photo by Heidrun Lohr
Mark Kilmurry loves Tasmania, being originally from the UK, he feels aboslute bliss when he visits seeing snow on the mountain.
Mark is a Co-artistic Director at Ensemble Theatre, the company that brought ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ to Tasmania some years ago and Mark says that he sometimes jokes with the cast that he will ressurrect the production, as Daniel Mitchell, who played Morrie, says he will still be able to reprise this role as he was already playing a character older than himself!
This year Mark is directing and bringing a production of Frankenstein to Tasmania. The production is based on Nick Dear’s retelling of the story. Nick’s version stays close to the novel and explores the story by way of giving ‘the creature’ a voice, as he has in the novel. The play has the gothic and science fiction theme as well as it’s very Victorian feel with the flowery language of the novel.
In preparation for the play the cast attended physical workshops where they did exercises such as being blindfolded and tied together and helping each other through the physical barriers to create trust between them. Mark says he is delighted with his cast’s commitment to the project and the trust generated for each other.
Mark feels that Mary Shelley is hard done in not being applauded in the same way as authors that also wrote futuristic themed fiction, such as Jules Verne. She was young, only 19 when she wrote what is an amazing book still relevant to our own times.
Mark explains that the creature is a victim of circumstance. We see his potential for good as he studies and admires the loving nature of a family in the wood and how he rewards their warmth by symbolically chopping wood for their continued physical warmth but once repulsed he becomes darker and dangerous.
As Mark explains ‘the creature’, born an adult, learns by observation and when given negative reactions such as repulsion he knows no better than to defend himself by wreaking revenge as he does on his creator Frankenstein.
The creature’s physical representation in this production stays true to Nick Dear’s vision of a creature not heavily ladden with makeup or with the familiar bolt in the neck
Perhaps the final words should be a paraphrase of the final words of the book, of the creature as it ‘disapears into the darkness and distance.’ The story of Frankenstein, a story about the lonliness something akin to disapearing of the explorer and searcher of answers and reminds us that ultimately we all need human companionship. It tells the story of the darkeness of human nature and those distanced from companionship and compassion. Frankenstein is an important story that will never be distanced or irrelevant.
Frankenstein can been seen at the Theatre Royal on Tuesday, 11th June 2013 – 8:00pm & Wednesday, 12th June 2013 – 8:00pm.
Paula Xiberras
