Glasgow theatre company to lift lid on Frankenstein’s origins

● New take on Mary Shelley’s life story to go on tour around the country

their baby daughter died after being born two months premature

The Monster and Mary Shelley will recall how the then 18-year-old began writing the novel in Switzerland in 1816 when she and other guests staying at the holiday villa of the poet Lord Byron were challenged to write a ghost story.

Shelley, who married her lover in December 1816, had given birth to another daughter by the time she finished Frankenstein, which was published anonymously to widespread acclaim on 1 January, 1818.

The company said the show would incorporate “elements of music hall, melodrama, horror and teenage rebellion with a pulsing cinematic score”.

Co-artistic director Peter Clerke said: “To create a work around the life of Mary Shelley has been a process of min- ing a rich, deep vein. While the many excitements and joys of her life were always paralleled with sadness and loss, Mary Shelley never lost sight of her beliefs in human dignity, equality and libertarianism. “She was a woman many years before her time and maintains a striking resonance in the present day.

“We have tried throughout to make a work that celebrates her life while reflecting hercontinuedrelevancetothe 21st century.

“The Occasion is very excited to be touring this show to communities across Scotland.

“We strongly believe in making theatre which is accessible to all. This tour very much realises our ambitions and we greatly look forward to welcoming audiences, throughout the country, to spend a night with Mary and her monster.”

Stewart Ennis, the writer of The Monster and Mary Shelley, added: “Victor Frankenstein describes the room where he assembles his creature as ‘my workshop of filthy creation’.

“Appalled that his creation is not as beautiful as he had imagined, and failing to recognise its heart and soul, he immediately abandons his ‘catastrophe’.

“If the show we have created in our ‘workshop’ is not always beautiful, that will be no catastrophe, but I do hope that it will have heart and soul.”

0 The loss of a premature baby inspired Mary Shelley’s Gothic tale