Monster (2004)

The last moments in Act I of Sight Unseen's production of
Monster by Neal Bell.

After the success of One Flea Spare, Sight Unseen embarked on its largest-scale production to date with Neal Bell's "Frankenstein" adaptation, Monster.  The little-seen work by the excellent Boston playwright had never before appeared in Los Angeles, but in the fall of 2004, it filled the stage at the Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica. 

Mary Shelley's classic gothic novel is retold with a fresh focus on the issues of passion and the personal sacrifices that come with ambition.  Bell's creature is a character with scope and  dimension and was portrayed by Sight Unseen co-founder Clark Freeman in a performance hailed by critics.  Michael Laurino returned to Sight Unseen following One Flea Spare to play the infamous Victor Frankenstein.  Their supporting cast featured One Flea Spare veterans Susan Matus and Frank Smith, and the Sight Unseen stage debuts of Megan West, Ben Correale, and Frank Ashmore.  Clark Freeman produced, Andy Mitton directed and wrote the musical score, TJ Moore set designed, Casey Clark returned as Stage Manager, along with Valerie Bart as costume designer and Dan Jenkins designing the lights.  The multilevel set in combination with the challenging text and fast-moving scenes of feverish intensity provided the group's greatest challenge yet and resulted in a powerful finish to 2004's theatrical season.

Reviews

LOS ANGELES TIMES:

"...director Andy Mitton crafts moments of riveting intensity. The Creature is "born" in a harrowing scene, as gruesomely made-up actor Clark Freeman convulsively reacts to an unwelcome flood of new experience. As the impossibility of finding love or acceptance quickly transforms him into a figure of rage, cunning and vengeance, Freeman's monster has soul-searching exchanges with creator Victor (Michael Laurino)."    (Philip Brandes)

BACKSTAGE WEST:

"Director Andy Mitton crafts a glitteringly imaginative staging full of organic acting. Laurino delivers a particularly powerful turn as Victor, his arrogant desires gradually collapsing into self-disgust and dismay. Freeman is unexpectedly likeable as the Monster. Matus offers a pair of droll supporting performances, playing Victor's uptight mother and the ill-fated housemaid. Aashish Pathack's eerie sound design, full of distant sounds that we can't quite identify, effectively crafts a spooky mood, as does T. J. Moore's moody Arctic wasteland set."  (Paul Birchall)

                                                                  LA WEEKLY (RECOMMENDED):

Playwright Neal Bell cleverly telescopes the wild events of Mary Shelley's 1818 gothic classic Frankenstein into a manageable dramatic form in his loose adaptation.    Bell sticks to the main events of Shelley's novel, but adds his own sexual spin.  Victor and Elizabeth may have all the love scenes, but a faint miasma of homoeroticism hovers.  And Victor's relation to the Creature is weird blend of God, father, brother, enemy, friend and lover.   Laurino is a stalwart Victor, and Freeman makes a touching figure of the Creature...  The supporting cast works gamely to flesh out the melodramatic stick figures, and...Andy Mitton turns the piece into delectable Halloween fare, on TJ Moore's suitably bleak set."  -Neal Weaver

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