Review: House of Frankenstein by Silent House Theatre (SH.), Waco
by Michael Meigs

Silent House's House of Frankenstein, which ran for the five evenings culminating on Halloween, astonished. For the intellectual but gripping treatment of its subject matter, for language which flawlessly evoked early nineteenth-century Britain, for the uniformly expert and convincing performances of its fourteen-member cast, for direction, lighting, special effects and music, and the evocative venue of the historic McCulloch mansion in Waco.

 

Okay, do you hear me raving?

 

Let's face it, the end of the year is mostly a dreary drag for theatre reviewers. Theatre companies must play to their audience's expectations, which means haunty-spooky in October and lots of sentimental ho-ho-ho from late November through the end of the year. And the title? The House of Frankenstein could have covered a disaster, similar to an everyone's-invited Halloween party. But it wasn't; the quality of this production was definitely worth a round trip to a town a hundred miles from Austin and a stay in a roadside hotel. 

 

To be honest, I'd didn't go in blind. I've been monitoring the Silent House group since shortly after its origins almost five years ago, and I did see and review their 2022 production of Hedda Gabler. From afar I've appreciated their judicious, well-informed, pushing-the-envelope choices, particularly of contemporary works. This one, however, was an entirely in-house creation, written by company member Jamie Coblentz, so I decided to chance it.

 

 

 

Her concept is audacious. She took two closely related stories: Mary Shelley's writing of Frankenstein while she and her husband poet Percy Bysshe Shelley were living with George Gordon, Lord Byron in a house near Geneva, Switzerland, and the plot of Shelley's novel. This was double-casting with a venegeance. Sebastian Allman played both Lord Byron and Victor Frankenstein; Bradyn Braziel portrayed both Mary Shelley and Frankenstein's fiancée Elizabeth Lavanza; and Ethan Truman was Percy Shelley and (incredibly and unrecognizably) Frankenstein's creature. Playwright Coblenz told us afterward that she'd written the piece for five characters, but so many talented actors turned up at auditions that she and director Collin Selman decided to expand the script.

 

The transition from five to fifteen in the cast didn't diminish the quality of the writing or the acting, but it did result in a longer evening of theatre (punctuated by a fifteen-minute intermission). 

 

 

The company took full advantage of the McCulloch house, built in the 1870's in what then must have been fields outside of town but which by now has become isolated among modern edifices and raw bulldozed redevelopment sites. Attendees gathered in the front yard and were sorted into three groups, each shepherded by a costumed cast member. The groups moved in turn from a living room/study where Mary's sister Claire was writing love letters to Lord Byron and harassing the servants, to the back yard where Byron was conversing in full macho form with a friend, to an upstairs bedroom where Mary and Percy Shelley were expressing moody mutual discontent. The groups reassembled in rows of chairs in a room adjacent to the living room, which became the stage for subsequent action.

 

The intermission was followed by an interlude outside the house (the novel's tale of the creature, the kindly blind man, and the rejection of the creature by the old man's family), then returned to the established stage area, where the horrors of Mary's story were enacted, made particularly vivid by the use of black-light phosphorescence, lighting effects, and superb sound design. Music was effective throughout, particularly solo piano soundtracks and brief choral numbers by a quintet.

 

There's a depth and sensibility to this script. Playwright Coblentz ties Mary's concept of her horror story to real events in her life, and Bradyn Braziel's intensity makes those connections apparent. As Mary, she establishes herself as vulnerable but independent, having overcome opprobrium but confronting demands from three insistent forces: her husband Percy, who sees she's distracted and distant, Lord Byron, who's a cad and seducer, and the story that has filled her head, a transmutation of her own griefs and desires. As Elizabeth in the alt world of the novel, she delights in wedding Victor Frankenstein but is murdered by the creature.

 

This script has a strong focus on injustice to women. Particularly affecting is the true story of Bryon's seducton of Mary's sister Claire and his scorning both of Claire and of the child that resulted from that liaison.

 

 

Sebastian Allman's two creations—Lord Byron and Victor Frankenstein—are each so vivid that at times it's hard to believe that the same actor is presenting them. Ethan Trueman as Percy Shelley is reserved, correct, disappointed with his wife; one literally does not recognize him at all as the monster, who's forceful, angry, pathetic, shunned, and violent by turns. That's not just the black-light magic; it's the power of authentic acting.

 

Can we have it back again next year?

 

 

 

 

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House of Frankenstein
by Jamie Coblenz
Silent House Theatre (SH.)

October 27 - 31, 202

Silent House Theatre at McCulloch House, Waco

Tickets $26 - $40, available online HERE