Frankenstein scene wows audience

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is an 1818 novel written by English author Mary Shelley. Frankenstein tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Nick Dear adapted this beloved story and wrote the stage play Frankenstein in 2011.

 In this daring adaptation of the classic novel, young scientist Victor Frankenstein brings to life a man-made creature, sewing together dead body parts with little thought to the consequences. Abandoned by his maker and treated to the worst of humanity’s scorn, the Creature becomes intent on finding Frankenstein and making him pay.

This play premiered at the National Theatre in London in 2011 and has continued to wow audiences around the world through the online National Theatre Live viewing platform. It is a truly spectacular production directed by Danny Boyle (director of the film Trainspotting). Senior drama students were drawn to this play late last year when they saw a production of Frankenstein staged at the Court Theatre in Christchurch. Year 12 students asked if we could focus on the play for their techniques work in 2022 and thus the seed was planted.  

Finlay Tomkins and Mitchell Lobb (Year 13) chose a dramatic scene from the play for their 3.1 NCEA Techniques assessment earlier in the year. It was clear to me they needed to further develop their scene and bring it to the stage in front of a captive audience. Having wanted to enter our drama department in Theatrefest for a while, it seemed like the perfect opportunity for students and staff to collaborate on this theatre project and bring it to fruition.

Over the course of a weekend, secondary school, university and adult community theatre groups from as far away as Timaru and Queenstown, embarked on performing a range of different New Zealand and international theatre scenes at the Playhouse Theatre in Albany street for the local round of Theatrefest.

There were four technical rehearsal and performance sessions across Saturday and Sunday, with an awards ceremony late on Sunday afternoon. We came away with two awards and have been selected to perform in the next round of Theatrefest in Arrowtown in less than two weeks time, for the Lower South Island Regional Competition. It is a very quick turnaround, but the team are excited by the prospect of making a few tweaks to the scene and bringing it to an even bigger audience. 

Supporting our actors Finlay and Mitchell behind the scenes were Dana Wister (Yr13 Columba College), Brie Monk (Yr12 Columba College), Reva Grills (Arts Coordinator) and myself, providing crew support for makeup, costume, sound, lighting, & staging. It takes Dana around two hours to do Finlay's macabre makeup effects for the performance, which is no small feat! This dedication also saw her score an Excellence in Design award. 

If you are in the Arrowtown area on the weekend of the 20th and 21st of August, make sure you check our our second performance of Frankenstein at Theatrefest!