisioning the upcoming events. As the light was red, which is commonly known as the colour of blood, it emphasized a negative future, somebody’s death.
During the scene, where the monster was threatening and alarming Frankenstein, the lightning was set up only on one side of the stage – where the action was taking place. It was a wise decision because there was neither large amount of movement nor the props to cover the whole stage. The lights were blue in colour, which emphasized the relationship between the monster and Frankenstein. It was cold. There was no love or caring feelings between the two main characters.
The change in the lightning also represented the different times of the day. The dim, more concentrated on the action lightning in present suggested that it was an evening. For example, when the monster was dancing with the blind woman, full lights were illuminated on the stage. This suggested that the action was taking place during the afternoon or morning. Therefore bright light suggested that it was daytime.
Blackouts helped the actors to change the set of the scene as well as showed to the audience that more time has passed (meaning days or weeks). Just before and during the scene where the monster was pressuring and threatening Frankenstein, the other actors, Elizabeth and the backstage staff were removing one of the man props, cage, from the set.
Most of the sound effects used were recorded sounds. The acoustics of the auditorium was reasonably good, because it was heard until the end of the audience’s sitting area. It felt as if it is all around me, not coming from only one source – the sound was echoing in the auditorium. The loudspeakers weren’t visible for the audience, which is positive point to mention.
The music used in the play was very modern, upbeat/dance and rhythmic. It’s other evidence of the futurism of the play. It contrasts greatly with the characterization of the actors, which is rather old-fashion. Elizabeth was wearing a red Victorian dress, which is another significant comparison of the music. At Victorian time such music did not existing. Even though the director wanted put across the idea of cloning, but at the same time maintain the old roots of the myth, through contrasting the music and costumes, I think that it ruined the atmosphere. The mood was mixed with nineteenth century and modern fresh and busy life.
The serious and technical illustration of the stage was combined with the upbeat/dance music. The stage had a scientifical image: it included machinery, for bringing the monster alive, and it was quite simple (meaning that it wasn’t packed with props). I found it quite unnatural mixture, because the common and usual image of any laboratory is quiet, efficient in work and even if there is any music heard at all, then it would be classical style. I think the upbeat music was a too large contrast with the situation, and therefore lost its meaning.
An offstage sound of thunder, which also referred to the sound of lightning, was used quite often: when the monster was created and when Frankenstein tried to bring Elisabeth back to life. It created a horrifying and frightening atmosphere to the audience. The sound joined with the lightning created the perfect effect of storm I personally think that it’s a very good technique, because during storms the major disasters occur. And this creation was going to be one of the biggest catastrophes of humankind: a man has stepped against the God and defeated Him. The stormy sounds already suggest that the result of it will terrible and extremely unsuccessful.
In the beginning of the play, the actor of the monster doesn’t use his voice to talk, he only murmurs and grunts. This suggests that he has a baby-like nature as a newborn it has been shown through the fact that he doesn’t know any words. He is innocent in his characteristics and never means to harm anybody. Whereas his curved and yellow eyes and terrifying black lips disgust his master, this results in abandoning the monster.
Frankenstein’s creation is hiding himself from society and observes human life. He tries to copy the actions of the habitants. This indicates that the monster had good intentions from the beginning of the play. The actor is using a little bit robotic and stiff movements to show that he was created from different body parts. This also symbolizes the fact that he really is not a human, although he is created entirely by a human hand. This creates fear in the audience, they are frightened by the fact that such creature can be alive. He was created from dead body parts, which is terrifying because now those pieces are formed as one human being. It's very unnatural and unusual for normal human being to see this, and therefore it is creating terrifying atmosphere.
The pace of the actor’s voice is slow which suggests that he is in the phase of learning how to speak. He studies slowly so that he could learn all the words correctly and accurately. This creates sympathy in the audience towards the character, because he is presented as extremely blameless and immature ( in the sense that he doesn’t know how to act upon events)
The scene with laundry woman’s death is an excellent example of the infantile behaviour of the monster and the actor’s good performance. The laundry lady screams in the sight of the monster. He looks confused hearing the high notes, which is shown by facial expression and very small gestures. The monster was moving stiffly toward the laundry lady and was wondering how to stop her cry. Finally he strangled the woman in order to just stop her screaming. It was an innocent mistake because the monster wasn’t aware of his power and he didn’t know that this will kill the lady. He showed this through running away in confusion. Before running away he was looking help in desperation and his eyes were widened, which created sympathy towards the character.
The actor show levels of power in the “bedroom scene”. The monster was blaming Frankenstein for not taken responsibility of him. All the way through the act, the monster is in higher position and the creator of him is lying on the bed. This situation was very ironic because Frankenstein was the scientist, who created him, extremely smart and part of the wide community. Whereas the monster was dumb, child-like and very lonely. However, at that situation the monster was in control and wanted revenge on Frankenstein. The scene was effective for its use of levels, but on the other hand the monster was using a low, normal voice. This included expressions in his voice and quite large vocabulary - this made the monster look too intelligent. I think that the actor should’ve still used murmuring and grunting in his speech. This would’ve created sympathy towards the monster as his child-like features would have been maintained.
In the same “bedroom scene” the monster was wearing a torn bodysuit, which suggested that he was without home. It shows that the monster is inhuman, because his clothes are too big for him, therefore it has several holes in it. The holes in the shirt make him look muscular and very big in size. This helped to create the effect of the monster as the actor was a normal human being. The character seemed larger in size that he really was. This also created fear in the audience and an expression that he has lots of power and he is extremely strong. The monster looked wild and mad, due to the torn suit, which again created terror in the audience..
In the beginning of the play Elizabeth was wearing peasant like clothes: brown skirt, grey shirt. This suggested that her life was very simple and she had no worries. The character was also jumping happily up and down while playing with the snake. This is another example of her simple life, which was without any worries and full of happiness: she was playing with animals as if they’d be her only friends. This also suggests that she spent lots of time in the laborotory with his father. On the other hand it shows her considerate and gentle side.
Her movements were free and dance-like all through the play (except in the end, where she was brought back to life). She was also well aware of the space on the stage and therefore used all of it that was provided. Elizabeth’s gestures were smooth, which made her look feminine and described her character as gentle and caring. She used slow motion, when fighting with Egor (who wanted to chop her head for the monster). This shows the good control over her body and described her excellent acting skills.
Elizabeth used a wide range of her voice, which indicated her developed vocal skills. She had a Northern-English accent in the play, which became thicker when flirting with Frankenstein. This shows the various ways that she can put her character across in different situations. She also makes animalistic sound in the “flirting scene”, which indicated Elizabeth’s and Frankenstein’s physical attraction towards each other. This suggested that their feelings were wild and that both of them really sense the connection. Their attraction becomes very obvious through the audience through the various techniques.
Elizabeth wore pyjama clothes in her dream. This helped the audience understand that she was actually sleeping, not awake. In this scene she showed her knowledge of the stage – moved widely up and down as well on both sides of the stage in order to show desperation and fear of what might happen. She was also screaming, which indicates that she wanted to escape and she knew that something horrible is going to take place. This also gives hints to the audience and makes them more concentrated on the play.
Towards the end Elizabeth was wearing red Victorian dress. The colour red suggests that there is danger that something terrible was going to happen. The Victorian dress was contrasting the situation which was all about modern cloning. It referred back to the old myth that has been existing for centuries.
After Frankenstein brings her back to life from her sudden death, Elisabeth is a transformed character. She acts like the monster did in the beginning: she murmurs, grunts and has robotic movements. She changes quickly from Frankenstein wife’s character into the newborn Elizabeth. She is very convincing in her role change and the audience is able to understand the situation, because of her outstanding acting skills.
I find the play overall excellent. I think that one of strongest points was the Elizabeth’s character. I found the actor really good and her role was very well played. She used wide range in her voice, also she was perfectly aware all of the stage space and she put across the explorative strategies with high-quality acting. I also think that some of the interpretations were excellent as well. Such as adding the monkey to the play, especially calling him Frankenstein was very effective. Frankenstein, Elizabeth and her father killed the monkey and tried to bring him back to life. They failed to do it, which is like a warning to them, that none of those characters should play with life and death. This game wouldn’t have a positive ending, but even though the caution was given, Frankenstein continued. This expresses well the human folly and not learning from our own mistakes. Humans are eager to go for what they believe, not for what is actually right.
I found some of the weaknesses to lay also in the director’s interpretations. The “flirting scene” of Elizabeth and Frankenstein was, I think, too comedy-like. Though it was a very amusing scene, I think that it was over the top, because cloning is such an important and serious issue. The physical theatre helped the audience to understand the situation quicker and clearer, but I think that if the scene would have been less obvious, then the audience would have been wondering more. The relationship would have been more secretive, therefore the audience would have more been concentrated, rather that laughing loudly.
I think that the lightning was very well done. The use of different colours was very effective and symbolizing various things. The flashing-lights created horrifying and a very scary atmosphere, which created tension in the audience. But I find that there could be done some improvements on sound. I think that more sounds of nature should have been used, such as innocent bird sound when the monster is killing the laundry lady to symbolize that his intentions were always good and that he never actually meant to kill the lady.
During the “bedroom scene”, where the monster is threatening Frankenstein, his vocabulary should have been rather poor and his voice not fluent. Grunting and murmuring would have added more sympathy toward the monster, because then he would have been presented as child-like and innocent character. Whilst in the present play he seemed very civilized and used to the world and environment.
