Moving tale makes monster of a musical
FRANKENSTEIN: A NEW MUSICAL — CAPPUCCINO MUSICAL THEATRE
These days there are musical versions of just about everything out there. (The Book of Mormon, anyone?) While I still prefer ‘straight’ plays myself, an opera singer once told me, “Music takes over when words alone can’t express the depth of emotion needed in a scene.”
Given that, I see how the Mary Shelley classic, Frankenstein, would be a perfect “fit” for a musical, because her story of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature he creates is a moving tale that just might need something beyond words to explore its emotional peaks and valleys.
Calgary’s Cappuccino Musical Theatre is offering up the Canadian premiere of Frankenstein: A New Musical.
Director Bryan Smith says he came across the show a couple of years ago. “There was something about the music, and the timeless tale that is Frankenstein, that I thought would make a good fit for us,” says Smith, describing the music as “Les Misérables meets Phantom of the Opera.”
In fact, he says, the musical verges on operetta, as almost the entire show is underscored.
Frankenstein tells the tale of a brilliant scientist in the late-18th century, Victor Frankenstein, who wants to understand the mystery of life. Using the body of a dead criminal, he builds what he hopes will be the perfect human. However, once it comes to life, rather than being the perfect specimen he intended, he finds it hideous.
As the show’s promotional literature explains, Frankenstein is “a story of life, love, Promethean dreams and Faustian horror, Frankenstein explores the full gamut of human experience like no other novel ever written . . . This is Mary Shelley’s original, brilliant, romantic terror — a dark vision of what lies at the depths of the human soul and what happens when its full power is unleashed.”
“It’s a love story. That’s what it really boils down to,” Smith says, referencing both paternal love and romantic love between Victor and Elizabeth.
But be prepared for tragedy, as “a lot of people die.”
As in the novel, the play’s framework is actually a series of letters. “The play is very much a mindscape. It’s not a real-time narrative,” Smith explains.
He says the production has also remained true to Shelley’s original vision of the Creature, which is not the square-headed, inarticulate, lumbering dolt with a bolt in his neck popularized by Hollywood horror films.
“There is next to no makeup in this show. It is all physicality and the other characters’ reactions to the Creature,” Smith explains, adding that the clever use of lighting and shadows will also suggest the Creature’s deformities.
“When you go back and actually read the novel, you start to see how many liberties have been taken by different playwrights and Hollywood,” he adds.
Frankenstein: A New Musical runs from April 28 to May 12 in The Studio at Vertigo Theatre.
Information and tickets: Vertigo Box Office at 403-221-3708 or cappuccinomusicaltheatre.ca.
SOMEONE WHO’LL WATCH OVER ME — LIFFEY PLAYERS
It was Ella Fitzgerald who popularized the Gershwin tune, Someone To Watch Over Me. That song also provides the (unlikely) titular inspiration for Frank Mcguinness’s play, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, presented by Liffey Players.
I say “unlikely,” because the play takes place as far away from the world of Ella and the Gershwins as you can imagine: in a Lebanese jail cell where three men — an Irishman, Englishman and American — are being held hostage.
Director Tanya Wolff explains the connection, saying the men “are looking out for each other and are hoping someone from the outside world is looking out for them.”
“It also refers to the fact that they are constantly watched while in captivity,” she adds.
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me is inspired by the Lebanon Hostage Crisis, during which nearly 100 foreigners were taken hostage in Lebanon in the 1980s.
One of those hostages was Irish writer Brian Keenan, who remained in captivity for 1,500 days. He went on to write a book, An Evil Cradling, about his ordeal.
Keenan is the inspiration behind one of Mcguinness’s characters, Irish journalist “Edward.”
“Mcguinness wanted to write a play about how men cope with, and survive, this situation . . . How they deal with a loss of freedom over an extended period of time,” says Stuart Bentley, who plays Edward.
The English character, Michael, is based on British journalist John Mccarthy, and the American character, Adam, while not based on a specific person, represents the many Americans who were also taken hostage.
While the play is not political from the American perspective, Wolff says the age-old conflict between the Irish and the English enters into the dialogue.
“We see these two guys — the Englishman and the Irishman — make peace with one another over their shared history,” Wolff says.
The three actors spend the entire play chained to a wall. “They don’t know if it’s day or night, they teeter on the edge of madness, there’s that sense of helplessness that they’re no longer in control of their own lives,” Wolff explains.
Despite the play’s very serious nature, Bentley says there are also some laughs.
“It’s not just about three people going through hell in a cell. There is tremendous humour in it as well . . . You get to see how people cope in this situation,” he says.
“It’s a wonderful reminder for us all of our humanity and the strength we have as humans inside,” he adds.
Liffey is taking the production to Dublin in May to present at the Acting Irish International Theatre Festival.
Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me runs until May 5 at the Irish Cultural Society (6452 – 35th Avenue N.W.)
Information and tickets: 403288-8641 or liffeyplayers.com.