REVIEW: FRANKENSTEIN

Posted by arts_reviews

Posted: October 22, 2009 - 10:29 pm

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(The following was submitted by a parent on Thursday, Oct. 28. My own take follows:)

Just this morning "Frankenstein," a play put on by the Alaska Youth Theater, was mentioned by Mark and April (Channel 2 - Weekend Calendar) as this being the last weekend to see it.

I want to warn parents even though it is advertised for "all ages" this play is NOT for all ages! Not only is there profanity, it is very dark and hard to follow; not suited for elementary age children.

I took my 5th grade students this week and was very disappointed. The children did not enjoy it, let alone understand it. We were told the language had been removed, which was not entirely true.

Don't get me wrong, the acting of these young adults was excellent. The play is just not suited for young children, in my opinion.

Trish Lacey
Eagle River

By MIKE DUNHAM

I went to opening night of Alaska Theatre of Youth’s “Frankenstein” because I was curious about the rendition of the story. This version, prepared for the Seattle Children’s Theatre, has received praise for how closely it follows the original tale – and that’s important because, in her monstrous duet of Dr. Frankenstein and his Creation, Mary Shelley concocted the two most memorable literary characters to be put on paper between the time of Shakespeare and the time of Dickens.

It’s also true that her purple period language and moody ruminations make the original plod for many modern readers. To work it into a successful contemporary script is as tricky as raising the dead.

This version mostly succeeds in bringing out the profound conundrums of “the Modern Prometheus,” i.e. why do we treat people so differently based on their looks and what is man’s obligation to such aspects of nature as he controls? But I wonder whether it works as a children’s play?

Some of ATY’s performers, as always, are in fact children. The rest are mighty young – except for Ron Holmstrom as “the token adult” in the part of the blind man. As such they’re sometimes unfamiliar with details of stagecraft. Projection could have been better on opening night, for instance, or at least some modifications of the underlying soundscape that too often drowned out dialogue. But one accepts that one is seeing actors in training in these shows.

The language is somewhat stilted – a little too faithful to Shelley’s text perhaps. The word “filth,” for instance, is used repeatedly in the older sense of “blasphemous.” (Speaking of the words, there are several that some parents will not want their kids to hear, no matter how common they’ve become on television.) There are flashbacks galore, sometimes staged simultaneously with other flashbacks, and the first act lumbers along slowly until the Creature finally comes to life and enters the picture.

The presence of that Creature, played by Jeremy Gaunt, makes the second act much more entertaining. Or thrilling, at least. We watch onstage killings and hold our breaths as tension silently builds leading up to moments of violence.

But there’s no terror for terror’s sake, no defaulting to torrents of special spooky effects – the type of thing one would imagine a very young theater-goer shrieking. It seemed to me to be a thoughtful, sad play more compelling for older viewers, teens and adults.

There are, however, children sufficiently thoughtful and sad to get a buzz from it, as long as they can hear the words. But they will experience their catharsis from the drama, not the spectacle of the thing.

The show continues at 7 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. with a 2 p.m. Sat. matinee through Oct. 31, in Sydney Laurence Theatre. Tickets are available at centertix.net.

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