By David Greenham

This stage adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel earns its keep — the production is provocative, well acted, and completely engaging.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by David Catlin. Directed by Brian Isaac Phillips. Scenic design by Sam Reno. Costume design by Rainy Edwards, lighting design by Jeff Adelberg, projection design by Robert Carleton Simmel, and sound design by Zack Bennett. Co-produced by Merrimack Repertory Theatre and Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. Performed at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre at Liberty Hall, Lowell, through November 24.

Jay Wade in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Photo: Mikki Schaffner

Bullied by her lover Percy Bysshe Shelley (John Patrick Hayden) and his friends Lord Byron (Jay Wade) and Dr. John Polidori (Billy Chace), odds would seem to be that Mary Shelley (Jasimine Bouldin) would be too intimidated to contribute to a misogynistic storytelling competition set up by a trio of 19th-century writers. The four contestants, along with Mary’s pregnant stepsister Claire Clairmont (Alexis Bronkovic), are spending the summer of 1816 in a cottage in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. The yarn-spinning contest is well underway at the start of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: acerbic and overly self-confident Percy is convinced that Mary should simply concede that she will lose, rather than try her hand at telling a story. “You couldn’t think of a ghost story, Mary,” he insists. Steadfast, she glares at him and intones, “buckle up your breeches, my love, I’m about to begin.”

Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley’s tale of “a most hideous phantasm of fluid and flesh” would become, arguably, the most popular and well-known horror story ever. Published in 1818, Frankenstein; or The Modern Prometheus is also the most freely adapted Gothic novel of all time — movies, plays, radio dramas, operas, literary spin-offs, TV programs, etc. So it’s reasonable to wonder what playwright David Catlin was thinking with this 2019 take on the novel. Is this trip, once more, back to the lab necessary? Relevant?

The Merrimack Repertory Theatre production earns its keep — it is beautifully performed, fully engaging, and lots of fun!

The action begins in Lake Geneva and then quickly dives into Shelley’s narrative, which is told through a series of letters and involves multiple storytellers. Billy Chase takes on the role of Walton, the captain of a ship sailing to the North Pole in search of the source of the Aurora Borealis. His crew spies a larger-than-life figure on the ice before they spot the nearly frozen but frantic Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Hayden). What seems, initially, to be the hallucinations of a madman triggers a flashback to Frankenstein’s childhood in Geneva.

John Patrick Hayden in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Photo: Mikki Schaffner

Young Victor is close with his mother, Caroline (Bronkovic). His parents adopt the orphaned daughter of an Italian nobleman, Elizabeth Lavenza (Bouldin), and she and Victor appear destined to eventually fall in love and marry. We also meet Victor’s close childhood friend Henry Clerval (Chace). Victor’s mother gives birth to a son, Henry (Bronkovic), but soon after succumbs to yellow fever. The loss propels the grieving Victor on the quest to uncover “the elixir of life” — to learn how to bring people back from the dead. Once he leaves for university, his desire becomes an obsession, and, eventually, the Creature (Wade) is born. Elated with his success, Frankenstein at first crows that he has “created a completely new species.” But he quickly recognizes the danger, declaring, “this knowledge must die with me.”

Playwright Catlin’s script seamlessly tells this complicated horror story, also finding the time to probe the circumstances that led to its creation. Mary, who at the time of writing the novel was known by her maiden surname of Godwin, was having an affair with the still-married Percy Bysshe Shelley. Their daughter Clara was born prematurely on February 22, 1815 and died in her sleep 12 days later. Mary refers to her enormous sorrow at this loss, at one point admitting that “grief swallows me up like a vast sea.”

In Act II, the complexities of Shelley’s original version take center stage, the revelatory intelligence and emotional depth so often ignored in commercial adaptations, such as the famous 1931 film. The savagery stems from Victor’s mistreatment of the creature, because he cannot nurture what he has created. The creature’s desire for revenge and disaster follows. But who is the real monster? The wayward creature, or the man who made him and then gave up all responsibility? The moral conflict in Mary Shelley’s masterpiece  — intertwined with its condemnation of the fantasy of immortality — is explored frequently. Most powerfully when the ghost of Victor’s mother appears and counsels him to “look for life in life, Victor, not in death.”

Jasimine Bouldin and John Patrick Hayden in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Photo: Mikki Schaffner

The cast is uniformly strong, with each actor turning in brilliantly illuminating moments. As Victor and Percy Shelley, Hayden’s intensity ebbs and flows; some of his most compelling moments come when he supplies quiet nuance. Chace charms and chuckles his way through the sidekick roles, aptly surprised and confused at what he’s called to witness. Bronkovic has been cast as several characters who die, but she makes each death memorable. And she can do comedy: she is hysterical as an old woman who finds a disheveled Victor washed up on the Scottish shore. Wade’s creature taps into Mary Shelley’s original: the performer is thoughtful and physical. This is a menace who is not menacing. His biggest leap is moving from the sophisticated and staid Bryon to the “monster” who is slowly crushed by angst and frustration. Wade nails it. The irresponsible Victor is horrified by the creature he’s created, but we grow to understand his plight because of Wade’s measured interpretation. Bouldin shines as Mary and Elizabeth, seamlessly weaving between the roles of narrator and key player. She deftly handles Victor’s narcissistic emotionalism and Percy’s microaggressions and sexism. But Bouldin also registers a wide range of emotions — from the tragic to the poignant — when she steps out of character to reveal the fates of Lord Byron, Dr. Polidori, Claire Clairmonth, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and even Mary Shelley. It’s a beautiful and moving epilogue.

Sam Reno’s set, Rainy Edwards’s costumes, and Jeff Adelberg’s lighting leave room for the sumptuousness of Robert Carlton Stimmel’s lush projections and Zack Bennett’s intrusively delicious soundtrack. The latter can be pulsating as well as subtle: thunder claps go BAR-ROOM!, a baby whimpers quietly. Most appealing are the hilariously grotesque sound effects that accompany Frankenstein as he harvests organs from a fresh corpse. Kudos to director Brian Isaac Phillips, who maintains a pace that rarely feels rushed or overly frenetic. He provides plenty of moments where the audience can catch its breath, and these are surprisingly funny.

Is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein relevant? Given that the monster we have elected, America’s first President to be tried and convicted of crimes, is a creature who appears to be immune from the laws and the Constitution, it is fair to speculate that Victor may be speaking of us when he declares, “In our ignorance we unleash a trove of ills on the world.”

David Greenham is an arts and culture consultant, adjunct lecturer on Drama at the University of Maine at Augusta, and is the former executive director of the Maine Arts Commission. He can be found at https://davidgreenham.com/