Cascade Dance Theatre visits the Torch Theatre on Saturday 10th November with Frankenstein, a brand-new dance theatre adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece coinciding with the 200th anniversary of its first publication.
The production heads out across Wales on an autumn tour that takes in Milford Haven as well as venues in Swansea, Brecon, Llanelli, Aberystwyth, Blackwood, Pwllheli, and Caernarfon before finishing in Cardiff.
A little over two hundred years ago, newly-weds Percy and Mary Shelley took a holiday on the banks of Lake Geneva with their friends and fellow writers Lord Byron and John Polidori. Due to bad weather, the group was consigned to the house for 3 days solid and Byron set his friends the challenge of writing the scariest ghost story. Two years later, in 1818, the story begun that weekend by Mary Shelley was published to great acclaim as Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus. Celebrating 200 years since the publication of this masterpiece; Cascade breathes new life into a story that has become so much more to us than its 19th Century origins.
Visceral and engaging, Cascade’s production brings to the stage all the potency, drama and tragic inevitability that has made the original novel beloved of generation after generation. We all know Frankenstein; the tale of the monster made of and by man. A cautionary tale, a creation story, an outsider story…a love story.
Cascade Dance Theatre are set to tour Wales with Frankenstein
This November, a new Frankenstein is born as a company of five performers and two musicians bring to life Artistic Director and choreographer Phil Williams’ compelling new adaptation of the ultimate gothic fantasy.
Williams says: “I am excited to be bringing Frankenstein to Welsh theatres this coming autumn. It’s a well-known tale, that has been told countless times over its 200-year lifetime, spanning myriad genres. Everyone is familiar with the green skinned monster with the bolts through his neck. but the story is rarely seen from his perspective. What makes a monster? Are they born monstrous? Is there a monster within us all?
As Artistic Director of Cascade Dance Theatre, my aim is to bring a fertile mix of movement, live music and drama to audiences in all parts of Wales. We have enjoyed success in our first season of work and we are really looking forward to another opportunity to bring our unique style to the stage. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has it all: love, passion, fear, resentment, injustice; and the novel still raises essential questions about our moral judgements. It’s a story that is today just as important, with our aching social inequalities and the ethical considerations surrounding our scientific and technological advancements.”
The company’s last tour in 2016 was described by one reviewer as ‘More than dance, more than theatre’, and audiences can very much expect that to be the case with Frankenstein.
Live music will continue to play a pivotal role in the Company’s work with original composition and performance by Jak Poore (Theatr na nÓg, David Walliams’ Gangster Granny & Awful Auntie for Birmingham Stage Company) and Ben Parsons (Cherry Ghost, Arctic Monkeys, BBC and Sky TV). Set and costume will come from Paul Shriek (Ballet Boyz, WNO, NDCWales).
Cascade’s Frankenstein is just one of a multitude of commemorations taking place to celebrate the 200th anniversary; Universities across the globe are organising Frankenreads – public readathons of the entire novel, the Royal Mint is releasing a Frankenstein’s monster £2 coin and organisations from the British Library to the Royal Institution are holding lectures and exhibitions.
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Tickets for Frankenstein at the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven on Saturday 10th November at 7.30pm are now available from the box office on 01646 695267 or online from http://www.torchtheatre.co.uk. Audiences can follow the show on social media, using #FrankensteinCDT and @CascadeDT on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.