THEATRE

It did not take long for Frankenworld to expand beyond Shelley's novel. Frankenstein first
transmediated from the page to the stage only five years after the novel was published.

Check out the full list of FRANKENSTEIN ON STAGE.

Drawing of Paris production of Presumption

PRESUMPTION  
The first offspring of Shelley's Frankenstein was Richard Peake's play Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein which was originally produced in 1823 in London. It was this first adaptation of Shelley's novel that took away the creature's ability to speak and added the character of bumbling assistant-like servant to Victor Frankenstein.

FUN FRANKENWORLD FACT: Mary Shelley attended a performance of Presumption and thought it had made her famous. She also enjoyed that the playbill neither gave the creature a name nor a descriptor, just '(------).'


WEBLING'S FRANKENSTEIN

Hamilton Deane as the Creature¹

Peggy Webling wrote the script, at the request of actor and producer Hamilton Deane. In 1927, Webling's Frankenstein premiered in London. The rights to Webling's script were purchased by Universal Studios to use as the basis for its screenplay for their 1931 film production of Frankenstein.  It was Webling who switched the names of the creator, Victor, and his friend, Henry. This would carry over into Universal's film---frustrating Frankenstein fans for decades.

 






There were at least 10 different Frankenstein plays between Presumption, or the Fate of Frankenstein and Peggy Webling's Frankenstein: An Adventure in the Macbre. However, after Webling's play was used as the basis for Universal Pictures' 1931 film, Frankenstein, film became the medium of choice for performance based narratives in Frankenworld.

ROCKY HORROR SHOW

Rocky Horror Show 1973 London Production

Richard O'Brien's theatrical contribution to Frankenworld is The Rocky Horror Show (1973), which later was turned into the cult classic film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Rocky Horror was both a parody of and homage to the B-movies of the 1950's, 60's. The Rock 'n' Roll musical is about a mad scientist, Dr. Frank N. Furter, who makes a man, Rocky Horror, to be his partner. The film also celebrates the LGBTQ community by showing how silly it is to be afraid of non-heterosexuals.

NICK DEAR'S FRANKENSTEIN

Cumberbatch and Miller as Frankenstein & the Creature

In 2011, Nick Dear's stage adaptation of Frankenstein was produced and premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London. Directed by Danny Boyle, the production was extremely poignant and focused on how Victor and the Creature were more alike than different. This was cleverly done by having the two lead actors, Benedict Cumberbatch and Johnny Lee Miller alternate playing Victor and the creature---not in a single production but on alternating days. In an interview with The Guardian, Boyle explains "The idea is to bring two actors as close to that notion as possible. And how do you do that? In terms of the performance, Frankenstein and the Creature literally create each other: every other night they reinhabit each other."² Doyle's adaptation also approaches the narrative from the Creature's perspective.

1. Image of Hamilton Dean as the Creature in Peggy Webling's Frankenstein. Mander & Mitchenson Collection, University of Bristol.
2. "Frankenstein: Man or Monster?" The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/jan/17/a-monster-role-frankenstein-danny-boyle