New NZ play gives life to the author behind Frankenstein

Newsroom

2 days ago

It has been over 200 years since an 18-year-old Mary Shelley responded to a literary challenge from her peers by writing the novel 'Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'.
In that time, new genres have been born and become staples of our modern culture. Many of them have that pivotal moment in the history of literature to thank for it.
Now, a new play explores the life of the woman behind the pen, while fictionalising the night that Frankenstein was born.
'Mary: The Birth of Frankenstein' is set in the dire Geneva summer where the mother of gothic horror did her best work. The production examines the fascinating real life of the woman herself and the many tragedies and hardships that shaped her and her work.
Screenwriter Jess Sayer has been preparing for the release for several years.
'As a writer I was really fascinated by the period of time she was creating Frankenstein in and what that must have been like as a woman,' she tells The Detail.
Frankenstein spoke to Jess like nothing else and inspired her to write a gothic horror story of her own, with Mary herself as the main character.
It's a love letter to the genre she is credited with inventing.
'There's something about it that just sticks with us and obsesses us.'
Directed by Oliver Driver, the play compresses the summer of 1816 into one night and injects the supernatural into the period. As for how or what exactly, you'll have to watch it and see.
Though, bringing the supernatural to Mary Shelley's life is not as much of a leap as you would probably think. Along with being disowned by her father and tragically losing several children, Shelley's life was surrounded by the mysterious, the weird and at times, the horrifying. Almost everyone surrounding Mary during the creation of Frankenstein died young, several not long after that summer, and this inspired a thought.
'What if they did something that summer … what if they did something that cursed them or marked them for death?'
It seems a very natural extension of real life to speculate on. Legend says that the idea for Frankenstein came to Shelley in a dream. Her husband Percy Shelley was haunted by a doppelganger and premonitions of drowning. Mary learned to spell her name off her mother's tombstone (their names were the same) and is rumoured to have lost her virginity on her mother's grave.
'No one will ever be as goth as Mary Shelley,' says Sayer.
The play starts its run at the ASB Waterfront Theatre from August 21.
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