The audience waited in silence as the stage in the Lennie and John de Csepel Theatre revealed the nineteenth-century world of Geneva, Switzerland, during the Sacred Heart Greenwich theatre program’s production of Frankenstein. Ms. Dorothy Louise envisioned this adaptation of the classic novel in 2004, reimagining Mary Shelley’s original 1818 story by adding another frame narrative. The Sacred Heart community and guests watched the cast perform November 17 and November 18 at 7 p.m.
Ms. Louise’s adaptation of the literary classic centers around the life of Victor Frankenstein. Junior Moira Marangi portrayed his ambitious desire to forge new paths in the world of science. As a result, Victor succeeds in creating a new life form. Junior Ava Clear played this creature who immediately horrifies Victor due to its unique exterior traits.
To contribute to the theme of human connection and companionship, Miss Michaela Gorman ’05, Upper School Theatre Teacher and Director of Theatrical Productions, and Miss Danielle Gennaro ’05, Bell Choir Director, Technical Director of Upper School Theatrical Productions, and Perspectives advisor, used the symbol of a patchwork heart on the creature’s bosom. They hoped this image would show the audience that a patchwork of experience, words, and actions shape the human heart and that individuals are responsible for what they create. Additionally, Miss Gorman and Miss Gennaro dressed all the actors in a variety of fabrics to highlight that the cast and crew, too, are a patchwork that makes up one collective entity: a heart.
Unlike the novel, Ms. Louise’s staging does not begin with the typical epistolary epilogue of Victor and Robert Walton in the Arctic. Instead, it commences with an outer frame narrative of Mary Shelley writing her novel under the roof of Lord George Byron, played by sophomore Callie Regnery. Throughout the production, Mary Shelley inserts her voice into the characters and even argues with them, stressing the theme of creator versus creation. Lord Byron, however, belittles her artistic choices. Senior Anna Oliver portrayed Mary Shelley and commented on how the addition of Mary Shelley and Lord Byron as characters in the play gives context to Mary Shelley’s perception of male and female roles in society.
“So the main character is a man, but he’s written by a woman,” Anna said. “I think that this is the result of Mary Shelley being around a lot of poets and writers who were starting to discover that the way we put roles and pedestals on men and women is very harmful. So Victor struggles a lot with his ego, his pride, and the idea that he has to be the greatest man on earth. This is the result of Mary seeing the effects of so-termed toxic masculinity. There are also many points throughout the play where Lord Byron is very belittling of Mary. And we, in our modern times, know Shelley, of course, to be the great writer that she is. However, Byron brings up a lot of points about how when her work was published, people didn’t think it was her work. People thought it was written by her husband instead. And so I think that having Byron as a character, which is added by Dorothy Louise, shows how our perception of the female voice has evolved with time.”
Anna reflected that her favorite line in the play is when her character, Mary Shelley, speaks directly to the audience about Victor, saying, “his successors embrace the same pursuit, partially unveiling the face of nature. Yet her immortal sentiments are still a wonder and a mystery.” Anna enjoys delivering these lines because they highlight the never-ending task of discovering the world of math and science. She remarked that the additional frame narrative included in the play ultimately emphasizes that Mary is the creator of these “scientific” discoveries.
“In the book, Victor and the creature are meant to be similar,” Anna said. “But in the play, Victor is very much like Mary. They both have a very scientific mind where when they see something interesting, they do this kind of scientific method of hypothesizing, testing, and then making it what they believe to be true. Mary and Victor are both very stubborn. They’re both creative. And you have this kind of trinity of Mary, Victor, and the creature. So, Mary creates Victor, and Victor creates the creature. And just like the creature is rebelling against Victor, so Victor is rebelling against Mary.”
Mary Shelley published Frankenstein anonymously in 1818 as the Regency society in England did not readily receive literary work that women wrote. Thus, Mary Shelley had the ability to write through the lens of a flawed man such as Victor. Through his morally gray character, she critiqued society and the roles they cast upon genders. Ms. Devin Hodges, a literary critic, reflected on the nature of Mary Shelley’s voice in Victor’s character in her article “Frankenstein and the Feminine Subversion of the Novel.”
“But perhaps in adopting a male voice,” Ms. Hodges writes, “the woman writer is given the opportunity to intervene from within, to become an alien presence that undermines the stability of the male voice.”
Featured Image by Emily Shull ’25
