A review of Scarborough Players’ production of Nick Dear’s Frankenstein
By Anna LeBourdais
One of the great pleasures of community theatre is never quite knowing what awaits us when the house lights dim. Sometimes we find comfort in a familiar story; other times, we enter a world that challenges our expectations and leaves us thinking long after the evening ends.
Scarborough Players has chosen the latter with Nick Dear’s Frankenstein, and I applaud the company for having the courage to venture into such demanding theatrical territory.
I attended the opening-night performance, curious to see how this familiar story would unfold. First published in 1818, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has survived more than two centuries of changing tastes and interpretations. Nick Dear offers his own perspective on Shelley’s remarkable creation, placing the Creature and his experience of the world at the heart of the drama.
Beneath the frightening image of a being brought to life by human ambition lies a profoundly human story about love, acceptance and responsibility. The Creature enters a world he neither understands nor has chosen, reaching instinctively for companionship and affection. Instead, he encounters fear and rejection. His tragedy lies not simply in what he becomes, but in what he might have been had he been met with kindness.
Bringing such a story to the stage demands enormous commitment, and that commitment was evident throughout the opening-night performance. The production has energy, imagination and a willingness to confront difficult material.
Yet, as I watched, I wished for a little more quiet amid the storm.
The emotional intensity was considerable, sometimes leaving too little room for the tenderness, curiosity and vulnerability that make the Creature’s journey so affecting. A hesitant gesture, a moment of wonder or an unexpected kindness can sometimes reveal more than an impassioned speech. When we have witnessed innocence, its eventual destruction becomes all the more heartbreaking.
There were also opportunities for humour, those wonderfully human contradictions that allow us to laugh even in the presence of tragedy. At times, I wondered whether the laughter arose naturally from the circumstances or from the heightened delivery of certain lines. Humour is a delicate companion to darkness, and when it emerges gently, it can make the sorrow that follows even more profound.
At approximately two hours and forty-six minutes, including intermission, the evening is substantial, and I found the second act somewhat long. Perhaps greater variation in emotional pace would have helped. Theatre, like music, needs its changes of tempo. We cannot remain at a crescendo indefinitely. Sometimes the most powerful moment arrives when everything becomes still.
Of course, opening night is only the beginning of a production’s relationship with its audience. The rhythm established in rehearsal continues to evolve as performers discover how their work lives and breathes before a full house.
I have deliberately chosen not to single out individual actors in this review. I believe community theatre is, by its very nature, an ensemble undertaking. No single performer carries a production to success. Every actor, whether entrusted with a leading role or appearing only briefly, contributes to the world created onstage. Behind that world stands an equally important company of directors, designers, technicians, builders, costumers, and volunteers. It is the collective effort, the willingness of so many people to bring their talents together, that makes theatre possible.
I was particularly pleased to see a talented young performer among the cast. Community theatre must care not only about the productions we present today, but about the people who will carry theatre into tomorrow. Scarborough Players deserves recognition for allowing young talent to learn and grow alongside more experienced performers.
And perhaps that spirit of exploration is what I admire most about this undertaking.
There will always be a place for familiar comedies, beloved musicals and comfortable evenings of entertainment. But community theatre must also have the courage to challenge itself and its audiences. Not every experiment will achieve everything it sets out to accomplish, nor should we expect it to. Growth seldom comes without risk.
I left Scarborough Village Theatre appreciating this production’s ambition and the dedication of those who brought it to life. Yes, I would have welcomed more emotional contrast and a gentler exploration of certain relationships. Still, those observations do not diminish my respect for a company willing to attempt something different.
For me, the value of an evening at the theatre is not measured solely by how much I enjoyed the performance. Sometimes it is measured by how much I think about it afterwards, the conversations it inspires, and the questions that refuse to leave me.
Frankenstein certainly leaves us with questions.
Perhaps the most troubling is not how a human being could create a monster, but how easily we might help turn an innocent creature into one.
That is a question worth carrying home.
SEE IT FOR YOURSELF
Scarborough Players’ production of Frankenstein continues at Scarborough Village Theatre until October 24, 2026.
Remaining performances
- Saturday, October 10 — 8:00 p.m.
- Sunday, October 11 — 2:00 p.m.
- Thursday, October 15 — 8:00 p.m.
- Friday, October 16 — 8:00 p.m.
- Saturday, October 17 — 8:00 p.m.
- Sunday, October 18 — 2:00 p.m.
- Thursday, October 22 — 8:00 p.m.
- Friday, October 23 — 8:00 p.m.
- Saturday, October 24 — 2:00 p.m.
Where: Scarborough Village Theatre, 3600 Kingston Road, Scarborough.
Tickets: $28 regular admission; $24 for patrons under 30 or aged 60 and over; $22 group rate.
Information and tickets: www.theatrescarborough.com
Box office: 416-267-9292
Recommended for audiences aged 16 and older because of mature and potentially disturbing content.
If you attend, I would love to hear what you thought. We don’t always have to agree about what we see onstage. Sometimes the most interesting conversations begin precisely where our opinions differ.