*by Cappies critic Emily Kelly from Lee High School*

Smoke curls around the floor, lightning sporadically flashes, rain is heard pattering on a rooftop and suddenly everything goes dark. A blue light hits a metallic table, and the body lying on it begins to convulse. Thus began Walt Whitman High School’s terrifying production of Frankenstein; a show about how playing God will result in horrifying consequences.

First published in 1818 by gothic author Mary Shelley, the tale of Dr. Frankenstein and his murderous creature has been frightening readers for decades. Over the years the novel has been adapted numerous times into plays, movies and open adaptations in various film and television productions. Whitman chose a version of the story that most closely follows Shelley’s original work, and actors and technical crew alike were able to display their excellent knowledge of suspense and the horror genre. The play they chose was adapted by Victor Gialanella and premiered on Broadway in 1981 but unfortunately was not successful. The story follows Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who has been exploring how to give life back to the dead. Victor pushes aside his family, friends and fiancée to work on his experiment and hires shady gravediggers to bring him corpses to experiment on. After many failed attempts, he is finally able to succeed in his project but soon realizes that he has brought about a sequence of horrifying events that will plague everyone he loves. Victor has created a monster who views Victor as his creator who can give him anything he wants, and when the Victor cannot meet his demands, the creature swears to destroy Victor and everyone he loves.

Joe Lilek gave a phenomenal performance as the creature Frankenstein creates. Combining murderous rage and misunderstanding of life with humanity, Lilek was able to give the creature layers of complexities and, at times, had the audience gasping in their seats. Lilek had fantastic stage presence that dominated every scene he was in but was also able to have excellent relationships with everyone he shared a scene with. As Dr. Frankenstein, Jay Besch used strong diction and body language to display a man who is conflicted about his dastardly experiment. Sasha Berger gave a heartfelt performance as the doctor’s worried fiancée who wants the man she is in love with to be mentally stable. Berger and Besch had wonderful chemistry with one another and were believable in their performances as two people in love.

All technical aspects of the show were stellar. The set (Brian Clarkson, Matthew Lewis and Emily Christian) was multilayered and brilliantly crafted. A grand staircase that separated to reveal Victor’s laboratory and sheer black drapes that were draped over the main set to represent a forest made the world of Frankenstein come to life onstage. The sound (Lydia Carroll, Lindsay Worthington and Alex Allen) was nearly flawless and lights (Andrew Elman and Nikolas Allen) always set the mood of the show. What truly made the show realistic were the special effects (Brian Clarkson). Sparks flew off of Victor’s machines when he was throwing electricity into his creature, and smoke flew up through the top of them. The use of blood and smoke machines was not overdone and instead was used just enough to make the horror aspects of the show seem more realistic.

While many high schools have difficulty handling horror, Walt Whitman’s production proved that creating a show that can genuinely frighten audiences is more than possible. While Frankenstein and his monster met grisly ends, the impact they left will linger in Whitman’s auditorium forever.