FRANKENSTEIN
07/08/2015 - 29/08/2015
Production Details
Television stars collaborate with Manawatu community on Centrepoint’s biggest show yet.
Childlike in his innocence but grotesque in form, Frankenstein’s bewildered creature is cast out into a hostile universe by his horror-struck maker. Meeting with cruelty wherever he goes, the friendless Creature, increasingly desperate and vengeful, determines to track down his creator and strike a terrifying deal.
This riveting production will be the biggest of Centrepoint’s 41-year history, featuring two of New Zealand’s most notable television stars, and over twenty budding actors from the Manawatu community. Directed by our Artistic Director, Jeff Kingsford-Brown (Golf: A Love Story, The Mercy Clause), Frankenstein will see Chris Tempest (Shortland Street) as Dr. Victor Frankenstein pitted against Karlos Drinkwater (Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Shortland Street) as the infamous creature.
Drinkwater says it’s the themes Frankenstein touches on that drew him to the role of Frankenstein’s creation. Urgent concerns of scientific responsibility, parental neglect, cognitive development and the nature of good and evil are all embedded within this thrilling and deeply disturbing classic gothic tale. “The way we relay these ideas to the audience is, for me, the interesting part. Despite it being a classic story, today’s technology tinkering with cloning and artificial insemination, even artificial intelligence, keeps this version relevant to a contemporary audience.”
National Theatre’s production of the play, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch from TV’s Sherlock, was a sell-out hit in 2011, and National Theatre Live’s broadcast has become an international sensation, experienced by almost half a million people in cinemas around the world. Tempest can understand why the production has become so popular. “This script is dark yet funny, and carries with it big characters with strong motives and dangerous consequences. When I read it, it was very visceral – it all played out so clearly in my head. It’s a fantastic play.”
Now, Manawatu gets to experience the horrific tale up close and personal at its New Zealand premiere. Grab a group of friends, take advantage of our ‘dinner + show’ deal or pop in early and grab a drink at the bar – make a night of it! Come witness the horror of Frankenstein as you’ve never seen it before.
“Slowly I learnt the ways of humans: how to ruin, how to hate, how to debase, how to humiliate. And at the feet of my master I learnt the highest of human skills, the skill no other creature owns: I finally learnt how to lie.”
FRANKENSTEIN
Venue Centrepoint Theatre, 280 Church Street, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Dates 7 August – 29 August 2015
Preview Friday 7 August, 8pm
Opening night Saturday 8 August, 8pm
$20 Tuesday Tuesday 11 August, 6.30pm
(Tickets available from 10 August, 9am.)
Times Wednesday 6.30pm / Thursday to Saturday 8pm / Sunday 5pm
Tickets Adult $38 / Senior $30 / Student $18
Bookings 06 354 5740 or centrepoint.co.nz
Starring Karlos Drinkwater and Chris Tempest
and featuring Renee Ball, Sera Devcich, Glen Eustace, Jess Hong, Mark Kilsby, Maizy Kingsford-Brown, Jonny Marshall, Thérèse McCrea, Philip Mills, Kieran Murphy, Ryan Ngarimu, Helena Pawson, Matt Waldin, and Phil White
with Lydia Benton, Micaiah Hunt, Frank Lawton, Zara Lawton, Harrison MacKenzie, Tia Rongokea, Lily Stablein, Sarah-Paige Sturm, Maggie Webster-Shadbolt, and Aaron Whale of The Basement Company 2015
Set Designer Theo Wijnsma
Lighting Designer Marcus McShane
Costume Designer Gillie Coxhill
Sound Designer / Composer Josh Finegan
Prosthetic Designer Leda Farrow
Prosthetic Artists Ethan Burmeister and Alex Townshend
Movement Coach Luke Hanna
Ensemble Coach Carrie Green
Theatre ,
Plenty of shocks and surprising twists
Review by John C Ross 09th Aug 2015
So, going way beyond the stereotyped cartoon figure of Frankenstein’s ‘monster,’ what does it feel like to be a Creature, constructed from body-parts taken from corpses and brought to life by an obsessed, nineteenth-century genius-scientist?
A creature who is human-like yet not entirely human but intractably ‘other’ and one of a kind; who is a quick learner yet, having been brought to life in an adult body, is bewildered, inarticulate and having to learn everything from scratch? Among other feelings, he clearly comes to feel bitter and excruciatingly lonely; desperate to have a female ‘creature’ to be with. Otherwise, beyond a certain level, how could we know what it feels like to be him? Yet Nick Dear’s play draws us into these questions.
And what does it feel like to be Victor Frankenstein, the scientist? He’s more deeply understandable, yet has he crossed a certain boundary? He has wildly swinging emotional responses towards this being he has created, yet can he evade being bonded to him?
This is a classic Gothic horror story with plenty of shocks and surprising twists. The action is inevitably compressed, with Frankenstein’s pursuit of the Creature across the world conveyed in a single scene, which ends surprisingly.
It’s a big challenge for a director, Jeff Kingsford-Brown, to make it work. On the whole, it does. Karlos Drinkwater gives an outstanding performance as the Creature, always varied and plausible, as does Chris Tempest in the not-quite-so-demanding role of Victor Frankenstein.
Beyond them, there’s a huge cast for a Centrepoint production, with thirteen in minor roles, and a further ensemble of ten, all of them amateurs. Among them the standout is Mark Kilsby, as the blind old man De Lacey, who is the only human to show the Creature sustained compassion and help. Organizing them all is a big challenge for the director, with support from Craig Geenty.
Staging the play in the round, with audience seating on all four sides, is an even further envelope-pushing challenge. And while one applauds that, it is here that this review becomes hard to write, because one has to review the performance one attends and there are some issues which one would hope would be resolved in later performances, to do with sight-lines, the audibility of speeches and so forth.
The Creature’s head and body make-up needs to be more emphatic and less monochrome since, except for audience-members in the front rows, the finer details are not visible.
Generally, Theo Wijnsma’s set design, Marcus McShane’s lighting design and Gillie Coxhill’s costume design all work well, and Josh Finegan’s sound design, with atmosphere music, is especially notable for involving composition by himself.
This is an unusually ambitious production, and well worth seeing.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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