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Theater Critique The play, “Frankenstein,” by Philip Grecian based on a novel by Mary Shelley, is a drama because the story line was about a very serious scientist, Victor Frankenstein, who was extremely involved in making a life form. He spent most of his time in the lab, and neglected his other duties and his health to some extent. When he finally created life with the help of his colleague, Henry Clerval, it was not at all what he had expected. He created a monster, which was referred to as the creature. In return for Frankenstein despising the creature, he killed almost all of his family.
The creature sked Frankenstein to make him a mate, and he would leave him alone, but he fails to complete the task. The creature then kills Frankenstein’s beloved wife, Elizabeth. Frankenstein wanted to avenge his family, so he went to find him in the artic with Henry. Henry was killed by the creature, and eventually Frankenstein froze to death. This summary of the play fits the guidelines of drama due to its powerful and thrilling situations, and the behaviors of the characters. Many times in the play, the viewer was left wondering what was going to happen next.
The main theme of this play is dangerous knowledge. Victor Frankenstein wanted to create human life, so he could play the role of God. His abundance amount of knowledge led him to a life of disaster, after creating the creature. Frankenstein was so involved in his work that he got lost in his science laboratory, and forgot all of his other responsibilities. All the information he gained from his numerous time learning, created someone or something that would eventually cause him to die. One issue that arose was the death of the Justine Moritz.
Justine was the caretaker of Catherine Frankenstein, Victor’s little sister. Catherine was killed by the creature, and the blame was put on Justine because she was the only one with her at the time. Justine was sentenced to death, and hung. Frankenstein’s thirst to be a god fgure caused not only the death of his family, but also other members in society. The protagonist of the play was Victor Frankenstein because he was the main character and center of the play. The antagonist was the creature due to him killing multiple people, and being against Frankenstein.
The confidante of “Frankenstein” was the captain because he would continuously speak to the audience about what as going to happen. The foil character was DeLacey because he was blind, therefore he didn’t know the creature was a monster, and he befriended him and taught him how to speak and read. DeLacey also was very comical, and made the audience laugh quite a bit. In my opinion I believe that Victor Frankenstein was best presented because he is the main character and he was the story focused mainly on him.
Also in the play, Frankenstein showed the most emotions and the audience could always tell how he was feeling. Although the creature killed many people, I empathize with him the most. He was created in a world where he was thought to be a monster, and a terrible thing. Even his creator hated him and thought he was hideous. I put myself in his shoes, and I know that if I were born in a world where everyone hated me, I would not Denave sanely eltner. I am not JustlTylng nls actlon, I am Just trylng to take his perspective on his life.
I thought this play had good language, and was very well written. As a member of the audience, I always knew what was going on because all the actors and actresses did such a nice Job playing their role or roles they were given. One things I would like o critique is even though it was a radio play, the actor and actresses were reading their lines straight from the book and I thought that took away from some of the emotions that could have been seen on their faces. Ryan Goodling, the actor who played Victor Frankenstein, presented language most vividly.
His voice inflection was very accurate to the emotion he was trying to express. The scenery in “Frankenstein” was very limited due to the size of the stage. There was five microphones for each of the actors and actresses to speak into and all the other characters would sit on chair in the background and read books or magazines. The way the stage was set up really helped me understand that it was a radio play, and it was Just supposed to be as if someone were listening to the radio they could understand the story.
The lighting of the play never changed; most light was fixated on the stage and dark in the audience. There wasn’t many props except for flasks, hats, and books and I felt that they didn’t contribute to understanding of the play. The costumes of the character were very old, which helped understand that the time period was in the earlier to middle 90’s. Some of the costumes would explain the age f the characters such as Katherine Frankenstein. She was younger and that was demonstrated by the color blue and pattern on her dress.
Also the mother, Baroness Frankenstein, was older and her dress was more worn and the bonnets on her head really helped to show her age. The color of her dress was more neutral colors which shows the maturity of her age. The stage layout design was a thrust theater because the audience surrounded the stage on three sides. I thought that this type of theater really made it so there was a greater sense of intimacy with the audience because we were so close to the ctors and actresses. Another nice feature to this type of theater is that wherever you sit you can see the stage fairly well.
On the other hand, one disadvantage to this type of theater is since there are three sides of the audience, everyone would be viewing the play from a different angle and possibly the perspective could change, depending on which side the audience would sit. The reason interrelationship between the audience and actors was special and unique because the play felt more real, and the characters did not feel as though they were Just people play a role, it felt like they ere real people. I believe that this play was titled “Frankenstein” because it was focused on one particular person throughout the entirety of the play.
I feel as though the author wanted us to focus on Victor Frankenstein and by titling the play with his last name we knew who the focus was on. The issue of the play was that Frankenstein wanted knowledge so bad that he did not think about the consequences. In the end he died because of his creation, and we can see the regret in Frankenstein’s voice and the words he spoke. I believe the moral of this play is that no man should ever try to play the role of God because there will be serious consequences. Victor Frankenstein was only numan, out tnoug nt tnat ne coul a De aoove everyone else I T ne were to create IITe.
Frankenstein was very intelligent, but you could tell that this was not enough for him, and that he needed more out of life. I believe that this shows us to be satisfied with what we have and not to be greedy. Overall, I thought that this play was very entertaining to watch because it was not a typical play. I have seen a few plays before, but none of them were radio plays and it was an exciting, new experience. I thought the whole play was very clear, and even hough the actors and actresses were reading off of a book you could still accurately interpret each of the emotions displayed through their voices.
I would really like to applaud the actors and actresses because you could tell that they really played their roles correctly and truly believe that they were the characters. I think it was very beneficial to attend this play because it gave a whole new view from Just watching a movie. The play was much more personal and emotional. I believe that this play was very well executed and there is nothing to severe I would change about the way it was presented.