In the words of Artistic Director Jon Micheels Leiseth, our theme for the coming season is Making a Living. Making a Life. And yes—every one of our four plays has something to say about livelihood. We’ve got farmers and a former waitress; a group of gravediggers and a pair of grave robbers; a graduate student, a pharmacist, and a politician…and then, of course, there’s Victor Frankenstein and his rather lively career…

Frankenstein is a different kind of fantastical—one that borders on nightmarish. And yes, we planned accordingly: it closes Halloween weekend.

Nick Dear’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel is smart, theatrical, and it moves fast.

But, as always at Theatre B, the primary reason we chose this play is the conversation it can inspire.

At the center of Nick Dear’s adaptation is the Creature—brought into the world innocent and bewildered, then abandoned by the person who created him. He encounters cruelty and rejection and eventually turns back toward his creator, forcing us to look at both of them and ask: Who is the monster?

And underneath that question are others that feel remarkably contemporary: What responsibility do we have for what we create? What happens when our ability to create something moves faster than our understanding of its consequences? And what do we owe a life once we have brought it into the world?

That’s where Frankenstein connects to the larger question of Making a Living. Making a Life. Victor discovers that creating life and taking responsibility for that life are two very different things.

It’s gothic. It’s haunting. It moves fast. And we hope it leaves you with plenty to talk about on the way home.