Frankenstein (the Musical) CANSTAGE, Wri/Dir John Christenson, 22.05.10

This was a kind of a twee rendition of a lugubrious masterpiece. I needed to go to the graveyard with my familiar afterwards and nibble on some corpses to remind myself of life's more ghoulish undertones. Nonetheless, I'm very happy that this Canadian company has been able to create this show from scratch and make the most of it's enjoyable and unapologetic theatricalism, it's use of complex language and phraseology (comments overheard of the likes of "there's too much language in this" suggest that the show will only go so far in our visual culture), and its competent cast. Still though, why explore the grotesque and the fantastical if all you're really going to end up with is a complex rendition of a Sat am tv show for kids? Any kid worth their salt is going to be hankering for more...