Opening to a darkened stage, coloured globes revolve like planets upon a solar plane, with sombre voices echoing out. Following this, a group of white clad 'Frankenstein Series' Androids search in the dust of some ruined city for remains of humanity.
It's quickly clear that as usual Livewire have taken a classic story and are running with it in an obscure and interesting fashion. In fact, the concept of this futuristic cyborg dystopia and the idealistic and egotistical Doctor Mary intent to recreating a real human is a neatly clever inversion of the original story.
Which is why it is all the more disappointing when it all begins to fall apart at the halfway point. Perhaps it's a result of the shortened running times or the pressure of running three shows back to back each night, but Livewire's Frankenstein seems to completely lose cohesion after the creation of the 'monster' which is in truth a beautiful young human girl.
The main trouble with the narrative is that since we know relatively little of the society in which the androids live, there seems to be no real struggle for the characters other than Doctor Mary's own scantly explained reasoning for wanting nothing to do with her creation, despite feeling otherwise. Again, much as with their other shows this year, Frankenstein is crying out for another twenty minutes of breathing room and a chance to shine, which sadly it never gets.