“Monsters aren’t born, they’re made.”
So says Jason Stevens, the sole actor/director/producer of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, which will run through October at Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria’s only 130-year-old fourth-floor ballroom.
“It’s mesmerizing,” says Stevens of a good monster story.
Stevens studied acting in London and worked as an actor in New York, and he has since appeared in films and on television as well as on theatre-company stages in Vancouver and, now, Victoria. Stevens says that the appeal of a novel from 1818 is simple: it’s all about a good story that still has relevance today.
“I just tell the story, and allow [it] to happen,” he says.
Stevens says that the only way it works is if he gets “lost in the story.”
“I never try to do anything great,” he says. “I just always try to make sure I do something good—the way that any tradesman would. Don’t get in the way of the story. Don’t try to make it about your own ego. Serve the story. Be truthful.”
Stevens says that at 600 pages, Frankenstein is a monster of a novel.
“I read the story and I loved it,” he says, “and I thought, how do I tell that story in an hour? Victor Frankenstein is a classic tragic hero. He’s idealistic; he wishes to change things; he wants to usher in a brave new world; his intentions are all good; he believes he is doing things for the right, and he is consumed by the monster that he has created. Having said that, he’s a selfish young man, he… doesn’t obviously think through the consequences. It doesn’t even occur to him that he has responsibilities.”
According to Stevens, there’s a parable there: he says that if you don’t take responsibility for things that you have created, they will come after you, will dog your steps.
“Where does that leave the monster? Naked and alone,” he says. “And then being hounded and pursued by every human—it’s going to piss you off. You’re going to start seeking retribution, redress.”
Like many actors, Stevens has his pre-show rituals.
“There is a thing I did for A Christmas Carol, which is something Dickens himself did when he did readings. [I] stand up and survey the audience—I make contact, make eye contact with people for a moment, before I begin.”
This way, Stevens says, he prepares them for the fact that seeing a play is an intimate experience. Frankenstein is no different.
“There’s a lot to take away in Frankenstein,” says Stevens. “There’s a reason it’s been around for as long as it has… It’s different from A Christmas Carol, because people leave A Christmas Carol feeling Christmas-y. [With] Frankensteinthere’s a somberness that tends to be. [There’s] a reflectiveness. Just come to listen to a monster story. Come to listen to a monster story and a parable.”
Frankenstein
6 pm Thursday October 8, 15, 22 and 29
$30, Craigdarroch Castle
thecastle.ca