For Staunton theatergoers, one of the Blackfriars Playhouse’s greatest attractions is the Gallants — two banks of seating directly on the stage where you often get deputized, sitting just inches from the action.
The experience can be thrilling; it can be fun — but a word of caution for the faint of heart: when you come to see the American Shakespeare Center’s current production of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Beware the Creature. Daniel DeYoung’s turn as Victor Frankenstein’s legendary monster creates an utterly terrifying presence. As he bellows in his rage, and as his victims pile up at your feet, you might wish you were safely ensconced up in the balcony.
(A word to the wise…)
There is no show more appropriate for that chilling, ghost-inflected season of Halloween than Frankenstein, and this one, David Catlin’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, is a fascinating addition to the roster of adaptations on offer. ASC stalwart Aidan O’Reilly has created a gripping, passionate evening, with a cast that is at the top of their game.
Isabel Sanchez is radiant and proud as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who navigates between two worlds — that of her famous novel-to-be, and that of the Villa Diodati in Geneva, Switzerland, where Catlin has Mary and her fellow travelers morph by turns into her story’s characters. Ronald Román-Meléndez creates a powerful turn as Mary’s beau and husband-to-be, Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose vanity and recklessness make Shelley the perfect choice to play the maniacal, frenzied Victor Frankenstein.
Not to be outdone, we see Lord Byron, the most decadent and notorious poet of his day, double as the Creature; Daniel DeYoung succeeds brilliantly in both roles, which creates a study in contrasts, balancing terror with charming insouciance. Isa Guitian and Angela Iannone, meanwhile, offer a dizzying array of characters both incidental and essential, navigating easily between their personae as Mary’s traveling companions and an entire village of others.
The Blackfriars stage for this production is chock full of period furniture, cushions, and tapestries — the only ominous detail being the presence of a stained-wood coffin, center stage. Erin M. West’s costumes are highly evocative of the early 19th-century setting and enable the cast to switch from fiction to Geneva and back with ease.
When it comes to musical selections, music director Christopher Seiler navigates between the audience’s expectation of fun and somber reflection. DeYoung kicks off the evening with the ’60s classic “Pictures of Matchstick Men,” followed soon after by an acoustic take on David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World.”
But for all the pop fun, it is the cast’s rendition of Richard Thompson’s searing ballad “Gethsemane” that foregrounds the existential issues Mary Shelley embedded in her immortal novel. It’s easy to forget that the Creature, for all his crimes, never wished to be brought to life in the first place. He is a victim of Dr. Frankenstein’s hubris, even as he makes victims of those he encounters. His creator’s refusal to relieve the Creature of his pain is all too easily compared to the arrogant indifference of our modern-day Frankensteins, who sit on their trillions in Texas and Silicon Valley while our lives are put at risk by their reckless algorithms.
The action in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is nonstop, and the story itself remains chillingly real; what dampens the evening’s festivities, as we constantly switch from story to Geneva and back, is Catlin’s expectation that the audience be thoroughly knowledgeable of Mary Shelley et al.’s backstories, as well as their ultimate fates. It is one thing to make the occasional appeal to inside knowledge, to spice up the proceedings. It is another to expect knowledge in such deep detail that numerous lines, clearly intended to be weighty, end up flying over your head and into the ether. Although Byron (Mr. “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know”) and Shelley (he of “Ozymandias” fame) are well worth getting acquainted with, the theater is not a book club, and the script could use some judicious edits.
This personal quibble aside, my goodness you’re in for a helluva night with everyone’s favorite monster, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein makes for a great evening out.
Running Time: Two hours and 30 minutes, including one 15-minute intermission.
David Catlin’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein plays through November 14, 2026, in repertory with Jen Silverman’s Witch (through November 14) and William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (through November 13), presented by American Shakespeare Center at the Blackfriars Playhouse, 10 South Market Street, Staunton, VA. For tickets (starting at $39), call the box office at (540) 851-3400 or purchase them online. ASC also offers a Local Rush deal of 50% off tickets on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Learn more here.
Cast and artistic team credits for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are online here.
The fall season program is online here.
SEE ALSO:
The magical world of ‘The Tempest’ on stage at American Shakespeare Center (review by Andrew Walker White, October 4, 2026)
Finally, the Devil meets his match in ‘Witch’ at American Shakespeare Center (review by Andrew Walker White, October 27, 2026)
