Forget if Frankenstein was the scientist or the monster - it's all about Elizabeth

Rebecca S'manga Frank as Elizabeth in Frankenstein, Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Photo: DJ Corey Photography

Emily Burns is familiar to theater-goers lucky enough to experience last spring's Macbeth, starring Ralph Fiennes. After adapting Shakespeare's text for that production, the London-based playwright has updated Mary Shelley's Gothic novel for her own direction at Shakespeare Theatre Company, seen Saturday evening at the Klein Theatre. Adaptations of Frankenstein abound, as recently as last year's uneven film version, Poor Things. Burns has also pursued a feminist reading of the work, not by feminizing the monster but by viewing the entire story through the character of Elizabeth, given "the agency of a contemporary woman," as the program note put it.

If it's been a while since you read the novel, Elizabeth is the girl adopted by Victor Frankenstein's parents. Mary Shelley made changes to the character as she revised the book: in the original version, Elizabeth and Victor were cousins, but in later versions she was an unrelated foster daughter. In both cases she is betrothed to her step-brother, but their wedding night turns bloody when the monster that Victor brought into the world, in a fit of jealousy, murders Elizabeth. (The character, who never knows her biological mother, has much in common with Mary Shelley herself, raised by a stepmother not as kindly disposed to her at all.)

(Spoilers ahead) Burns centers the action in the Frankenstein family home, near the end of the novel. Victor Frankenstein has returned from his studies in Ingolstadt, but he is not being at all truthful about what happened there or why his father had to nurse him back to health. Disaster strikes when Victor's younger brother, whom Elizabeth raised almost like a child, is murderered, and the family maid, Justine, is arrested and executed for the crime. Burns alters the ending significantly: rather than the monster murdering Elizabeth, there is a somewhat nonsensical story about her and Victor's child, left to an orphanage and somehow raised by the monster.

Rebecca S'manga Frank made a striking STC debut as Elizabeth, a 19th-century waif transformed by a modern sense of independence and frankness. As the downtrodden Justine, Anna Takayo made an equally worthy debut, bringing a remarkable range of emotion to the role, from outrage to tragic resolve. As a fast-talking Victor with a malleable sense of the truth, Nick Westrate never quite convinced, although Burns's adaptation was perhaps more to blame for making him a far less sympathetic character. With his entrance delayed to the final scenes, Lucas Iverson had even less of a chance to make an impression as the Monster, frightening only in a few flashbacks and voice-overs.

The decidedly 21st-century idiom of Burns's language in the adaptation is off-putting, given the 19th-century setting established by the shadow-filled Gothic set (scenic design by Andrew Boyce, lighting by Neil Austin) and romantic-period costumes (Kate Voyce). Music and sound, designed and composed by André Pluess, are responsible for most of the chills, such as they are. The most faithful parts of the novel to be reproduced are the voice-overs, mostly taken verbatim from Shelley's text.

Frankenstein has been extended through June 29. shakespearetheatre.org.

STC gives "Uncle Vanya" contemporary feel, swearing included

Hugh Bonneville in Uncle Vanya, Shakespeare Theatre Company.
Photo: DJ Corey Photography

Any of Anton Chekhov's plays can make for an engaging night in the theater, but Uncle Vanya is a perennial favorite. For his latest production at Shakespeare Theatre Company, where he is artistic director, Simon Godwin has reworked this classic play--equal parts tragedy, comedy, and melodrama--in a grittier, updated coproduction with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, where it played in February. The new translation by Irish playwright Conor McPherson stays close to the original in most ways, with a few unexpected twists and a lot more vulgarity.

English actor Hugh Bonneville, likely most familiar to American viewers for his starring role in Downton Abbey, works a sort of miracle with the title character, tempering Vanya's bitterness and cynicism, which can be overpowering, with drunken charm and plenty of humor. The comic timing of the whole evening, not just from Bonneville, moderated what can be a severe experience. Disheveled, unshaven, slovenly, Bonneville's Vanya is a mess, but he endears himself to his family and to the audience in other ways.

Vanya's world is thrown into chaos when Professor Serebryakov, played with wooden pomposity by Tom Nelis, moves into the country estate with his young second wife, Elena. Vanya and Serebryakov's daughter with his first wife, Sonya (a sincere and affecting Melanie Field), have faithfully run the estate for years since the death of Serebryakov's first wife, sending most of the profit to support Serebryakov's career. Now retired and seeking more money, the professor upsets the equilibrium of the place, setting all the family's accustomed routines off-kilter. Gone are Chekhov's sonic touches of the Russian countryside, like the rap of the watchman's rattle, the tinkle of sleigh bells, and the sung and strummed folk songs, but a subtle background soundtrack of crickets and other rural sounds gives the impression of a rundown house in a forest somewhere.

Ito Aghayere proved the element out of place in an otherwise well-suited cast: her Elena felt too rooted in the 21st century and seemed to have no connection to Serebryakov. John Benjamin Hickey, another television actor making his STC debut, made a self-deprecating, charismatic Astrov. Two veteran actresses, STC favorite Nancy Robinette and California-based Sharon Lockwood, delighted as Nana (Marina) and Mariya, respectively. Craig Wallis, himself an STC regular, entertained as a bumbling, forgetful Telegin ("Waffles"). An understudy for two of the roles, Kina Kantor, provided moving transitions playing solo pieces on the cello, adding an intense, atmospheric touch to the evening.

Uncle Vanya runs through April 20 at Harman Hall. shakespearetheatre.org