Frankenstein

Seagull Club at The Seagull Theatre, Lowestoft

Review published in the Eastern Daily Press, 3 April 2010

Frankenstein

A woman, Mary Shelley, wrote it first. A creature put together from the body parts of others and brought to a life of its own, lonely, unloved and feared, is the macabre Gothic horror that has always thrilled.

Local actor Richard Boakes makes his writing and directorial debut in the Seagull Theatre Club’s latest production. A good job he makes of it, too.

He brings Frankenstein’s grisly old corpse alive, charting in a series of narrative scenes the sickening obsession of the young man (Reece Ayers, in horror-struck form) as his monster (a wonderfully rough Ryan Hammond) wreaks vengeance on innocent people for being created.

That the original experiment was intended to find a way from disease and into eternal life, is well argued as we realise that too much knowledge can be a dangerous passion in a world with limits.

The drama is enabled by the skills of Holly Drake, as the long-suffering love interest who meets a hideous end; and young Tyler Grimes, the boy also destined to be snuffed out by the Creature.

A strong supporting cast, some evocative music and a joy at seeing the Seagull Theatre doing well enjoyed by all ages, makes this a cracking good night out.