Female-led FRANKENSTEIN Transfers To Old Red Lion

Burn Bright Theatre will revive their critically acclaimed, feminist adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein this October as part of the London Horror Festival. Placing two women in the leading roles as creator and monster, this visceral reimagining follows a successful run at the Space this Spring.

Adopted into the well-known family as a child, Elizabeth Frankenstein is a woman ahead of her time. But when death strikes the household, a dangerous obsession takes hold. In the darkness of night, Elizabeth manages the unthinkable - creating sentient life. As the resulting monster is shunned by her maker, she is cast out into the violent and unfeeling world beyond. And when a terrible chain of murder and horror is unleashed, both creation and creator must come face to face in a final, terrible showdown.

Turning the traditional narrative on its head, Isabel Dixon's new retelling imagines a female scientist and monster. The intelligent, pioneering Victor Frankenstein is swapped with Elizabeth Lavenza, the character cast in the novel and most subsequent adaptations as his romantic interest.

Burn Bright Theatre are committed to fair gender representation both on and offstage, and inspiration for their take on Frankenstein came from two sources - firstly, celebrations around the 200th anniversary of the novel's publication this year, and secondly, the startling figure that only 1 in 8 new stage adaptations of existing works come from female playwrights.

Directed by co-artistic director Katherine Timms, this new adaptation utilises Burn Bright Theatre's trademark style of fast-paced ensemble theatre, live music and physicality, with a company of five actor- musicians taking on the ambitious tale. It is one of three adaptations of Shelley's novel taking place as part of this year's London Horror Festival.