Play-goers looking for a suspenseful show to kick off the spooky season have the chance to learn about the origins of Frankenstein with Genesis: The Mary Shelley Play.
Artistic director for Artists Collective Theatre and director of the play Amanda Cutting said the show has won awards each of the three times the group has produced it and added that it strays from traditional theatre.
It will be at the Bethlehem Centre chapel with the audience seated around the stage.
“It’s a very intimate setting. There is a lot of candlelight – we see the everyday kind of life of these people and then there are moments when Mary Shelley kind of pauses the world and speaks to us as audience viewers about what she is really thinking and about what are the things she is feeling and sensing and as we see the monster, Frankenstein being created,” Cutting said. “It’s really a theatrical experience.”
The play is set in Lake Geneva in the summer of 1816 and follows Lord Byron (Daleal Monjazeb), Mary Shelley (Erin Mudry), Percy Shelley (Ben Francis), Dr. Pollidori (Alex Colborne) and Claire Clairmont (Aimee Sweetapple) through events that inspired one of the most recognizable monsters in literature.
“As an artist and someone who has been really familiar with Frankenstein, the story … to actually see how it is conceived and to see how these unique situations, with fights and conflicts and relationship battles came to creating this monster is really intriguing," Cutting said. "It kind of showcases that there is a little bit of monster in all of us – it depends how much we lean into that."
The show features an entirely local cast and crew.
“That’s really exciting to showcase the extraordinary talent that Nanaimo has here and how capable these people are at producing very challenging art. Often what is said is not necessarily what is meant so there is a lot of subtext and relationships that you can watch on stage – even if the person who is speaking isn’t the person who is in line with your sight line, the world is so rich and full by other people’s reactions that it’s just such a meaty and delicious show to be able to perceive,” she said.
Tickets cost $18-27. The show will run from Oct. 11-19 at the Bethlehem Centre chapel, with 7 p.m. showtimes and no late admittance.
