{"id":23153,"date":"2022-10-19T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=23153"},"modified":"2022-10-17T09:46:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-17T16:46:56","slug":"one-man-adaptation-of-frankenstein-explores-what-makes-a-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/10\/19\/one-man-adaptation-of-frankenstein-explores-what-makes-a-monster\/","title":{"rendered":"One-man adaptation of Frankenstein<\/em> explores what makes a monster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jason Stevens is welcoming this year\u2019s Halloween season by haunting the Craigdarroch Castle in a one-man production of Frankenstein<\/i>. This will be Stevens\u2019 third year producing and portraying 10 different characters from Mary Shelley\u2019s classic novel.<\/p>\n

Stevens says that although it\u2019s a popular story, on-screen portrayals have slightly clouded the audience\u2019s understanding of the play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a gothic classic, it\u2019s interesting,\u201d says Stevens. \u201cAlso, everyone thinks they know the story, but people are overwhelmingly surprised because they\u2019re basing their idea of Frankenstein on the 1930s movie, which is not the same at all, it\u2019s completely different. He [Dr. Frankenstein] doesn\u2019t say, \u2018It\u2019s alive!\u2019 That doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Craigdarroch Castle while being used for the movie Spooky House<\/em> (photo by Brian Davies).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When comparing The Monster and Dr. Frankenstein, Stevens holds sympathy for The Monster, and explains that, in the Doctor\u2019s case, monsters are created.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Monster doesn\u2019t even have the dignity of a name; it\u2019s just The Monster. He is an object and he\u2019s lonely and miserable and he\u2019s intelligent and he\u2019s sensitive,\u201d says Stevens. \u201cHe is a monster, but monsters are made. People in the world now are talking now about how \u2018Putin is a monster\u2019; he\u2019s not, he\u2019s a human being who is doing monstrous things, right? You have to look into the broader context of actually pinning responsibility, because anyone would be a monster if you create the right circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevens believes that there are many reasons audiences still resonate with a novel written in the early 1800s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a timeless science-fiction tragedy. The thing that makes you great is often the thing that makes you flawed and destroys you; I mean, that\u2019s as old as the hills. And no one has really done a better story than Frankenstein<\/i> like that, I don\u2019t think,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Performing a one-man play sounds like no easy feat, but Stevens explains he\u2019s able to connect with the audience, and genuinely has fun doing it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing that matters is that the story happens for me,\u201d he says. \u201cIf it\u2019s an experience I\u2019m having and I\u2019m there and I\u2019m with it and I\u2019m sort of entertaining myself, then it\u2019s going to be watchable for everyone else. That\u2019s the thing\u2014you just have to get lost in it and then it tends to work. There\u2019s usually a little wind-up period for the first few minutes, people are like, \u2018What the hell is this? Is it just going to be this guy talking to us?\u2019 And then they get carried along with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stevens feels that there is a bigger message to be taken away from the story. He observes that a lot of the themes in Frankenstein<\/i> parallel modern society when it comes to technological advancements, as well as the consequences that comes along with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs technology moves at a faster clip and becomes much more a part of our lives we have to adapt, and it\u2019s definitely something that\u2019s noticeable\u2014you can feel it,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have these phones now, they\u2019re so great, but are they? What are the negative consequences? Are we better off or are we more socially isolated? When we release these things onto the world, we can\u2019t really anticipate what the consequences are going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankenstein
\n<\/i>Various dates, until Saturday, October 29
\n$30, Craigdarroch Castle
\nthecastle.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Stevens is welcoming this year\u2019s Halloween season by haunting the Craigdarroch Castle in a one-man production of Frankenstein. This will be Stevens\u2019 third year producing and portraying 10 different characters from Mary Shelley\u2019s classic novel. Stevens says that although it\u2019s a popular story, on-screen portrayals have slightly clouded the audience\u2019s understanding of the play.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18344,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,275],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-october-19-2022"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23154,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23153\/revisions\/23154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}