“The amount of people who go: ‘So who’s playing Frankenstein?’ And I’m like: ‘I think you mean, ‘Who’s playing the creature?’”– and the iconic 1931 Boris Karloff movie, and every subsequent adaptation – that people mistakenly attribute the name of the scientist to the monster he creates from human spare parts.is the latest production off the rank for Shake & Stir, the 17-year-old independent Brisbane theatre company riding high on a mix of in-school and main stage productions.
“It just sits so perfectly right now, especially with all the debates around AI, it’s so, so relevant.”In adapting the novel, Lee was struck by the fact that Victor Frankenstein pursues his scientific aim of creating life with single-minded drive, yet has nothing but self-pity when it all goes horribly wrong.“He just has no responsibility or empathy for his creation,” Lee says. “Which as an adaptor I found a bit challenging.
Lee shares the artistic directorship of Shake & Stir with Nick Skubij and Ross Balbuziente. The three rotate between producing, writing, directing and starring roles; Balbuziente is producing, while Skubij is directing it as a combination of human drama and on-stage wizardry.