Education - Abbey Theatre · Creating Frankenstein ... Bysshe Shelley, a young poet and political...

Mary Shelley’s

COMPANYOF TEN

PRESENTS

A stage adaptation by Patrick Sandford

Education PackAn amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books

Frankenstein Education Pack 1

About the Pack This Education Pack accompanies the Company

of Ten’s production of Mary Shelley’s Franken-

stein, adapted by Patrick Sandford and directed

by Sinead Dunne.

The production, which celebrates the bicentenary

of the novel’s first publication, is being performed

at the Abbey Theatre, St Albans from 23 February

to 3 March 2018.

The pack has been designed to support the study

of English and Drama at GCSE and A Level, but we

hope that it will also be of interest to general audi-

ences. As well as offering insights into the original

novel and the process of bringing it to the stage, it

contains questions, practical exercises and links to

online video content that will facilitate further dis-

cussion in the classroom.

Many thanks to those who have contributed to the

creation of this education programme, particularly

Sinead Dunne, Dennis O’Connell-Baker, Jeff Bacall,

Dr Samantha George, Patrick Sandford, Philip

Reardon, Nick Clarke, Ian Crawford, Lesley Ivinson,

Stuart Barry, Tina Swain, Robin Belfield, Andrew

Baird, Lin Johnson, Martin Goodman, Gavin

Mathers, Georgia Choudhuri, Dewi Williams, Ben

Tiplady, and the rest of the cast and crew of

Frankenstein.

We hope you find this pack useful, and look for-

ward to welcoming you to the Abbey Theatre soon!

Conor Gray | Education

[email protected]

Contents The Life of Mary Shelley …………………………………………………………….. 2

The Origins of the Gothic Novel ………………………………………………… 3

The Year Without a Summer | Context ……………………………………… 4 – 5

Synopsis ………………………………………………………………………………………… 6 – 7

Themes …………………………………………………………………………………………. 8 – 9

About the Playwright …………………………………………………………………… 10

A Note from the Director ……………………………………………………………. 11 – 12

Cast and Creative Team ……………………………………………………………… 13

Making a Myth | The Adaptation History of Frankenstein ……… 14 – 15

An Interview with the Cast …………………………………………………………. 16 – 17

Notes from the Rehearsal Room ………………………………………………. 18

Creating Frankenstein | Video Content …………………………………….. 19 – 20

Practical Exercises ……………………………………………………………………… 21 – 24

About the Abbey Theatre …………………………………………………………… 25


The Life of Mary Shelley August 1797 | Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin is born in London to feminist thinker Mary Wollstonecraft and political theorist William Godwin. September 1797 | Mary Wollstonecraft dies just ten days later from puerperal fever. December 1801 | William Godwin marries Mary Jane Clairmont, who already has two children, Charles and Claire. March 1814 | Mary Godwin falls in love with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a young poet and political disciple of her father. Shelley is expecting his second child with his wife Harriet Westbrook. July 1814 | Aged sixteen, Mary elopes with Percy Shelley to Europe, accompanied by her stepsister, Claire Clairmont. Her father is enraged and refuses to see her for the next two and a half years. February 1815 | Mary gives birth prematurely to her first child with Percy. The infant (Clara) dies less than two weeks later. January 1816 | Mary gives birth to their second child, William, in Bishopsgate, London. May 1816 | Percy, Mary and William depart for Switzerland, along with Claire, who is pregnant with the child of fellow poet, Lord Byron. June 1816 | They visit Lord Byron at his villa in Ge-neva. One stormy afternoon, he initiates a compe-tition to write the best ghost story. Mary conceives the idea for her first novel, Frankenstein. October 1816 | Mary’s half-sister, Fanny Imlay, commits suicide by overdosing on laudanum. December 1816 | Percy's pregnant wife, Harriet Westbrook, drowns herself in the Serpentine River.

December 1816: Mary marries Percy at St Mil-dred’s Church and reconciles with her father. May 1817 | Mary completes Frankenstein. September 1817 | Mary gives birth to her third child, Clara Everina. November 1817 | Mary and Percy publish a travel narrative about their first tour of Europe, entitled History of a Six Weeks' Tour. January 1818 | Frankenstein is published anony-mously to critical success. September 1818 | Clara Everina dies from dysen-tery in Italy, where the Shelleys are residing. June 1819 | Three-year-old William, the only re-maining child of the Shelleys, dies of malaria. November 1819 | Mary gives birth to her fourth child, Percy Florence. April 1820 | Mary writes her mythological drama, Proserpine. July 1822 | Percy Shelley drowns in the Gulf of Spezia after his boat capsizes. February 1823 | Mary publishes her historical nov-el, Valperga. August 1823 | The second edition of Frankenstein is published, crediting Shelley as its author for the first time. June 1824 | Mary begins work on a volume of her husband’s unpublished poems, but is stopped by Percy’s father, Sir Timothy Shelley, who threatens to cut off support to her and her son. January 1826 | Mary publishes her apocalyptic novel, The Last Man. April 1836 | Mary’s father, William Godwin, dies. February 1837 | Mary publishes her last novel, Falkner. November 1839 | Sir Timothy Shelley agrees to the publication of a collection of Percy’s poems on the condition that it contains no memoirs. February 1851 | Aged 53, Mary dies from a sus-pected brain tumour. She is buried between her parents at St Peter's Church in Bournemouth.

Mary Shelley (1797-1851), author of Frankenstein.


The Origins of the Gothic Novel When the word ‘gothic’ was first applied to a novel

in 1764, it was as a kind of elaborate marketing

ploy. The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story was

published under the pretence that it dated back to

the 1520s and had recently been re-discovered

“in the library of an ancient Catholic family”. It

was in fact the work of contemporary politician

Horace Walpole, who used the subtitle and its

medieval connotations to distinguish the novel

from the realist fiction of the time. The story itself

is notable for establishing many of the devices

that would become typical of the Gothic genre,

including the foreign location, haunted castle and

secret passageways.

Although The Castle of Otranto was a popular hit, it

was not until the mid-1790s that the Gothic form

was brought to critical attention. Ann Radcliffe

was not only one of the most commercially suc-

cessful writers of her time, but also one of the

most acclaimed and imitated. With novels such as

The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and The Italian

(1797), she created a precedent for the multi-

layered villains and sublime landscapes that came

to be associated with the genre.

Radcliffe’s use of the ‘explained supernatural’, by

which apparently supernatural events have rational

explanations, also laid the groundwork for Mary

Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). Described by many

as the first work of science fiction, Frankenstein

tapped into the public’s fascination with, and anxi-

ety towards, the technological advances of the

period. For the first time, it was man and his abuse

of science that served as the primary source of

evil; a concept that was later expanded on by HG

Wells in his interrogation of animal-human hybrids,

entitled The Island of Dr Moreau (1896).

Through its Victor-Creature relationship, Franken-

stein also refined the concept of the Gothic double.

The idea of “the monster” as an externalisation of

the protagonist’s divided personality was realised

more fully by Edgar Allan Poe in William Wilson

(1839) and most famously by Robert Louis Ste-

venson in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr

Hyde (1886). Increasingly, writers of Gothic fiction

made the choice to subvert the traditional conven-

tions of the genre by zoning in on the psychology

of their characters. The tortured souls in the works

of Edgar Allen Poe, for instance, in many ways an-

ticipated the arrival of the definitive anti-hero in

Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights (1847). It is in

the figure of the morally ambiguous Heathcliff, and

in his bleak surroundings, that we see the summa-

tion of a hundred years in the development of the

Gothic tradition.

Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff in Peter Kosminsky's film adaptation of Wuthering Heights (1992), originally written by Emily Brontë.


The Year Without a Summer | Context It’s hard to believe that Frankenstein may not have

been written if it hadn’t been for a volcanic erup-

tion in Southeast Asia, but it’s just one in a series

of strange incidents that led Mary Shelley to pen

her most famous novel.

Mary was only eighteen and still unmarried when,

in the spring of 1816, she embarked on her second

tour of Europe with Percy Bysshe Shelley and their

infant son, William. They were convinced by her

stepsister, Claire Clairmont, to make for the city of

Geneva in Switzerland, where the notorious poet –

and Claire’s on-and-off lover – Lord Byron had de-

termined to take up residence. Lake Geneva had

until recently been closed off to British visitors by

the Napoleonic Wars (1803-15), and so offered a

world of new possibilities to the young travellers.

They were there for some ten days before Lord

Byron made his characteristically dramatic en-

trance. Fresh from a visit to the battlefield of Wa-

terloo, he pulled up to the Hotel d’Angleterre in a

carriage modelled on one belonging to Napoleon

Bonaparte, and accompanied by his personal phy-

sician and companion, Dr John William Polidori.

The two parties wasted very little time in making

acquaintances, and soon after took leases on two

nearby properties: Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati

and the Shelleys at the rather more modest Chalet

Montalègre.

No sooner had they settled into a routine of after-

noon boating on the lake, than they were forced

indoors by incessant rain. It was in fact the coldest,

darkest and most consistently stormy summer on

record, later earning it the nickname “the year

without a summer” and resulting in catastrophic

crop failures and flooding across much of Europe,

Asia and North America. At the time, no-one had

any idea what was happening. There were many

who subscribed to the so-called Bologna Prophecy,

which claimed the sun would go out and the world

would end in July of that year. It was only a century

and a half later that scientists were able to estab-

lish a causal link between the extreme weather

conditions and the eruption of Mount Tamboro,

some 7,600 miles away in modern-day Indonesia.

It was in this climate of fear and ignorance that

Byron, Polidori and the Shelleys retreated to Villa

Diodati. Here, Mary notes, she was a “devout but

nearly silent listener” to conversations on subjects

as wide-ranging as literature, philosophy and sci-

ence. There was a particular interest at the time in

the principle of life, as explored in the experiments

of Erasmus Darwin and Giovanni Aldini – the latter

of whom discovered the concept of galvanism: the

contraction of muscles by an electric current. It is

no coincidence that many of these ideas feature in

Mary’s later writing. Her father, the celebrated au-

thor and controversialist, William Godwin, had in-

stilled in her a passion for intellectual exploration

and speculation from a young age. There can be

no doubt that these debates at Villa Diodati would

have excited her mind and invited her curiosity.

Villa Diodati on the shore of Lake Geneva, where Mary Shelley first conceived Frankenstein in the summer of 1816.


In early June, an anthology of German ghost sto-

ries (entitled Fantasmagoriana) fell into their hands,

prompting Lord Byron to initiate a ghost story-

writing contest between members of the party.

The significance of this event cannot be overstat-

ed, since it resulted in the composition of two de-

fining works in the Gothic canon. Inspired by a

fragmentary story of Byron’s, Polidori wrote a no-

vella called The Vampyre, which is often credited

as the first in the vampire literary genre and a pre-

cursor to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The other result

of note was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which at

that time was little more than a few pages, but in

which Percy Shelley saw the potential for a full-

length novel.

Mary continued to work solidly on Frankenstein

during their return journey to England via Chamo-

nix. If her vivid descriptions of landscape were in-

fluenced by the gloomy scenery that surrounded

her, then her emphasis on (the loss of) family was

no doubt influenced by what met her at home.

Within two months of one another, Mary’s half-

sister and Percy’s estranged wife committed sui-

cide. By the time her novel was completed in April

1817, it is likely Mary sympathised more than ever

before with her tragic protagonist.

Following extensive edits by her husband and re-

jections from two leading publishers, Mary Shel-

ley’s Frankenstein was finally accepted and pub-

lished by Lackington, Allen and Company in March

1818. The critical success that followed was due

in part to the context in which it was initially con-

ceived: in a hotbed of passion and intellect on a

stormy night in Geneva.

In her preface to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley describes in her own words the nightmare

that inspired the narrative: “When I placed my head on my pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think.

My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind

with a vividness far beyond the usual bounds of reverie. I saw — with shut eyes, but acute mental vision — I

saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous

phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and

stir with an uneasy, half vital motion… I opened [my eyes] in terror. The idea so possessed my mind, that a

thrill of fear ran through me.”

The frontispiece to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein.


Synopsis ACT ONE

CAPTAIN WALTON hopes to achieve fame on a

voyage of discovery to the North Pole. After his

ship becomes trapped in the ice, his crew rescues

a wretched man named VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN

from a dog-sled. Frankenstein tells them he is in

pursuit of a man of gigantic stature, who was ear-

lier observed by the crew heading north. Franken-

stein notices that he has excited their curiosity and

starts his narrative as a warning against their blind

ambition.

The scene switches to Geneva, where Franken-

stein (now a young man) is at home with his re-

cently widowed FATHER, friend HENRY CLERVAL,

young brother WILLIAM and cousin ELIZABETH.

He demonstrates a desire to discover the secrets

of the world, whereas Elizabeth wants simply to

“contribute to the happiness of others”.

At the University of Ingolstadt, Frankenstein locks

himself away and acquires the secret of “bestow-

ing animation upon lifeless matter”. He decides to

create a perfect human being out of body parts,

believing that he will be worshipped as its creator.

However, when the CREATURE is born, Franken-

stein abandons it, sickened by its monstrous ap-

pearance. When he returns, he finds that the Crea-

ture has disappeared and believes himself to be

free of it.

Frankenstein returns with Clerval to Geneva. Soon

afterwards, William is killed and his young nurse

JUSTINE is found guilty of his murder, on account

of the fact that his locket is found on her person.

Frankenstein is convinced not only of her inno-

cence, but also of the Creature’s guilt, and he is

consumed by a desire for revenge. Despite Eliza-

beth’s best efforts to “banish these dark passions”,

Frankenstein retreats to the alpine valley of Cha-

monix to find solitude.

There, he encounters the Creature, who urges him

to reserve judgement until his has listened to his

story. Soon after he was born, the Creature was

attacked by villagers and sought refuge near a cot-

tage, inhabited by a blind OLD MAN and his two

children (FELIX and AGATHA). He learnt to speak

and read by watching them and grew attached to

their way of life. He was particularly transfixed by

the romance he saw blossoming between Felix

and a young Turkish woman named SAFIE.

The Creature learnt of his creation after finding

Frankenstein’s journal in a coat pocket and resent-

ed him for denying him the opportunity to be loved.

The Creature approached the old man in the hope

of being accepted, but was soon after attacked by

Felix, Safie and Agatha. The Creature destroyed

their settlement in retaliation and vowed “everlast-

ing war against the species” and his creator. The

Creature travelled to Geneva using details in the

journal. There, he strangled William and framed

Justine for his murder.

The Creature claims that “misery made [him] a

fiend” and demands that Frankenstein create a

female for him, so that he can experience the basic

right of companionship. In return, he will commit

no further crimes. Despite his reservations, Frank-

enstein reluctantly agrees to his request.


ACT TWO

Frankenstein’s father proposes his immediate

marriage to Elizabeth, but Frankenstein knows he

cannot delay in creating the female monster and

departs with Clerval for England. After separating

from Clerval, he takes up residence in the Orkney

Islands and starts work, all the while watched over

by the Creature. However, after weighing up the

potential consequences, Frankenstein destroys the

female.

The Creature vows revenge, swearing to be with

Frankenstein on his wedding night. No sooner has

the Creature left, than Frankenstein discovers the

body of Clerval under a tarpaulin in a boat. He

mourns the fact that he is “doomed to live”, while

so many friends and family have fallen victim to

his “murderous machinations”.

Back in Geneva, Frankenstein renews his vows of

love with Elizabeth, despite the secret that weighs

on his mind. On his wedding night, Frankenstein

arms himself with a pistol, ready to fight the Crea-

ture to the death. However, he misjudges the Crea-

ture’s intentions and returns to his bedroom to find

that Elizabeth has been murdered. Frankenstein’s

father suffers an apoplectic fit as a result of the

“horrors accumulated round him” and dies a few

days later.

Back in the ice fields, Frankenstein relates to the

crew that he was driven by revenge to track the

Creature across the continent to the North Pole.

He urges Walton to “learn from [his] example how

dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge”.

When the crew insist that they abandon the voyage,

Walton grudgingly agrees to their request. Frank-

enstein, however, ultimately dies unrepentant. His

last words are: “Though I have been blasted in the-

se hopes, another may succeed”.

The Creature suddenly appears, repenting for his

crimes and telling Walton that “misery made [him]

malicious”. Leaving Walton and his crew, he prom-

ises to build his own funeral pyre in a remote cor-

ner of the Arctic, so that no one else will ever know

of his existence.

Gavin Mathers and Donna Borg

Sean Tidd and Felix Walton


Themes Ambition and Fallibility

The Industrial Revolution was in full swing by the

time of Frankenstein’s publication, but there were

those (like Mary Shelley) who questioned how far

the human limits of knowledge should be pushed.

Both Frankenstein and Captain Walton are moti-

vated by a destructive ambition, which makes

them fallible and puts the lives of those around

them at risk. Frankenstein’s reckless pursuit of

knowledge is shown to have tragic consequences

and his example serves as a warning both to Cap-

tain Walton and to the wider audience.

In acquiring the ability to create, Frankenstein

usurps the role of God. The novel’s alternative title,

The Modern Prometheus, reaffirms this point. In

Greek mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the

gods and gifted it to humanity: a crime for which

he endured eternal punishment. Similarly, the re-

sult of Frankenstein’s foolish pride is his own de-

struction.

Prejudice and Monstrosity

As an unmarried mother and the daughter of a

woman deemed by some to be “monstrous”, Mary

Shelley understood what it meant to be on the re-

ceiving end of prejudice. The other characters in

Frankenstein are quick to assume the worst of the

Creature on the basis of his outward appearance,

despite the fact that he initially has only good in-

tentions. It is only in the face of this prejudice that

the Creature becomes convinced of the barbarity

of man and follows their example. It is significant

that the only character who accepts the Creature is

a blind old man. His vision is not clouded by the

same prejudices, and so he is able to perceive the

Creature’s benevolent nature.

The Creature is in fact only the most literal mon-

ster within the piece. It could be argued that

Frankenstein is the true monster, on account of his

arrogance, self-imposed isolation and hostility to-

wards those around him. Shelley asks us to recon-

sider how we respond to those who appear mon-

strous on the outside, and examine the monster

within ourselves.

Patrick Sandford, the writer and original director of this stage adaptation, draws a parallel between the ex-

periences of Mary Shelley and the characters she writes about: “If we look at the story from a psychoanalyti-

cal point of view, I think we might see the young writer… torn between on one hand feeling inadequate, less

than the clever men around her, and on the other her own pride in her ability to create a work of art as good as

theirs, or better. She was very young and young people can feel superhuman one moment, and hideously ugly

the next. Or that is my experience!”

Dewi Williams


Isolation and Alienation

The Romantics of the time believed that great art

could only be produced in isolation. However, it is

in family and society that the characters in Frank-

enstein find true meaning. The first victim of

Frankenstein’s obsession is his family, both figura-

tively when he immerses himself in his studies and

later literally when they are destroyed by the Crea-

ture. The only consolation on his deathbed is that

he will once more be reunited with his “beloved

dead”.

Similarly, the Creature’s only hope of happiness

lies in companionship. It is as a result of his alien-

ation by his creator and later by the family of exiles

that he issues his final ultimatum: either Franken-

stein grants his request for a mate or he will wreak

vengeance upon him. It is only after the Creature

witnesses the destruction of the female monster

that he commits his worst crimes. Shelley makes it

apparent that isolation can only bring about trage-

dy and despair.

Romanticism and Nature

To Frankenstein, the natural world offers a means

to “subdue and tranquilise” his grief and remorse,

particularly after the deaths of William and Justine.

However, he is ultimately undermined in this by his

tendency to rationalise and even manipulate its

power. In line with the Romantic sentiments of the

time, Shelley portrays nature as sublime and irre-

pressible. When Frankenstein as an imperfect be-

ing attempts to disrupt its course, he meets a trag-

ic end.

By comparison, Clerval expresses a belief in the

harmonious relationship that exists between hu-

man life and the natural world. It is something to

admire, rather than control. Even Walton respects

its power enough to abandon his voyage after be-

ing trapped in the fields of ice.

Responsibility

Mary Shelley was one of the few important women

writers of her time who was also a mother. Her

experience of childbirth may have informed her

depiction of Frankenstein and his rejection of the

life he creates. Arguably, she does not condemn

his pursuit of knowledge, so much as his lack of

ethical responsibility. Frankenstein assumes the

role of a god, only to find he is unable to fulfil the

duties he has to his creation. Ironically, when the

Creature punishes Frankenstein for these short-

comings, he feels duty-bound to destroy him.

A more ideal version of the parent-child relation-

ship is exemplified (in the reverse) by the blind old

man and his children, Felix and Agatha, on whom

he is dependant. Tatiana Ibba and Ben Tiplady


About the PlaywrightPatrick Sandford began his theatre career as a performer, before turning almost

exclusively to directing. He was for many years Artistic Director of the Nuffield

Theatre Southampton, and previously of the Lyric Theatre Belfast, producing many

new plays. As a writer, his work includes translating Beach Wedding from the

French Noces de Sable by Didier Van Cauwelaert, and several stage adaptations,

including Around the World in Eighty Days, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, The

Wind in the Willows and Frankenstein, which uses only Mary Shelley’s original words.

He is now a freelance director and is a co-founder of Ingenious Purpose Theatre

Company, whose inaugural production Bloodshot toured the UK and internationally.

Their second production, Patrick's self-penned and performed piece, Groomed, has

been seen most recently in London and Plymouth. Other recent work includes Hedda for Palimpsest in 9 site-

specific London venues, Smallholding for HighTide Festival Theatre/Soho Theatre and Mr Bolfry for Pitlochry

Festival.

Patrick Sandford’s stage adaptation of Frankenstein had its first performance at the Nuffield Theatre South-

ampton on 22 September 2004. Below are some photos from the original production.

Patrick Sanford

Robin Don’s original design was fluid and hinted at locations, rather than representing them literally. The stage was raked and cov-ered in artificial snow, which gave it the ap-pearance of the Arctic throughout. A pair of doors at the back of the stage enabled vari-ous small props to be carried on and off.

During the ‘creation scene’, the Creature was flown up from a trapdoor to make his first appearance. What do you think the relevance is of him appearing from underneath?


A Note from the Director Sinead Dunne describes her first encounters with

Frankenstein, her approach to directing the play

and her re-discovery of its very real horrors and

enduring relevance.

It was some years ago, as a student, that I first

encountered Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I have to

admit that I remember little else that I studied that

year, but I was completely enthralled by this par-

ticular book. Not only was the story of Victor

Frankenstein and his Creation so gripping, the life

of the author herself was equally intriguing and, it

seemed then, glamorous. Little did I realise how

truly tragic it also was – much, much more so than

I understood at the time.

Mary Shelley said she intended Frankenstein to be

the kind of ghost story that would ‘curdle the blood,

and quicken the beatings of the heart.’ I can safely

say that when I returned to Frankenstein, my heart

beat did quicken, and my blood very nearly curdled,

even more than before, for what I missed then in

the story, in all the excitement and horror, was the

extraordinary element of personal tragedy that

makes this tale so heart-breaking, as well as horri-

fying.

When Patrick Sandford adapted the play, he chose

to use only Mary Shelley’s original words and, un-

like many versions, has stayed faithful to the origi-

nal story. This is what we have also done. The

more other adaptations have moved away from

the original story, the more the focus has been on

the horror elements, and we have become accus-

tomed to seeing Frankenstein’s Creation as a hid-

eous monster. In our production, he is not such a

Monster – different of course; he is fashioned

from body parts harvested from morgues and

charnel houses after all – but we have endeav-

oured to capture the fact that Frankenstein wanted

him not to be a Monster, but had “select[ed] his

features as beautiful”.

Speaking exclusively to the Abbey Theatre, play-

wright Patrick Sandford comments: “I think it is

good if both Frankenstein and the Creature are so

believably human that the audience identify with

each of them – then the play becomes moving,

and about human beings, rather than elaborate

design. Our Creature [in the original production]

was actually a physically beautiful man (if slightly

'other') who simply sees himself as a monster.”

In the novel, Frankenstein first describes him as a

‘wretch’ and his (Frankenstein’s) reaction to the

sight of his Creation is as much about what he has

actually done, going against the natural order of

Sinead Dunne


things, defying nature and the natural order, as it is

about the “watery eyes … the dun white sockets in

which they were set, the shriveled complexion, and

straight black lips”. The Creation did not come to

life as a being that would naturally commit the

‘monstrous’ deeds that we see him commit – he

was sensitive, intelligent, generous. He became a

monster through rejection, isolation and his anger

over how he had been treated by his own Creator

in particular and humanity in general.

That is not to say that there is no horror – there is

plenty, but it is not in the fantasy of him being an

archetypal monster, but in the very real horror of a

young child being killed, others being murdered,

and a woman falsely hanged. There is enormous

human suffering in the story: Elizabeth, Victor’s

father, and of course the extreme and very real

emotions of Victor and the Creation – at times it is

impossible to know who is suffering more. I really

want people to leave feeling shock, and even an-

guish, and to maybe even consider how monsters

are created in today’s world.

It has been a real joy to work with such a talented

and giving cast on this production. Their commit-

ment, enthusiasm and readiness to engage in dis-

cussions about the meaning and interpretation of

the text have been so important. In a play like this,

where the content is so challenging and emotional,

it's essential to have a really strong trust between

cast members and director, and I've tried to create

that. The laugher we have is a great foil to some of

the extremely difficult emotions that arise 'in char-

acter'.

We have also been incredibly lucky to have Dennis,

Paul, Ian, Lesley, Tony and Judith bringing the

stage alive with set, costume, light, sound and

props. The various locations have been a real stag-

ing challenge, but they and the rest of the crew

have, as always, been exceptional. There are many

others who have also supported us in different

ways, and to each of you an enormous thank you.

I sincerely hope our production highlights the hu-

manity and tragedy, as well as the horror, of the

story. For after your heartbeat has calmed, and

your blood is flowing normally, I hope you will re-

flect on how, two hundred years after its first pub-

lication, the humanity (and lack of it) in this story is

more important than ever.

Sinead Dunne

Sinead Dunne and the Cast of Frankenstein


Cast Father / Old Man David Bailey Justine / Agatha Donna Borg

Elizabeth Georgia Choudhuri

Safie Tatiana Ibba

Victor Frankenstein Gavin Mathers

Henry Clerval Oliver Sutton-Izzard

William Sean Tidd /

Felix Walton

Capt. Walton / Felix Ben Tiplady

Creature Dewi Williams

Ensemble Daniel Bury

Tatiana Ibba

Ben Tiplady

Creative Team

Director Sinead Dunne

Stage Manager Paul Davidson

DSM Jacqui Golding

Set Design Dennis O’Connell-Baker

Sound Design Ian Crawford

Assisted by Tony Bradburn

Lighting Design Tony Penrose

Wardrobe Lesley Ivinson

Assisted by Sibelle Askew

Di Graham

Gill Stratford

Anne Walkington

Props Judith Goodban

Assisted by Props Team

Set Construction Dennis O’Connell-Baker

Cliff Stratford

Ian Crawford

Assisted by Workshop Team

Set Painting Dennis O’Connell-Baker

Assisted by Painting Team

Stage Crew Cliff Stratford

Rehearsal Photos Nick Clarke

Conor Gray

Gavin Mathers and Sinead Dunne Donna Borg, David Bailey and Ben Tiplady


Making a Myth | The Adaptation History of Frankenstein It’s a testament to the universal themes in Frank-

enstein that its central narrative has in many ways

outgrown the novel and developed a mythology of

its own. Like the Creature, the Frankenstein with

which we’re now familiar is an amalgamation of

parts, informed as much by popular culture as it is

by Mary Shelley’s original.

At the time of its publication in January 1818,

Frankenstein was not so much a ‘monster smash’

as a slower burner. Its initial print run of 500 cop-

ies was modest even by standards of the time and,

in its first fourteen years, it sold fewer than a thou-

sand copies in total. It was in fact only at the turn

of the twentieth century, when Frankenstein came

out of all copyright restrictions and prices fell, that

it became accessible to a wider readership for the

first time.

Far more recognisable to contemporary audiences

was an adaptation of the story being staged less

than two miles from where it was first published.

Richard Brinsley Peake’s Presumption; or: the Fate

of Frankenstein premiered at the English Opera

House on 28 July 1823. Despite being denounced

as “decidedly immoral” by protestors of the time, it

enjoyed fourteen revivals over the next five years:

in London, Bristol, Paris and New York. Presump-

tion was in many ways responsible for keeping

Frankenstein in the public imagination, though not

without making radical departures from the source

material. Not only did it establish the now-familiar

conventions of depicting Victor Frankenstein as

mad (rather than idealistic) and the Creature as

mute (rather than articulate), but it also marked the

stage debut of the bumbling laboratory assistant.

With a capacity of 1,500, the English Opera House

introduced the story to more people each evening

than the novel did in the ten or twenty years after

its publication. It’s a statistic that goes some way

to showing the extent to which Frankenstein was

remodelled and redefined by the process of adap-

tation.

Frankenstein was published in a pre-copyright era,

and so Mary Shelley as its original author exerted

no control over and was paid no royalties for its

adaptation. Nevertheless, after attending one of

the early performances of Presumption in August

1823, she wrote in a letter to her friend Leigh Hunt:

“But lo and behold! I found myself famous! Frank-

enstein had prodigious success as a drama and

was about to be repeated for the 23rd night at the

English Opera House… The story is not well man-

aged — but Cooke played [the Creature’s] part ex-

tremely well… I was much amused, and it appeared

to excite breathless eagerness in the audience.”

If anything, the introduction of the Dramatic Copy-

right Law (1833) only served to exacerbate the

issue by giving adapters even more reason to de-

viate from the original. In a flagrant attempt to

dodge intellectual property claims, successive

TP Cooke as Frankenstein’s Monster in Presumption (1823).


adaptions made changes to character names, re-

located the story to exotic settings, made topical

allusions and even introduced elements of panto-

mime and burlesque.

It was in this context that Frankenstein made the

leap to the big screen. In 1910, Edison Studios

produced a 16-minute, silent film version of Frank-

enstein, from which it proudly claimed to have

“omitted anything which might shock any portion

of the audience”. In it, the Creature is overcome by

the true love between Frankenstein and Elizabeth.

However, it was James Whale’s Frankenstein

(1931) and its sequel The Bride of Frankenstein

(1935) that elevated the story to iconic status. Bo-

ris Karloff as the Creature is remembered as much

for his distinctive make-up (flat head, heavy brow

and bolts jutting out of his neck), as he is for his

sympathetic portrayal of the voiceless monster

with an abnormal brain. If Whale secured Franken-

stein’s place in popular culture, then Terence Fish-

er established it as a pillar of Gothic cinema. The

Curse of Frankenstein (1957) was the first in a se-

ries of six Hammer Horror films that featured Pe-

ter Cushing in the title role. The films were una-

shamedly gory, lacked continuity and departed

entirely from Mary Shelley’s original, but the formu-

la, and particularly Cushing’s portrayal of Franken-

stein as egotistical and unrepentant, won audienc-

es over.

Since then, Frankenstein has been played for com-

edy (Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948);

Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein (1974)), assimi-

lated into different cultures (the Japanese-

American Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965);

Blackenstein (1973)) and appropriated to satisfy

the sexual appetites of the time (Andy Warhol’s

Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)). Even in Kenneth

Branagh’s Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994),

which by its title promises to follow the text more

closely, the Creature is silenced and made less

sympathetic by the cutting of his narrative. Frank-

enstein also makes the same mistake of creation

twice by re-animating Elizabeth after her death and

stitching her head to the corpse of Justine.

Frankenstein has become one of the most adapted

novels in history, spawning countless films, televi-

sion programmes, comics, video games and deriv-

ative works. However, in recent years, audiences

have had to turn to the stage for more faithful ad-

aptations, such as those by Patrick Sandford at the

Nuffield Theatre (2004) and, to a lesser extent, by

Nick Dear at the National Theatre (2011), in which

Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller alter-

nated the roles of Frankenstein and the Creature.

The enduring appeal of Frankenstein lies in its crit-

ical and often shocking examination of the human

condition. Mary Shelley addresses many of the

fundamental questions that continue to fascinate

us today, and it is perhaps for that reason that it

has inspired and invited so many adaptations.

Boris Karloff in his iconic appearance as the Creature in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931).


An Interview with the Cast During rehearsals, we sat down with actors Gavin

Mathers (‘Frankenstein’) and Georgia Choudhuri

(‘Elizabeth’) to discuss their experience of bring-

ing the novel to the stage.

How familiar were you with Frankenstein before

you auditioned for this production?

Georgia Choudhuri: I was really familiar with the

genre, because we did a lot of Gothic literature at

school, and my A-level English teacher had a bit of

an obsession with Frankenstein, but I’ve never ac-

tually studied it.

Gavin Mathers: Everybody knows the clichéd

Frankenstein from the films, but I also studied the

text for GCSE. It was very old school. Everybody

had the book and we’d take it in turns to read five

or ten lines out loud.

Gavin, how have you approached the massive

journey your character embarks on?

GM: It was in my discussions with Sinead [the di-

rector] that we really looked into character devel-

opment, but there are still bits that I need to hone.

You have to take a part of yourself and put it into a

character to make it believable. That’s why I don’t

think anyone else would play Frankenstein in the

same way as me.

Georgia, when you’re rehearsing and playing Eliz-

abeth, are you conscious of the fact that she was

written by a woman?

GC: Yes. I find you can tell when a female charac-

ter has been written by a woman, because there’s

a truthfulness in the way they speak. Elizabeth is

like many women of that time, very held back in

some ways, but also deeply thoughtful. There is

one moment when she speaks her mind, just once,

and then instantly draws back. So you can kind of

hear Mary Shelley’s voice coming through saying,

“I am a woman with things to say”. But also socie-

ty around her saying, “Even if you want to speak,

you can’t.” I think it shows that Shelley has put her

heart and soul into Elizabeth.

How have you approached the relationship be-

tween your characters?

GM: I think we’re still in the infancy of it. There’s

still a lot we need to discuss to really get our rela-

tionship to where it needs to be. Frankenstein does

care about Elizabeth deeply. They’ve grown up to-

gether. But at times he maybe feels that she would

get in the way of his ambitions.

GC: Elizabeth definitely loves him. That is evident

in the writing and in the stage directions that [Pat-

rick] Sandford has added. But I think she knows

she can’t go full out and say it. She knows that’s

not her place and that he’s never going to fully love

her back in the way that she loves him. At the end,

she even offers to release him. She says he

doesn’t have to marry her. So there’s definitely

more love on one side, whether that’s because he

doesn’t love her or because he’s so preoccupied

with other things. It’s hugely complex.

Gavin Mathers and Georgia Choudhuri


That idea of what it means to be loved is such an

important theme in Frankenstein. Are there other

themes that you see as being major ones within

the play?

GM: Religion. Frankenstein doesn’t know what to

do with the power he has and I think that plays on

his mind. He starts as such a decisive man, but he

slowly gets broken down by the realisation that

he’s a mere mortal with the same power of crea-

tion as God.

GC: I’ve only just discovered that Shelley’s father

was an early founder of anarchism, and that she

was raised solely by him. I wonder if that has

something to do with the fact that a good few of

her characters also tend to magnetically repel so-

cial, religious and cultural norms. No one but an

anarchist in that time would dare to question or

play God.

What are you most looking forward to as the re-

hearsal process continues?

GM: Letting go. Properly going for it. I don’t even

know what that’s going to look or feel like, and I

probably won’t know until the first few run-

throughs or performances. This is the first charac-

ter in a very long time that I’ve really been able to

sink my teeth into.

GC: I’m really excited to be getting onto the stage

soon, because I find that adds the layer of reality

you need to the rehearsal process. Once I get on

the stage, I forget that there’s a world outside. I get

to become Elizabeth, rather than just someone re-

hearsing the part.

In its bicentenary year, what do you hope that au-

diences will take away from this story?

GC: Mary Shelley is really offering up a lot of moral

questions. I hope that we can encourage audience

members to go home and ask themselves ques-

tions about what it means to be alive and what a

life is. I’d love to see them picking up on those little

nuances.

GM: It’s two hundred years old, but there are so

many themes that are still relevant today. I want

the production to make the audience think. I want

them to come out as exhausted as the characters

are by the end of the play.

Oliver Sutton-Izzard, Gavin Mathers and Georgia Choudhuri

Gavin Mathers and Georgia Choudhuri


Notes from the Rehearsal Room Ben Tiplady (‘Captain Walton’ / ‘Felix’) shares his

insights midway through the rehearsal process.

Today, we rehearsed Act 1 Scene 1 for the first

time on the stage, which was interesting. I’d been

practicing my lines and working on the characteri-

sation of Captain Walton: in particular his posture

and Received Pronunciation (or “posh voice”).

Dewi, who plays the Creature, gave me an interest-

ing note. Since Walton is a captain, a military man,

he would stick his chest out and stand with

strength. It took a while for me to explore this and

adapt to this new way of moving.

When I performed this scene with Gavin, who plays

Victor Frankenstein, I found that the introduction

of proper staging led to some challenges. Our

movement around the space had to change to en-

sure we were not upstaging or blocking each other

from the audience. After one run-through, our

characterisation became a lot stronger and we

were comfortable enough with our lines that our

characters started to interact, rather than just

speaking individually.

Overall, this rehearsal made me excited to see how

the whole play comes together. We have a huge

amount of talent in the cast and the crew are abso-

lutely top-notch too!

Dewi Williams (‘The Creature’) discusses his ap-

proach to playing this iconic part.

I adore the part of the Creature and find it a chal-

lenge. Instead of emphasising his obvious physical

deformities, I am attempting to avoid caricature

and portray him as a lost, vulnerable, isolated and

desperately unhappy soul, who is craving friend-

ship, companionship and love. I look to gain sym-

pathy for him. The Creature has been betrayed by

his creator, which causes him to seek revenge and

begin a trail of destruction. I am hoping to under-

play the part, rather than the opposite, create a real

person and suggest that people should try to ig-

nore the stereotype and look for the inner qualities.

Ben Tiplady

Dewi Williams


Creating Frankenstein | Video Content

Follow the production from initial concept and design to the final performance with a series of behind-the-

scenes videos about the creative process.

Dennis O’Connell-Baker on Production Design:

“When I’m selling a design to the director and ac-

tors, one of the things I always say is that the de-

sign follows the action. The design should not dic-

tate the action. In this particular play, that’s very

much the case. It is a play where the action moves

from one scene to the next very rapidly, which

means that the design has to be kinetic, rather

than static.

The text of this particular play is very firmly located

in a very particular era and historic time, but it’s

also firmly located in a particular artistic tradition,

called Romanticism. One of its key features of is a

much more vivid imagination of landscape, re-

flected in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich.”

To watch the full video, please visit

www.youtube.com/watch?v=802f9idWEMc

Dennis O’Connell-Baker

The overall design for this production was inspired by the artistic tradition known as Romanticism, which was characterised by intense emotional expression. Clockwise from top left: The Sea of Ice (1823-24) by Caspar David Friedrich, Storm on the Black Sea (1899) by Ivan Aivazoksy, Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818) by Caspar David Friedrich, The Alchemist Discov-ering Phosphorus (1795) by Joseph Wright of Derby and Tintern Abbey (c. 1844) by Carl Gustav Carus.


Ian Crawford on Sound Design:

“I think music is always a very important part of

the production, because it gives an indication of

the period and the location of a play. It also has to

be something that really sets the atmosphere, and

so we have to make sure that it fits in with the in-

terpretation the director has for the play.

In many productions, the sound runs together with

the visuals to achieve this effect. Indeed, an essen-

tial part of this production are the images which

Dennis O’Connell-Baker, our designer, has given us

to project at the same time.”


www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MsuuGix5w

Lesley Ivinson on Costume Design:

“The costume on the actors is the first thing that

the audience sees. It’s very important, because it’s

indicative of the character and the character’s life.

I always start with the shape of a period, because

every period, as costume changes, has a specific

shape, an overall shape of the body.

Costumes always develop and change through the

fitting process and discussion with the director.

Obviously a costume also has to fit what the actor

is doing on stage, and that’s quite relevant to this

play, because it’s very physical and the actor has

to be able to get physical in the clothes.”


www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz7YjPJ2-fs

Ian Crawford

Lesley Ivinson

As ‘Victor Frankenstein’, Gavin Mathers wears a traditional Georgian costume, which deteriorates throughout the play.


Practical Exercise (1) | Exploring Physicality In these exercises, students will explore some of the techniques used by the actors in the rehearsal room to

develop an awareness of physicality and characterisation.

Mirroring

§ In pairs, stand a metre apart and face each other.

§ Appoint one person as the leader and the other as the mirror.

§ The leader should silently mime an activity, which the mirror has to duplicate exactly.

§ After a few minutes, swap roles and repeat.

Sculpting

§ In pairs, appoint one person as the sculptor and other as the ‘human clay’.

§ The sculptor must model the clay into a still image that represents a particular character, emotion or

scenario – either from Frankenstein or everyday life. The modelling can be achieved through physical

contact, gesture or vocal commands.

§ After a few minutes, swap roles and repeat.

Freeze Frames

§ In groups, create freeze frames (or tableaux) of key moments from Frankenstein, such as the ‘creation

scene’, Captain Walton and his crew rescuing Frankenstein from the ice or the Creature observing the

family of exiles from afar.

§ Think about how each character is positioned in relation to the rest of their group. Are they on differ-

ent levels? Who are they close to? Who are they far away from?

§ As an additional challenge, keep a neutral expression on your face and rely solely on posture and

placement to communicate your scene to the audience.

§ Invite other groups to guess the scene and which character is which before explaining your choices.

Ben Tiplady and Tatiana Ibba

Dewi Williams and Felix Walton


Practical Exercise (2) | Punctuation Shift In this exercise, students use punctuation as a guide to identify the movement in a piece of text, as well as

to map a particular character’s thought process. It is an activity first created by Cicely Berry, former Director

of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

§ Working on your own or in a group, read aloud the extract below.

§ Now read the extract again while walking in a straight line. Each time you reach a punctuation mark

(e.g. full stop, comma or semi-colon), make a sharp turn in a different direction.

This condensed extract from Frankenstein (1818) is written from the title character’s point of view, and

takes place after he has heard the Creature’s account of his first weeks on earth:

“His words had a strange effect upon me. I compassionated him, and sometimes felt a wish to console him;

but when I looked upon him, when I saw the filthy mass that moved and talked, my heart sickened, and my

feelings were altered to those of horror and hatred. I tried to stifle these sensations; I thought, that as I could

not sympathise with him, I had no right to withhold from him the small portion of happiness which was yet in

my power to bestow.

I paused some time to reflect on all he had related, and the various arguments which he had employed. I

thought of the promise of virtues which he had displayed on the opening of his existence, and the subsequent

blight of all kindly feeling by the loathing and scorn which his protectors had manifested towards him. His

power and threats were not omitted in my calculations: a creature who could exist in the ice caves of the glac-

iers, and hide himself from pursuit among the ridges of inaccessible precipices, was a being possessing fac-

ulties it would be vain to cope with. After a long pause of reflection, I concluded, that the justice due both to

him and my fellow-creatures demanded of me that I should comply with his request.”

Reflection

§ What did you notice when you were carrying out this exercise?

§ Were there particular points at which you had to change direction more often?

§ What might this suggest about Frankenstein’s state of mind in this part of the narrative?

Oliver Sutton-Izzard and Sean Tidd David Bailey and Donna Borg Gavin Mathers and Georgia Choudhuri


Practical Exercise (3) | Forum Theatre In this exercise, students are encouraged to use improvisation and group discussion to create a piece

of ‘forum theatre’, which addresses some of the contemporary issues in Frankenstein.

§ Using the following line as a stimulus, discuss what parallels (if any) can be drawn between the prej-

udices faced by the Creature and marginalised groups in today’s society:

“A fatal prejudice against me clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they may behold only a detestable monster.”

§ In pairs or groups, devise a short scene based on these discussions.

§ Think particularly about power dynamics. How can you show these physically? What difference does

it make to have actors on different levels?

§ Once you have rehearsed and shared your piece, replay the scene and invite the audience to take

an active role. At any point, they may take to the stage and replace the protagonist, acting out alter-

native paths and decisions in an attempt to change the outcome.

§ The objective is not to discover the ideal solution, but to encourage the audience to analyse the sit-

uation and test out strategies for countering oppression.

§ How did the changes affect the outcome of the scene?

Practical Exercise (4) | Adapting a Novel The words in Patrick Sandford’s adaptation are taken almost entirely from the 1818 edition of Mary Shelley’s

novel. In this exercise, students have the opportunity to write their own stage adaptations, focusing on a key

point in the novel.

§ Read the extract from the novel on the next page and adapt it for the stage.

§ Your script should be no more than 300 words in length. You should try to avoid changing the words,

but you will need to make cuts and may choose to re-order sentences.

§ Identify the key points and details that need to be preserved in the adaptation.

§ Think about the tone that Mary Shelley is trying to convey in the original text.

§ Make sure you include stage directions, as these often indicate the action on stage and how the char-

acters are reacting or feeling.

§ Afterwards, you may wish to share your adaptations with the class and / or discuss how they differ

from the scene as performed at the Abbey Theatre.


In this condensed extract from Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley, the Creature describes how

he approached a blind old man in the hope that he would be welcomed as a friend by his family:

“The fresh air revived me, and, with renewed determination, I approached the door of their cottage.

"I knocked. 'Who is there?' said the old man — 'Come in.'

"I entered; 'Pardon this intrusion,' said I, 'I am a traveller in want of a little rest; you would

greatly oblige me, if you would allow me to remain a few minutes before the fire. I am now going to

claim the protection of some friends, whom I sincerely love, and of whose favour I have some hopes.

I am full of fears; for if I fail there, I am an outcast in the world for ever.' "'Do not despair. To be friendless is indeed to be unfortunate; but the hearts of men, when

unprejudiced by any obvious self-interest, are full of brotherly love and charity. Rely, therefore, on

your hopes; and if these friends are good and amiable, do not despair.'

"'They are kind — they are the most excellent creatures in the world; but, unfortunately, they

are prejudiced against me. I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless, and in

some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feel-

ing and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.'

"'That is indeed unfortunate.’ The old man paused, and then continued, 'If you will unreserv-

edly confide to me the particulars of your tale, I perhaps may be of use in undeceiving them. I am

blind, and cannot judge of your countenance, but there is something in your words which persuades

me that you are sincere.’

"'Excellent man! I thank you, and accept your generous offer. You raise me from the dust by

this kindness; and I trust that, by your aid, I shall not be driven from the society and sympathy of

your fellow-creatures.'

"'May I know the names and residence of those friends?'

"I paused. This, I thought, was the moment of decision, which was to rob me of, or bestow

happiness on me forever. I struggled vainly for firmness sufficient to answer him, but the effort de-

stroyed all my remaining strength; I sank on the chair, and sobbed aloud. At that moment I heard the

steps of my younger protectors. I had not a moment to lose; but, seizing the hand of the old man, I

cried, 'Now is the time! Save and protect me! You and your family are the friends whom I seek. Do

not you desert me in the hour of trial!'

"'Great God!' exclaimed the old man, 'who are you?'

"At that instant the cottage door was opened, and Felix, Safie, and Agatha entered. Who can

describe their horror and consternation on beholding me? Agatha fainted; and Safie, unable to at-

tend to her friend, rushed out of the cottage. Felix darted forward, and with supernatural force tore

me from his father.”


About the Abbey Theatre Built and run entirely by members, we’re all about

providing high-quality, affordable theatre to the

local community. We’ve been delighting audiences

for nearly fifty years, mostly through the work of

our resident production company, the widely ac-

claimed Company of Ten.

The Theatre also welcomes visiting professional

and amateur groups, which helps to provide a truly

diverse programme of events throughout the year.

So whether your taste is for comedy or tragedy,

classics or rarities, costume-drama or modern

dress, our season should have something for you.

We have two performance spaces. The Main Stage

is a traditional proscenium arch theatre, which

seats 230. That’s where you’ll find most of our

productions, particularly those chosen with popu-

lar tastes in mind. Our other venue is the Studio,

which seats about 75 people and is generally used

for more challenging, even experimental, theatre.

Although we’re a charity, and volunteer-run, we aim

to ensure that everything we do meets the highest

professional standards. Come along to another

production, and see what you think.

Thu 8 - Fri 9 Mar 2018, 8pm

Company of Teens

Thu 8 - Fri 9 Mar 2018 Thu 5 - Sat 7 Apr 2018 Fri 20 - Sat 28 Apr 2018

Company of Teens SAYMT Company of Ten

Fri 11 - Sat 19 May 2018 Fri 8 – Sat 16 Jun 2018 Fri 29 Jun – Sat 7 Jul 2018

Company of Ten Company of Ten Company of Ten

For further information about our upcoming productions, please visit www.abbeytheatre.org.uk.

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