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Culture Theatre

Frankenstein

FRANKENSTEIN conceived by Jonathan Christenson and Bretta Gerecke (Catalyst Theatre). At the Bluma Appel (27 Front East). To May 29, Monday-Saturday 8 pm, matinees Wednesday 1:30 pm, Saturday 2 pm. $20-$92, limited rush/pwyc. 416-368-3110. See Listings. Rating: NN


Late in the protracted first act of Catalyst Theatre’s Frankenstein, someone sings, “Just get on with it.” That’s exactly what I was thinking during 80 per cent of the show.

Created by the company behind Nevermore, the visually inventive but repetitive take on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe, this new show, presented by Canadian Stage, attempts to breathe new life into Mary Shelley’s story of scientific hubris.

At school far from the gothic weirdness of his childhood abode, prodigy Victor Frankenstein (Andrew Kushnir) discovers the secret elixir of life. But no sooner does he zap a patchwork quilt of a creature into being than murders start occurring.

Jonathan Christenson (writer/director/composer) and Bretta Gerecke (production designer) have been justly praised for the show’s design. Gerecke obviously studied hard at the Edward Gorey/Tim Burton School of Inspiration, but what makes her costumes and props unique is her use of paper, which even extends to the meta-the atri cal curtain. I smell Dora Award.

Unfortunately, Christenson’s script (all in rhyming couplets) and songs keep lurching around to no effect. The overuse of narration continually wrenches us out of the story. Only late in the first act, when Frankenstein’s tutor, Justine (a vivid Nancy McAlear), is put on trial for the murder of a ward, does the show begin to smoulder. And much of the second act, chronicling the creature’s early life, succeeds.

The songs, often based on three or four notes and featuring abstract lyrics, stop the narrative dead – not what you want in a musical. And while Kushnir works at it, he can’t make his character’s plight sympathetic. Only McAlear and Tracy Penner as Frankenstein’s wife, Lucy, manage to bring life to their paper cut-out characters.[rssbreak]

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