Coventry audiences will be among the first to experience a new staging of Mary Shelley’s seminal 1818 gothic horror novel Frankenstein when an “inventive” co-production visits the Belgrade Theatre in autumn 2019.
Rona Munro has adapted the story by placing Shelley herself in the action as she wrestles with her creation.
It will be a co-production between the Belgrade Theatre, Selladoor Productions, Matthew Townshend Productions and Perth Theatre at Horsecross Arts. It will be directed by Patricia Benecke and designed by Becky Minto, with composition and sound design by Simon Slater and lighting design by Grant Anderson.
Munro said, “this story has been told and retold in hundreds of different versions since it was first written. But it remains the dark and rebellious roar of its adolescent author.
“Mary Shelley was only 18 when she wrote the novel and she’d already broken every social rule that should have shaped her life. That’s the version of Frankenstein I’ve returned to, the version of the novel. The story is told in the voice of that defiant and passionate young girl accusing her elders, the culture of her age and intent on terrifying the whole world.”
Frankenstein will open at Perth Theatre and Marlowe Theatre Canterbury before running at the Belgrade Theatre from Tuesday 1 until Saturday 12 October.