Spokane Civic Theatre brings the horrors of ‘Frankenstein’ to life; cast roles, like the Creature, revealed live on stage

An English teacher by day, director Preston Loomer has taught Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” a number of times. Each time he revisits the novel, he feels as if it’s even more interesting and relevant with an undercurrent of modern topics in an old story.

Reading the script of Nick Dear’s “Frankenstein,” a stage adaptation of “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” by Mary Shelley, Loomer wanted his production to feel very “now,” but also feature the science fiction and horror elements Shelley introduced to the literary world.

Loomer had heard from others that Dear’s script was intimidating, because it was laid out very cinematically, but he thought it gave him a lot to work with.

Perhaps the biggest change with Dear’s script is that in his adaptation, the story is told from the perspective of the Creature. In Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein steers the story.

“It’s an interesting take, to take that perspective and to see this tragic journey of this person who’s learning lessons from the world, and those lessons are getting more and more cynical and harsh and broken,” Loomer said. “The thesis for me is ‘Are monsters born, or are monsters created by the world around them?’”

Loomer’s production of “Frankenstein” opens Friday and runs through Nov. 2 at Spokane Civic Theatre.

At the start of the story, Victor Frankenstein creates a creature from human corpses. He flees, however, after the Creature is brought to life, scared by the Creature’s appearance.

The Creature wanders through town, feeling lost and confused. He stumbles on a prostitute named Gretel being assaulted and frightens off her attacker. Gretel is afraid of the Creature and a mob of villagers chases him away.

The next morning, the Creature finds Frankenstein’s journal before being attacked by two beggars after he tried to take their food. The Creature hides in an old cottage, the home to a married couple named Felix and Agatha and Felix’s blind father De Lacey.

The Creature comes to care for the family and secretly brings them food. De Lacey eventually finds the Creature and teaches him to speak, read and write. The Creature is then able to read Frankenstein’s journal and learn about the man who created him.

One day, Felix and Agatha return home and find the Creature. Frightened of him, they force him out of their home. The Creature gets his revenge on the family before vowing to get revenge on Victor for bringing him into a world that doesn’t understand him.

The company of “Frankenstein” features Eupheme Carruthers, Emma Dennis, Nicolas Roy Morgan III, Katelyn Rush, Rhead Shirley, Dallan Starks and Jason Young.

In preparation for his production, Loomer reviewed Shelley’s novel and watched every film adaptation he could get his hands on. From there, he set to work creating a version that felt unlike anything he had studied.

While watching the 1931 film adaptation starring Boris Karloff as the Creature, Loomer was struck by Karloff’s ability to convey emotion without words. While watching the 1994 film adaptation starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh, Loomer took in the intensity of the story.

He referred back to Shelley’s novel for extra details missing from Dear’s script that he felt were relevant and could be useful for the actors to flesh out their characters and develop the relationships the characters have with each other.

“My goal was to say, ‘This is my version of this story.’ Yes, I’m using other people’s writings and other people’s ideas, but how do I make it something that feels different than any other version I’ve ever seen?” he said.

One change Loomer is making reverses a decision director Danny Boyle made for the world premiere production of Dear’s adaptation at the Royal National Theatre in London. In that production, actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller swapped the roles of the Creature and Frankenstein from show to show.

As these are volunteer actors, Loomer didn’t expect anyone in his cast to quit their day job to learn two full parts, something he said was “ambitious beyond ambitious.”

Taking a page from Steven Spielberg’s book with “Jaws,” Loomer made the decision to not reveal the actor playing the Creature or Frankenstein, or any other character, for that matter, choosing instead to announce the company as a whole.

“We don’t show what we don’t have to until we have to,” Loomer said. “Then, as I was adapting it, I went ‘Well, the problem is the very first thing we see is the Creature. How do I do this in a way that’s marketing wise?’ I said ‘What if we don’t tell anybody? You want to know who this is, you have to show up at the show.’ ”

When the Creature is revealed at the top of the show, audiences will see the actor not so much in heavy makeup, though there will be scars, but physically transforming into the role. Loomer said he and the creative team looked at how auditioners moved and were impressed with the way the actor chosen to play the Creature was able to be flexible and dynamic with their movement.

Loomer also worked with the actor to express the Creature’s growth, from being mute to learning to read, write and speak, and took inspiration for the character’s development from his experience teaching a variety of ages.

Dear’s writing also helped, lining up with how a toddler might sound versus a teenager.

“The other side of it we talked about was discovery, this idea of everything’s new, everything’s interesting,” Loomer said. “I said ‘When we read this line, you don’t know how to say one of the words. Pick a word that’s new, you’ve never heard it before so it comes out wrong so you have to correct yourself.’ ”

Loomer told the cast and crew that the Creature was to be referred to as such, not as a monster, because he didn’t want them to get in the habit of demonizing him like the characters in the story. Loomer added blocking to the script that involved characters running into and attacking the Creature, and he also talked to the actor playing Frankenstein about how he, as a father figure for the Creature, abandoned him.

Through those moments, audiences see the Creature learning hate, disdain and rejection.

“I wanted to sell this idea that we need to root for this guy until we literally can’t, until he does something so heinous that we have to accept that he’s lost himself, but at the same time understanding that in that circumstance, some of us probably would have also said ‘You want me to be the monster? I’m going to be the best monster you’ve ever seen,’ ” Loomer said.

The biggest tragedy of the show, Loomer said, is that the Creature and Frankenstein aren’t able to love one another, because of how they learned to be not just men in society, but also human. “This really messed up set of ideals” they picked up from others or absorbed from society steered them wrong.

Nevertheless, Loomer hopes audiences recognize the bond these characters share.

“I just ask that they come with an open mind and a willingness to remember that ultimately, there’s a tragedy,” he said. “We really tried hard to craft the story that we want these two characters to succeed, and if I’ve done my job right, everyone will want that, even if it doesn’t happen.”