Brittani McNeal, Cat Miggs, and Rob Rush (photo Musette Hart)
Reviewed by Francis Price
Olive Branch Theatricals
Through Nov. 8
Brittani McNeal, Cynthia Orozco, Cat Miggs, and Aris Kakkis (photo Musette Hart)
Robert Weibezahl’s And Lightning Struck: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Creation at Santa Clarita’s Olive Branch Theatricals, traces the personal turmoil that shaped Mary Shelley’s most enduring work.
Set in 1830, the play begins with a visit from Matthews (Brittani McNeal), a publisher who wants Mary (Cat Miggs) to write a new introduction explaining how she came to create Frankenstein. Director Tamarah Ashton strategically places the audience amongst the dead and dusty memories that continue to haunt Mary’s imagination. As Mary herself notes, the “public is the walls of this study…and the voices of the past that reside within them.”
Jeremy Thompson’s (Set Designer) elegantly minimal staging of a gothic drawing room brings Weibezahl’s words front and center.
Indeed, all characters (aside from Matthews) are either dead, or imagined, but their psychic influence remains all too real for Mary. The narrative moves through Mary’s childhood, where we are introduced to her father Godwin (Aris Kakkis) whose progressive ideals are ultimately undermined by his own parental authority. The production gains momentum with the arrival of Younger Mary (Cynthia Orozco), whose presence gives shape to Mary’s formative experiences and the writer she will become. The subsequent gathering at Villa Diodata with Shelley (Connor O’Brien), Byron (Bucky Brynjegard-Bialik), and Polodori (Hudson Bartram), sets the stage for the intellectual rivalries and creative ambitions that would ultimately give birth to Frankenstein.
Act II plunges deeper into Mary’s psyche, where the lines between creation and creator blur. Ashton effectively communicates Mary’s connection with both Victor (Rob Rush) and the Creature (Michael Johnson), transitioning from the ego involved in creation to the “curse” inherent within the creative process.
Individually, there’s much daring work from the actors. Miggs effortlessly toes the line between being a host, and a ghost, within her own home. Brynjegard-Bialik captures Byron’s vanity, more interested in how his words sound than what they mean. Johnson’s Creature elegantly opines his own misfortune. The density of the language at times threatens to overpower the delicate emotional threads that spool throughout the piece, but the specificity of the actors, directors, and designers keep the boat upright.
While Matthew’s persistent questioning gradually coaxes Mary out of her shell, it sometimes feels as if her questions are convenient prompts to spur the next biographical episode. The play is most effective when it moves beyond the territory of explanation, and into the realm of what creation demands of its creator.
The playwright’s dedicated research of his protagonist is clear, and the audience is sure to learn a thing, or two, about Mary Shelly’s tragic life. And yet, Weibezahl has managed to write a play that resonates with, or without, its historicity. He holds a mirror up to the artistic process, illuminating the mysteries of authorial intent that linger long after a book is shut, or theater’s curtains close.
Olive Branch Theatricals, 24201 Valencia Bouldvard #3275, Santa Clarita. Fridays & Saturdays at 7:00pm, Saturdays & Sundays at 2:00pm, thru Nov. 8. https://obtscv.ludus.com/show_page.php?show_id=200551980. Running time approximately 2 hours, with one intermission.
