With “Frankenstein” often comes the generic, Hollywood image of a green, groaning monster, complete with a rectangular skull and bolts through its neck. But this year’s production of “Frankenstein,” which opens Feb. 16, is anything but typical.

“Frankenstein” is this year’s entry in the Cappie Awards, a local awards program to recognize high school productions. The play, with its hard-hitting themes, intense choreography and “wow-factor” special effects, is sure to stretch the boundaries of prior drama productions.

“It’s a very suspenseful show,” said junior Daniel Levine, the producer. “It’s designed to be kind of like a horror movie — but on stage.”

The show, set in the mid-1800s in Geneva, Switzerland, follows the story of “the creature” and his search for identity and self-understanding.

“It’s kind of like a dark fairy tale,” drama director Christopher Gerken said.

Senior Joe Lilek, who shaved his head for the role of “the creature,” emphasized that his character and the show itself don’t fit stereotypes. The creature appears twisted physically but is even more so mentally, Lilek explained.

“It’s the transformation from curiosity to confusion to anger to revenge, and I try to portray that,” he said.

The production also features many deep themes, including nature versus nurture, man versus God and good versus evil, said senior Jay Besch, who plays Victor Frankenstein. This version closely follows the original book by Mary Shelley.

“The script is very true to the original book,” he said. “It’s really heavy stuff, and this is a deep script that has brought those themes through.”

While the production may be difficult for some audience members to handle, it might be even harder for the actors to tackle.

To immerse themselves in their roles, the actors use a process known as method acting, which requires the full detachment of the actor’s personality to become a new character, Besch said.

“It’s a very difficult process because it’s very two-fold,” he said. “You have to strip away who you are and let go of your own conceptions about the world, and then from that blank palate, you can start to become the person you’re trying to play.”

Besides its strong acting and profound themes, the show is also unique because of its incredible set.

One of the show’s major assets is its steam-punk aesthetic, or a lot of old-fashioned but modern machinery, to make the show more believable and historically accurate.

“The entire set itself appears very simple when you first look at it,” Levine said. “But it’s designed to have different things rigged into it to enable us to have surprising things happen.”

In addition, for the first time ever, the entire show will have a recorded underscore of music, which will make the production even more realistic.

The major challenge of this year’s production is the technical element, Gerken said. So far, the process is moving along nicely with only minor bumps in tech, due to the massive amounts of special effects, Levine said.

Despite this year’s setbacks, including about three weeks less of rehearsal time than other years and many actors new to the rehearsal process, the show is on track for success.

“It’s a really difficult show to undertake,” Lilek said. The script is really complex, but everyone’s been working really hard. It’s coming together, and it’s going to be a great show.”

“Frankenstein” is Feb. 16 to 18 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for students, $15 for adults and $20 for reserved tickets.