A spark of life, a flash… and something new is created. A scientist brings life from death, a young woman invents a new genre of literature and both will be known by the same name: Frankenstein.
This Hallowe’en, Tea Break Theatre unravel their new immersive production of Mary Shelley’s twisting tale of the perils of stretching the boundaries of nature. In the 200th year of its publication, this electric adaptation will transport you away from everything safe and familiar into a world of uncertainty, experimentation and danger.
Enter Sutton House, step into the past and be swept away into a story which seeks to answer the ultimate question… who is the monster?
Tea Break Theatre’s production sees Victor bringing a female creature to life – the ideal woman who fails to live up to his expectations. The fear, bloodshed and torment that follows is intentionally double-edged as the audience will be torn between whether the true villain is the creature or, in fact, the creator. Through these ideas the company put a feminist twist on the well-known novel, exploring how female identity is shaped by patriarchy and how women are then punished for failing to live up to it.
This year’s production is also inspired by a period in the 1980s when Sutton House was occupied by a group of female-led squatters who saved the house from destruction – these underrepresented, often ignored, people who shaped the house’s (and, indeed, the local area’s) history. Using puppetry, shadows and scares, the production will bring both the story and the building to life.
Director Katharine Armitage comments, I’m thrilled to be bringing this fearsome feminist Frankenstein to life this Hallowe’en! Our production is going to be bolder and even more unexpected than anything we’ve done and will genuinely be a version of the story audiences have never seen before. In this year, which is both 200 years since Mary Shelley published this incredible book and 100 years since some women were first able to vote, it feels both important and special to be creating work which explores gender roles and expectations whilst also honouring a visionary writer and her wonderfully twisted creation.
Frankenstein is at Sutton House 16th October – 3rd November 2018.
