“Frankenstein” Reveals Women Behind the Monster—at Lunatico
Sam Heft-Luthy and Tyler Aguallo. Photos by Scott Ragle
Tina Taylor Revives Mary Shelley’s Genius & Prophecy
by Philippa Kelly
Go see “Frankenstein” at La Val’s Subterranean Theatre this Halloween, entry by donation. Grab a delicious slice of pizza and a glass of wine or beer and descend into the theater to the horrors of Dante’s hell!
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is the brainchild of a very young woman, Mary Godwin, daughter of the famous feminist Mary Wollstonecraft (who died just days after giving birth to her). Young Mary was given a rich education by her philosopher father. She describes the winter of 1816, when she wrote Frankenstein, as the time that she “stepped from childhood into life.”
Yet Mary already had experiences far beyond the purview of childhood. In 1814, at the age of 16, she’d begun a love affair with 21-year-old poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Two years later Shelley left his wife, Harriet, to holiday with Mary at the home of the poet Lord Byron. On a rainy week they sat by the fire, challenging each other to write a ghost story. Mary began writing Frankenstein.
Rachel Brown and Tyler Aguallo
By the time the year was over and the couple returned home, Mary was pregnant to Shelley, Harriet committed suicide, and Mary gave birth to and buried her child, William.
Frankenstein was published two years later, in 1818, when Mary was 21. It’s about ambition, the pursuit of knowledge, and the human spirit in its eternal struggle with death. And it’s about the isolation, the ultimate horror, that comes with trying to defeat mortality.
Tina Taylor’s adaptation, directed by Lauri Smith, marks a fresh and fascinating reboot.
Victor Frankenstein (excellent Tyler Aguallo), creator of the monster, is, as ever, central to the script. Yet he is watched, and reimagined, by the women who surround him: mother, adoptive daughter-cum daughter-in-law; and the chorus of women who lift the audience from the ice floes at the beginning of the play and return us to the ice at the end. We watch this chorus keening, sighing, the music of their voices mixing with the exquisite sound of birds. Life is ever renewed, and yet no single life can overcome death.
Shawn Oda, Sarah Jiang, and Jennifer Greene
Lunatico’s production uses costumes and sets sparingly. Costume designer Elana Swartz creates beautiful, wraith-like sheaths that bring the spookiness of Halloween to the story of an ancient, thwarted ambition. The set, by Umut Yalcinkaya, features a number of boxes ingeniously arranged as a deathbed, an operating table, a boat out at sea, and a seat for women to sit and muse.
A clutter of objects hangs on a wall—a red-hued bag, a splattered apron. The bag becomes a carry-all for a severed head, part of Victor’s increasingly mad, solitary experimentation; the apron is used for the diabolical reconstruction, and the haunting, hollow sounds of a grandfather clock are made by a small stick striking a box. Its simplicity is inspirational.
Watch what happens inside yourself when Victor tells you: “Through exquisite science and artifice I will create life. I will define life.” And yet he’ll also tell you: “For this I have deprived myself of my health, my life… for this.”
“Frankenstein” by Tina Taylor, adapted from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, directed by Lauri Smith, set design by Umut Yalcinkaya, costumes by Elena Swartz, lighting by Aella Ney, sound by Steve Egelman, at Theatre Lunatico, at La Val’s on Euclid, Berkeley.
Info: theatrelunatico.wordpress.com - to November 2, 2025.
Cast: Tyler Aguallo, Liam Blaney, Rachel Brown, Sarah Dunnavant, Jennifer Green, Sam Heft-Luthy, Sarah Jiang, and Shawn Oda.