An Acton NY Theater Review: The Firebird Project’s Frankenstein; Or A Modern Prometheus
By Acton
A compact theater space becomes an icy sea in an instant, as director Zoe Senese-Grossberg’s provocative play, based on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, starts. We’re on a ship bound for the North Pole, and Victor Frankenstein (Sophie Falvey) has been rescued from drowning by a young sailor (Kamau Nosakhere) on his chase to destroy the Creature (Benny Rendell) he brought into the world. As Victor shares his story of madness and murder, the two find themselves drawn to each other in one of many moments that elicit the desire, shame, repulsion, and the terrors of hidden sexuality found in the novel.
In this agile new production, we follow the perhaps too close trio of Victor, his friend Henry (Nosakhere), and Victor’s cousin Elizabeth (Eli Wassertzug), from idyllic childhood to a fateful wedding night, crashed by Rendell’s Creature. Falvey plays Victor with a tortured earnestness as he struggles through sickness and studies, ignoring his friends for years until divebombing back into their lives in an attempt to straighten out his own. Rendell is powerful but pitiful as the overgrown child Creature whose tragic bond with the immature Victor drives the horror of the story. Wassertzug and Nosakhere are both adept at quick transformations, able to embody a cast of various other minor characters through the use of costumes, props, or changes of expression and composure. There are surprises in store even for those familiar with the book, including a necromantic three-way that supplants the famous movie imagery with some new weird shocks.
Frankenstein makes maximum use of the space, with staging that swiftly brings us from a peculiar professor’s office to a weird cemetery, a doomed bridal suite, and more. Entrances and exits are smartly hidden in every corner, and there’s even an eerie little puppet (designed by Rae Bell). Dynamic lighting (Alex Nemfakos) conjures a damp cemetery in the moonlight, or a massive tree burning down during a thunderstorm. It adds a shock of color at several key moments in an otherwise pleasingly neutral color palette that shows off both the performances and nicely crafted costumes (Katie Homer-Drummond, Maximillian Romanov). I also loved Wyatt Camery’s live guitar score, cooly conveying the characters’ dread and obsession.
Mary Shelley published her novel when only 20 years old, and the smart and inventive Firebird interpretation captures the urgency of a young writer with a lot of talent and a big, rich story to tell.
The Firebird Project’s production of “Frankenstein: Or A Modern Prometheus” is being staged at JACK in Brooklyn (20 Putnam Ave) from March 28th to April 5th, 2025. For more information and tickets, click here.
