Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (NHB Modern Plays)

Rona Munro, Mary Shelley

• Publisher: Nick Hern Books
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781788502870
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

An eighteen year-old girl, Mary Shelley, dreams up a monster whose tragic story will capture the imaginations of generations to come.

A young scientist by the name of Frankenstein breathes life into a gruesome body. Banished into an indifferent world, Frankenstein's creature desperately seeks out his true identity, but the agony of rejection and a broken promise push him into darkness. Dangerous and vengeful, the creature threatens to obliterate Frankenstein and everyone he loves, in a ferocious and bloodthirsty hunt for his maker.

Rona Munro's brilliant adaptation of Mary Shelley's Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now.

'An inventive feminist adaptation... an exploration and celebration of female creativity' - The Stage

ACT ONE

A ship, in the Arctic.

The ship is icebound, trapped in the ice and lost in fog. A young explorer, WALTON, is looking over the rail.

The ship’s MASTER comes close beside WALTON, both of them staring out into the fog.

WALTON. This isn’t the Arctic sea I imagined.

MASTER. How did you imagine it?

WALTON. Never-ending sunlight.

MASTER. The sun’s still there, beyond the fog.

WALTON. So our destination is still there too.

MASTER. There’s a thread of warmth in the air. The ice might thaw soon. The ship might yet float free.

WALTON. Good.

MASTER. But, Captain... I don’t think we can continue.

WALTON (angry, weary). No. I know you don’t.

MASTER. To risk the ship, the men’s lives... for what?

WALTON. For knowledge! We’re explorers. We’re mapping the very edge of human knowledge!

MASTER. To understand what?

WALTON. Our goal hasn’t changed.

MASTER (resigned). No.

WALTON. We’ll find the way to the northern top of the world, the land and sea no human creature has ever found.

(As the MASTER doesn’t respond.) No. You don’t see any value in that, do you? I’m alone here. Friendless on a frozen sea.

MASTER. The men have asked me to talk to you...

WALTON (cutting him off). Tell the men we’re going to push ahead.

MASTER. Captain, look out there, nothing’s changed! There’s still nothing ahead of us but sheet ice. Fields of it. The hull hasn’t been tried against ice this thick.

WALTON. I won’t turn back.

(Startled.) Look! There’s something out there... on the ice.

They both stare.

MASTER. What is it?

WALTON. It’s... (Uncertain, frightened.) A man? A running man?

MASTER (horrified). It’s the shape of a man but... What kind of man could run like that? That fast? On a frozen sea?

WALTON (calling). Hullo!

MASTER (shushing him urgently). No! No! Don’t!

WALTON. It didn’t hear me...

MASTER. Did you want to see that creature turn and run at us? Oh God. Is it coming?! What is it?!

Both WALTON and the MASTER freeze with fear...

Then they are actually frozen, stopped in pose, staring out over the ice.

We hear and then see MARY, muttering and breathing with effort. She’s dragging a writing desk out onto the ice. She’s furious and frustrated.

MARY (to herself). What is it? What is it? Do you know, Mary? No. No, you don’t. My brain keeps slipping from one idea to another...

What am I supposed to be thinking about? My nightmare.

She picks up a page she’s written. Reads it.

The horror.

(Still to herself.) You wrote down your nightmare, now build a bridge to it, a bridge of words...

(Worried thought.) Is it frightening enough?

MARY looks at what she’s written again.

I’m frightened. I don’t want to read this. I don’t want to think about it. This nightmare that marched into my dreaming and made itself the monster king of my poor sleepy thoughts.

(Re: the page.) But I’ve made something of that! I’ve caught that dread with ink and industry. Yes, this is frightening. This is good stuff, Mary!

She’s setting up her work, paper, pens.

(Still to herself.) So. I’ve a start but not a beginning, that can’t be the beginning. That’s the heart of the story. The horror.

She looks at WALTON and the MASTER, frozen.

And even this isn’t the beginning. Set this story up, Mary... come on!

(Idea.) A Preface!

She turns a dazzling smile on the audience, talking to them directly now.

Preface!

Take flour and water – dead things, things without life – mix them together. Leave them in a cupboard. What’ll happen? Life, oozing, greedy, clamouring life will grow on that saucer. The stuff of life, the power that makes dead things move, is all around us. You’re breathing in that dark energy with every breath.

So. This is not a horror story. This is science.

This is fiction, but fiction holds up a better mirror to the world than any list of facts.

This work, writing this book, began as a game, a dare. I continued the work for many reasons, and, I’ll admit, one of those was the hope that you might like it – that you might pay for this entertainment.

But, to be honest, whether you like it or not, I want to write something that shows its teeth at the kind of books you love so much.

(Scorn.) Soft love stories. Tales of happy families, and naughty, pretty children who always learn to be good.

No. This is a different story.

She looks at the frozen scene again.

In a moment you’ll meet my hero.

You should know I don’t agree with him, I don’t say I even like him, but I will make him real.

(To WALTON and the MASTER.) Let’s go.

And now the end of the first scene repeats...

WALTON (calling). Hullo!

MASTER (shushing him urgently) No! No! Don’t!

WALTON. It didn’t hear me...

MASTER. Did you want to see that creature turn and run at us? Oh God. Is it coming?! What is it?!

WALTON (peering). It’s gone. At least...

(Peering.) I can’t see it in the fog.

MASTER. But it’s out there, isn’t it?

God, send us a thaw. Send us a warmer wind.

WALTON. Listen...

Very faintly, another cry in the fog.

FRANKENSTEIN. Help... Help me...

MASTER. We’re trapped here. Whatever it is, we can’t escape it!

FRANKENSTEIN (louder). Help... please...

WALTON. That’s a human voice...

(Peering down.) Below us... there... see him! At the edge between ice and water!

MASTER. I see him!

WALTON. Get a rope to him! Quick.

The MASTER hesitates.

He’ll die in this. It’s just a man. You can see him, you can hear him.

MASTER. Alright.

The MASTER moves off, shouting t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Original Production
• Characters
• Note on Text
• Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
• About the Authors
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information