WHAT: Frankenstein’s Monster is Drunk and the Sheep Have All Jumped the Fences
WHEN: October 26 – 29, 2022
WHO: Big Telly Theatre Company
WHERE: Touring, currently at Omnibus Theatre (1 Clapham Common North Side, London SW4 0QW)
PRICE: £13 – £16
OUR RATING: Do It!
“He’s been dead for over a hundred years, is constructed from the dismembered body parts of a number of different corpses. He has a sense of perspective.” These memorable lines come from Big Telly Theatre Company’s newest hit show, a crash course masterclass in immersive physical theatre adapted from a short story by Owen Booth. At times comical, at others poignant, this 70-minute whirlwind story of love, loss, community and the struggles of otherness is a beautiful tale that had us enthralled from start to finish.
This was our first time at Omnibus Theatre, the host for this show’s latest transfer. We fell in love with the theatre itself and the cafe/bar instantly, both having a comfortable but buzzing atmosphere. This multi-award-winning independent venue in Clapham, South London focuses on both classics re-imagined and contemporary storytelling, and has a huge programme on offer year-round. Sporting more than one stage, Omnibus is currently scheduled to host everything from poetry nights and monthly musical theatre cabarets, to larger productions such as an upcoming run of Richard the Second and a Norwegian puppet production in December.
Meanwhile Big Telly Theatre Company, based in Northern Ireland, designs professional theatre productions, site specific, immersive games and participatory community driven projects, and this latest production has already travelled to the Belfast International Arts Festival, and will soon transfer to Broadway at 59E59 Theaters in New York from January 2023. The premise? In 1946, Frankenstein’s Monster was discovered frozen in the ice of a glacier, where he had hidden after his Hollywood success came to an end. Once thawed he meets a woman as tall and almost as monstrous as he, and together they forge a life together in a town that struggles to accept them. This provocative tale tells the story of their love, the painstaking process of acceptance in their small community, and their attempts to find their place in the world, both as individuals and as a larger-than-life couple.
The ensemble-of-four is powerful, with the hilarious and engaging narrators Chris Robinson and Vicky Allen keeping the momentum going the whole way through, and with the strong character and physical recreations of the Monster, Rhodri Lewis, and his wife, Nicky Harley. All four actors were perfectly in tune with one another, each bringing a different energy to the stage that flowed effortlessly with the others, and all creating this larger-than-life story full of comedic genius and beautiful storytelling.
Producing an all-encompassing experience, superb sound design by Garth McConaghie transports the audience into the realm of fantasy, with such a memorable score that indeed we continued humming the “theme” well into the evening. Although the set elements were minimal, this worked fabulously, with repurposed items folding seamlessly into the drama and lighting design that both surprises and delights, including a very clever piece of projection work.
Final Thoughts: It’s rare that you see a decent piece of theatre based around such a well-treated subject as Frankenstein. This production not only morphs the known themes of the genre into something entirely novel, but also makes you consider the wider issues surrounding the acceptance of the other, tolerance, and the fallibility of all human interactions. Ending in an incredibly moving manner, Frankenstein’s Monster is Drunk and the Sheep Have All Jumped the Fences is one of the best experiences we’ve had recently in a theatre that traverses the full emotional spectrum in all its beauty and horror.
