“Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” comes to the Merrimack Repertory Theater

“I was curious how the creature became ‘monstrous,’ a word Mary Shelley never used,” says Catlin. “But I also wanted to go back to Mary’s life, and the ideas and events that influenced her imagination at that time.”

Catlin’s curiosity led him to research the group of five romantics whose journey famously led to the creation of “Frankenstein.” The group had escaped to a villa but were stuck inside for days due to bad weather and challenged each other to a ghost story competition to pass the time. Participants included the poet and villain Lord Byron, his former girlfriend Claire Clairmont, John Polidori (Byron’s doctor), poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and Shelley’s wife Mary.

Mary Shelley’s story was about a student who sewed together pieces of body parts that could be “electroplated” or reanimated. At the time, scientific experiments attempted to bring dead prisoners back to life with electricity. Although these experiments were a topic of conversation among the houseguests, Catlin says that Mary’s personal situation (her father rejected her after she eloped with Percy Shelley, and Percy turned to other women while grieving the loss of their baby) formed the themes of the story. of rejection, loss and abandonment.

“I read ‘Frankenstein’ in high school,” says Jasimine Bouldin, who plays Mary Shelley in the production, “but I didn’t know much about Mary. This play combines the relationships of the real people involved in the fictional story.

“We use a framing device to open the play,” says Catlin, “beginning at the Villa Diodati, where the friends were staying, when it is Mary’s turn to tell her ghost story.”

As listeners are drawn into her story, they become the characters in “Frankenstein.” Over the course of the drama, incidents draw the characters in and out of the play within the play, raising the stakes among the romantics in the room telling the story, much like the creature, Victor, Elizabeth Lavenza, and other characters in the story towards their tragic climax.

“Percy becomes Victor,” says Bouldin, “and in the moment of storytelling you can see her trying to show what loss is, to see what Percy puts her through.”

Even though she plays the titular character, Bouldin says she doesn’t feel pressure to carry the part.

“It’s really an ensemble piece, because we’re switching back and forth between characters, time periods and realities,” she says.

Bringing “Frankenstein” back to the moment of creation allows audiences to see layers of the story that still resonate today.

“It starts with the complicated relationships between these people in the villa,” says Bouldin.

“David Catlin’s adaptation is both theatrical and cinematic. There are moments when the characters in ‘Frankenstein’ tell their story,” she says, “which pushes them back into the room where they were partying, and you can see the ways in which Mary, by letting her husband Percy Victor play, tries to make her partner feel some of her pain, to share their loss together.

“I was fascinated by the creature’s ability to live despite being constantly rejected and rejected,” says Catlin. “When you think about what Mary was going through at the time and the losses she suffered throughout her life, it made me think about where the impetus for creation comes from and what we should love.”

More than 200 years after it was published, the themes of “Frankenstein” still resonate.

“The great thing about theater is that each individual can take away something that is meaningful to him or her,” says Bouldin. “In terms of scientific progress, it is easy to replace AI with galvanism. But ultimately it is about accountability and responsibility for the impact the choices we make have on those we love.”

New plays in progress

Fresh Ink Theater offers their 14th season of Ink Spot Readings of new plays in development. From November 1 to 3, Sharifa Yazmeen’s ‘Bone by Bone’ will be on view, which follows a couple’s efforts to navigate their relationship in a haunted attic; and “Sugar” by Tara Moses, which tells the story of a young woman who works 90 hours a week and is still short of money until she gets an offer she can’t refuse: The Sugar Bowl.

Sunday’s staged reading will be followed by a conversation with the artists and a reception. Tickets are “pay what you want” starting at $10. https://freshinktheatre.org/ink-spots

FRANKENSTEIN BY MARY SHELLEY

Adapted by David Catlin. Directed by Brian Isaac Phillips. Presented by Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Lowell, November 8-24. Tickets: $15-$50.